Nissan 350Z

[Michael Chu]

Shot these for a client the other day and am very pleased with the results. But I'd like to get some outside opinions (mainly critique) of them because, obviously, I have more of a sentimental value to them since I shot them ;)

With that said, feel free to tear them apart and let me have it! :)

UPDATED WITH NEW VERSIONS

1.
http://mc-photography.net/Misc/other/_MG_7914_edit.jpg

2.
http://mc-photography.net/Misc/other/_MG_7948.jpg

3.
http://mc-photography.net/Misc/other/_MG_8001_edit.jpg

4.
http://mc-photography.net/Misc/other/_MG_8048.jpg

5.
http://mc-photography.net/Misc/other/_MG_8053.jpg

These are my favorites of the day so hopefully, you guys will enjoy these :o

[Eric Kieu]

Good stuff Michael! #4 is my fav shots. Just clean and sharp. Can't believe the lens was a Tokina 12-24.

[Daniel Buck]

great capture on the first shot!

The composition on the 2nd shot doesn't really strike me, it looks as if the camera accidentaly fired while you were setting up (please don't take offense!)

I like the 'un easy" crop of #3, I'm a big fan of fitting things that would usually be shot horizontal into a vertical crop, nicely done. This might be a good candidate for a 4x5 crop.

#4, I think the wheels should be rotated so that the emblem is flat. That's a minor thing, but I think it's one of those little details you shouldn't overlook, especially on a close shot like this :)

#5 has a nice urban feel, though I can't say I like the background, it might fit the look of the car you are going for. I think that background works much better in the previous shot (#4) where it looks like an insignificant grid in the background, but here in #5 shooting telephoto the background is brought very close and might be a bit distracting. I might be alone on this, as I prefer rural locations.

[Michael Chu]

Eric:
That was shot with my 70-200. The only shots posted that was shot with my 12-24 is #1 and #4.

Daniel:
Thanks!

No offense taken at all!! If anything, I'd be mad if you didn't give me your opinion :)

I think a 4x5 crop on #3 would be pretty nice actually :). I shot the same shot with a horizontal but I prefer this vertical one instead.

On #4, when you say the emblem should be flat, you mean the face of the wheel should be directed at me? Or the text on the center cap should be level? I'm thinking you mean the second one, right? I gotta pay closer attention to things like that :)

[Austin Langley]

Most of what i was thinking has been said but I'll add just a little more.

1&4 are my favorite shots. I love the motion in 1 and the lighting is perfect in 4(a truely awsome product shot).

2 looks a little too tight on the crop in my opinion. I'd love to see more of the background. I don't think I like the blurred ground effect. I think it works best when the vehicle is on top of a hill and you can't see the road past it.

3 is lit wonderfully but the car is too centered for me. I think it owuld drastically improve the shot to crop it so that the car is in the bottom 1/3 of the frame rather than dead center.

5 has potential. The car seems underexposed and the background is too distracting to me. For a shot like this i think a more static background would be more ideal. Because the car so closely matches the left windows in color, my eye is instantly drawn to the right side of the background's orange hues.

I like how the Tokina shots turned out. I may be looking into one of those in the future.

[Eric Kieu]

Eric:
That was shot with my 70-200. The only shots posted that was shot with my 12-24 is #1 and #4.


Sorry bro, I meant #4. lol

[Michael Chu]

Thanks, Austin!

I see what you mean now. I think I'll try different crops with #3 and see what I can do with #5. Thanks!

Oh, and the Tokina 12-24 is an awesome lens! I've never had any complaints from it whatsoever. Built like a tank and the images come out SHARP!

[Daniel Buck]

On #4, when you say the emblem should be flat, you mean the face of the wheel should be directed at me? Or the text on the center cap should be level? I'm thinking you mean the second one, right? I gotta pay closer attention to things like that :)

yea, I mean the logo on the center cap. You could still have the word Brembo on the caliper visible, but I don't think you could fit the entire word inbetween the spoks of that particular wheel.

In my quest for better pictures, I often look at sales brochures. One thing I noticed on most (if not all!) of the shots is that the logo on the wheel center cap is level. Granted some of the images have obviously been photoshopped quite a bit (fake blurred backgrounds, and such) but most brochures seem to be a good source for reference. I wouln't go so far to say that the wheel logos have been rotated in post (these are probably big budget shoots, so they probably do alot of pre-prep with things like this) but in some cases it's easy to rotate the logo in photoshop, so long as the wheel spokes them selves look level. I picked up alot of brochures at the last LA auto show. Alot more efficient than going to individual dealers or requesting brochures on-line. :-)

An easy way to do this (especially if you need more than just one wheel to be level) is to whip out the jack to raise the car, turn the wheel by hand then let the car back down. If you just need one wheel level (like in that shot( you can just roll the car till it's just right, then crank the hand brake.

