Tutorial: Image prep for a poster

[John Thawley]

This was a project for a client to commemorate the arrival and customer delivery of the new Enzo Ferrari. The two cars were arriving... one red, one yellow. It was decided we would do a commemorative poster for the event and the client wanted both cars featured.

Keep in mind this was done in May of 2003, so techniques may have improved. I'm selft taught, so I'm sure there may be others on the board that can contribute some short cuts or simpler ways to manage the project.

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/poster.jpg

I will try to show steps... keep it simple. I'll show the red car and the poster.

The target. This was the shot we wanted to "match." It was the brochure cover from Ferrari. It appears they have lighted the interior and removed the windshield. Also they removed the wiper. It also appears to have a considerable amount of retouching.

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/target.jpg

Shot from the camera: The shot was taken from a ladder, hand-held using a Canon D60. It was a hazy mostly overcast day and I purposely shot a bit underexposed to be sure I didn't have any hot spots. ISO 100, 1/60 at f11 - 53mm using a 550EX flash.

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/original_photo.jpg

Image #2 The car was selected using the magnetic lasso ... time about 90 seconds. Settings were 0% Feather, Width 10px, 10% edge contrast, 80 point frequency.

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/image_2.jpg

Image #3 Use magic wand with shift key to "add to" selection. Tolerance setting at 15... zoomed in around 300% Go around the car and screen to pick up missed sections or eliminate unwanted sections. May need some tolerance adjustment here and there. Final steps will smooth in the selection menu. [NOTE: I've highlighted the "selection" witth a red stroke to make it a little more visible]

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/image_3.jpg

Image #4 Used the wand to get tighter... will now use the freeform lasso to select small pieces... view at 300% or greater to simplify.

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/image_4.jpg

Image #5 Car selection complete. Total time approx. 10 minutes

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/image_5.jpg

Next, go into the Selection menu and choose Modify, Smooth. I usually smooth by 2 or 3 pixels... depending on the image. After smoothing... zoom in on the detail areas of the subject to make sure you haven't lost anything at the corners or in the radius of tight areas. If you have, zoom in and use the Magic wand to repair.

Now... for this image I wanted a black background. So, set the background to black. Now, in the selection menu choose Modify, then contract. Contract about 1 pixel. Now use the Feather tool in the Selection menu and Feather by 1 pixel. Next select Inverse from the Selection pull down menu.

Finally, hit the delete key and you'll be left with this. You can check your work by zooming in and looking for "debris."

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/image_6.jpg

Trust me, this took longer to write than do.

After polishing, the image is ready for the poster. This is the image that ended up being used on the poster. It might be off in color due to the cmyk source space etc.

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/final.jpg

Just for the record, to get closer to the look of the image of the red car, I laid the yellow image over the red and lowered the opacity to where I could see the red car through it. I then shifted the perspective of the yellow car a bit to match. I also lifted the headlight lenses from the red car and fit them to the yellow.

I'm pleased to say, my personal copy of the poster is signed by Pinnafarrina.... chief designer for every Ferrari ever built.

[Steve Demmitt]

cool tutorial
nice job on getting the angle down
I think you did a fine job working with what you had
neutral lighting like this allows you to do alot more in terms of post work

One thing I found when cutting things out, is that the pen tool works wonders.
It can be a bit more tedious and it might take longer. But for me, in the end I get cleaner results.

[John Thawley]

Here are the two images side-by-side for comparison:

http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/medium/target.jpg
http://community.automotivephoto.net/photopost/data/512/medium/final.jpg

[Todd Corzett]

John - Great job replicating a photo, especially without a studio. A few of the reflections, although minimal, are a little distracting... but that's minor compared to the overall impact (and only photographers would really care about the reflections). I'm most impressed with the cut-out job... I've never had the patients to change the backgrounds so drastically. Very nicely done!

-Todd...

[John Thawley]

John - Great job replicating a photo, especially without a studio. A few of the reflections, although minimal, are a little distracting... but that's minor compared to the overall impact (and only photographers would really care about the reflections). I'm most impressed with the cut-out job... I've never had the patients to change the backgrounds so drastically. Very nicely done!

-Todd...

Actually, I was surprised at the number "hot" highlights on the red one.

Thanks,

JT

[Daniel Buck]

Keep in mind this was done in May of 2003, so techniques may have improved. I'm selft taught, so I'm sure there may be others on the board that can contribute some short cuts or simpler ways to manage the project.

Most photoshop users are self taught I think. Even folks who use photoshop professionaly every day, most of them are self taught, from what I have seen. It's super easy now days, because there are oodles of tutorials online.

Thats the cool part about photoshop, there are usually more than a few ways to do just about everything. :)

[Austin Langley]

I like the end result, but I'm a nitpicker. I see a few spots around the edge of the yellow one that aren't smoothe. Ultimately, the best way to cut something out like this is using the pen tool. You get nice crisp edges. It takes time to get the hang of, but once you do it can become one of your best friends.

After going through all this trouble though, why not just change the color of the red Enzo? To me, it looks like the left the windshield on the red one just removed the wiper.

Great tutorial though. If I didn't know how to do it, this would have been immensely helpful to me.

[John Thawley]

The issue of changing the color from red to yellow was somewhat two fold. First, the issue of the red seats. Second, the yellow was never right... the shadows would shift a to a muddy kahki green tone... it wasn't pretty.

I'll have to try the pen tool. The rough section of selecting this was the taillights. Between the angle, the taper of the of the lenses and the rounded highlights, the wasn't any sort of defined edge to hang on to.

The finshed prints were only 12x18 and done on a silver metallic paper called Curious. And, there were 25 pieces done as fine art prints that I signed and number, then Pinnafarina signed.

But, I'm guessing the individual images you're seeing here are consderably larger than they appeared on the finished piece.

JT