Dv.

[Andrew Thompson]

Enjoy the darkness.

http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/tt36/EchoExige/The%20Whip/DarthVader.jpg

[Todd Corzett]

Very nice! I love the mood. Just enough lighting around the car and in the accents, but not too dark in any of the shadows. I'd have probably put the car a little lower in the frame (more background than foreground), but that's a personal thing. Well done.

-Todd...

[Bill Jurasz]

Very impressive lighting and mood!

[Steve Stein]

I like the lighting. Care to show us how you lit it? Looks like you had some snoots x 3 and another flash left rear off the wall.

[Andrew Thompson]

Thanks guys :).

Todd: I agree with your compositional assessment, always more background than foreground, but I like it the other way around because I'm a shallow DoF freak, and having a lot of useless foreground *seems* to enhance that :-).

Bill: Thanks, compliments from you always make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...haha.

Steve: I use ambient light exclusively. The lighting you're seeing is pure trickery :-).

[Andrew Thompson]

BTW, I feel the picture is too dark for most people, but since I only take pictures for myself, I process them for what I personally want to see. I'm glad there are others out there that see things somewhat the way I do.

[Richard Thompson]

Very nice concept! Love the stance & mood. I think this could stand a crop at the right to center up the car, or more space on the right to give that offset some definition...right now the framing looks somewhat indecisive.

As for the post...I can tell where you are using gradation (especially obvious at the back of the car), you should tone it down so it is more subtle or contour it to the car properly. It is a good tool to create artificial areas of focus when you don't have control over light in production, but it does require more finesse than you are exhibiting here if you want to pass it off effectively. some of your modifications are clearly visible as having been made with a brush (rear deck highlight, right headlight shadow) -- too much softness/blurring at the edge of your added shadows, burns, airbrushes, exposure maps, or whatever method you are using to modify that stuff...

i hope you find this useful! not trying to be overly critical...but I know it can be hard to get decent crit. on post work, and you are on to some very good ideas here...i look forward to seeing what you produce in the future :-)

[Andrew Thompson]

Excellent post!

And yes, I do use the gradient tool quite often, it's why John doesn't post in my threads, he hates it...haha. Oh well.

However, I didn't touch anything with a brush, and didn't add any shadows other than darkening the interior and mouth :).