[Mike Ditz]

Here's my 2¢ +17% markup

1- Nice action shot but the bright area on the right side of the frame is wasted space and being so bright it fights with the car for attention.
2-Seems overexposed or just too bright, maybe a cleanup of the weeds growing out of the hood would help.
3-Either crop some of the sky or some of the road, Mayybe a grad ND or blend exposure or add a nicer sky than the current one. Bring the tone of the road down about a stop and a half? What's going on with the lighting of the driver's door?
4-For such and extreme close up leveling the logo would be advisable, and cropping out the rear wheel makes the front wheel/brakes become more of the center of interest.
5-Nice location, good angle, could use some saturation WB and curve adjustment. I would take out the reflected trees and the odd light fixture. Easy to do just replace with a clean blue panel. Darken pavement too.

nice work, but all need some post work to make them 'sing'

MD

[Michael Chu]

Thanks, Mike!

On #3, I had a flash set up for the side. But I wasn't able to fire a second flash so I could only get half of the side to light properly. The rest I had to bring out in CS2 so maybe that's why it looks a little weird. I've been struggling about the center composition on that one too, but consensus is, less road/sky would be better. So I'll have to recrop it :)

After hearing everyone's thoughts, I'll rework some of them.

Thanks everyone for your input!

[Michael Chu]

I updated the first post with new redone versions with the helpful thoughts from you guys.

So let's hear it! :)

[Andrew Szatkowski]

great shots. especially liking #1. was that a rig or handheld? any exif info?
i'd love to take a front on motion shot like that!

[Michael Chu]

Thanks, Andrew! It was shot handheld.

Here's the EXIF:
12mm | 1/20 | f/10.0 | ISO 100

[Mark Delbrueck]

Thanks for the EXIF Michael!

I really like number 1, but I agree with previous comments regarding the negative space. Before you crop anything, try to pull the attention to the car in Photoshop by doing some slight vignetting or adjusting the brightness of that side. You can also bring attention to the car by adjusting the brightness/levels/curves of the road in front of the car. Just my humble .02Cents :)

Keep up the good work!

[Andrew Szatkowski]

wow 1/20 !
you must have one steady hand. about how fast were the cars going?
thanks again

[Michael Chu]

The cars were going approx. 35-40mph. Fast enough for good amount of blur and yet, steady enough to...well, keep the camera steady :)

But let's keep this on topic ;)

If anyone has more critique for me, I'd be grateful!

[Daniel Buck]

in shot #1, there seems to be a halo around the car, I'd tighten up your layer mask there. it only takes about 5-10 minutes to get a near perfect mask :-)

Also, I'm not quite sure how to describe this in photography terms, but in the terms we use at work, the highlights in the sky and particularly the road towards the edge of the frame (vignette) are very "8 bit" looking. As if they were originally 255 on the RGB scale, and then have been forced down to 225 or something (8 bit, meaning there is no range above 255), darker than pure white, but no added detail. I assume this is from adding a vignette? Vignette out of the camera wouldn't produce the "8 bit" look, as there would be detail there. I'd suggest under exposing the raw image (if it was shot raw) to see if you can grab any detail from the highlights, then fade that under exposed version into the original with a layer mask.


aside from those two comments, I think that shot is looking very pleasing! I would be proud of that shot :)

[Michael Chu]

Thanks Daniel! Wow...that's so technical that I can barely understand it :D

But I actually DID add the vignetting effect in post-process :). I think it adds something special to the feeling of the photo, could be wrong ;)

[Daniel Buck]

I like vignette, don't get me wrong. :) Was the image shot raw? If it was, maybe give it a shot with the vignette like I described (saving one out with a lower exposure value) and see if there is a difference? Or save out a low res version of your current shot with out vignette, and the original with lower exposure and let me give it a shot? (not sure how comfortable folks are showing raw data). I pick up on odd things like this cause of what we go through at work. It's probably not that big of a deal :)

Carry on :D


on shot #5, I like the change from the original! There is a line in the windows visible though. I would also try maybe desaturating all of the building windows a bit? that might make the car pop a bit more.

I'm not really finding much else to hand out 'negative' critiques, nice series of images :)

[Michael Chu]

The image was shot in Large Fine JPEG. I still have the original JPEG if you'd like a go at it.

On #5, on the third window from the left was a reflection of a building in the background. I decided to just go ahead and continue the line through out the other windows, but now that you point it out, it is kind of unusual

I really appreciate your ideas and thanks a lot! :)

[Daniel Buck]

no, a .jpg won't have the extra info there, sorry.

nit-picking I guess cause there isn't a whole lot in the images I'd change that hasn't already been mentioned :)