sixtoes : an automotive fine art gallery : returning soon!

  • Thread starter sixtoes
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roninhyde: Thanks... now, if I could only use HDR in our various contests, I might just stand a chance! :dopey:

GPR: Thank you, sir; as a photographer IRL, I'm always 'chasing the light', so it's nice to know the afternoon colors (rather than early morning, this time) came out right.

Cod_Father: It's all about the light, isn't it?

krakozyabr: Red, huh? That might have looked nice... I'd chosen white for the "retro" shoot theme, as I wanted a very clean look. Perhaps I'll have to revisit this another time when the SL300 gets a full treatment.

sems4arsenal: As always, thank you! :)

All: I'm finally coming into some free time this week, so you can expect a full project or two in the next few days!
 
Fantastic gallery. They're all great but my fav is the ZR-1 on the corkscrew - everything about it is brilliant.
 
SVX: Thanks - it's all about getting the time right when you run the 'Ring... just wish we could change time on other tracks (besides that and CdS)

grrlpurple: Thanks - been enjoying your gallery lately as well...

Swiss Legend: You can tell me anything, even if everyone else has. :lol: Thanks!

RikkiGT-R: Thanks for checking out the whole gallery - I really enjoyed working on that ZR-1 RM / Corkscrew shot, so I'm glad you (and sejtur) like it. Proof that HDR and action shots can work nicely together. :)

sejtur: Thanks!

Nicknamealguem: Thanks, as always. Sorry it was such a small update - hoping to get more up soon!

TB: Thanks for stopping by; you picked one of my favorites from the Mark IV series... sunrise at the 'Ring is a gorgeous time, but it definitely takes HDR (or at least image blending) to get the right feel. (On an entirely different subject, I love the reference to HGTTG in your sig - :lol:!)

Everyone: Despite the fact that real life has conspired to keep me away from Photomode, I am still planning to post a couple of projects shortly. Some fun rally shots of the '69 Bluebird Rally Car (despite it being a standard model, I think I managed a few good shots), as well as some HDR-ified versions of images I've recently submitted for the 2.0 Advanced and Photomode Comps. Finally, I've just finished a shoot of the woefully-underrepresented 1976 Ferrari 512 BB and am hoping to get those through Photomatix and Photoshop sometime in the next few days. Thanks for your patience and continued visits!
 
Okay, so I am still a little behind these days. I've spent the better part of the last week in Photomatix and Photoshop for work, processing a bunch of architectural images for a client, so the last thing I've wanted to do is work on Photoshop during my time off! :crazy:

So, the projects I mentioned in my 2/13 post - some old-school rally car driving and a full presentation of the '76 Ferrari 512BB are still in the works and will be coming soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd post a shot that was planned to be the final shot in a back-and-forth series of the two cars... done in the same spirit as my "Evolution of a Heartbeat", it's a composite (obviously) and an HDR (less obviously, but no less surprising). Enjoy!

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Sheer awesome-ness captured in picture form. You never fail to make my jaw drop with what you can create. I haven't commented for a bit, though I did see your updates and I just wanted to say now that they are all of supreme quality! I shudder to think of the amount of time and work that you must have spent on them but it shows in every single picture. You sir, are in an inspiration *doffs cap*
 
sixtoes
It has been FAR too long since I've updated my gallery, folks - and I hope I haven't let anyone down... :guilty: Or accidentally fooled anyone into thinking I've disappeared... :odd:

Anyway, I thought I'd post a single image tonight... but first, some back story. Last week, I'd entered the Photomode 2.0 Competition - with the Retro theme - and actually managed to score a few votes with the shot you can see in that thread (or here). But, since the rules of the contest require the use of only a single exposure, I couldn't break out my "big guns" of HDR and exposure blending. I'm still getting accustomed to the limitations of those contests (as my entries into both the standard Photomode and 2.0 versions demonstrate), but I'll get the hang of it eventually. :mischievous:

In the meantime, I thought I'd post one shot of the timeless classic Mercedes-Benz 300 SL... photographed just before sunset at the Nürburgring. Of course, since I'm not hamstrung by those rules in my own gallery, this is a blend of five exposures (-2 to +2 at 1-stop intervals). I've noticed that, when HDR doesn't produce a good result, exposure blending (or "fuse exposures" in Photomatix) can sometimes save the day.

​

And yes, I am working on a couple of projects for later in the week... 💡
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how do you blend pictures? I know photomatix... By the way amazing picture!
 
skyline-mike
how do you blend pictures? I know photomatix... By the way amazing picture!
Click to expand...

Thanks, Mike - I use the option in Photomatix to "fuse exposures" when HDR can't give me the result I want. When you drop images into Photomatix, the first menu that pops up asks you if you want to do HDR or fuse exposures (at least my version does - can't check version number right now, as I'm on my laptop). Often, fusing or blending exposures gives a far more natural look, at the cost of losing some of the dynamic range of HDR. However, since I'm generally looking for a more natural look, that's fine with me. :)

If you don't have Photomatix, you *can* blend in Photoshop itself, but it's a much trickier process and the process is very dependent on the image you're working with. Thanks for stopping by the gallery, and I hope you come back. In the next week or two, I'll have an HDR tutorial finished (hopefully) and posted.
 
grrlpurple
I always find HDR images a bit hard on the eyes but wow - that one is gorgeous! :)
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HDR is a very powerful tool; many people seem to like creating images that make my eyes bleed, but - when used properly - HDR can do something that can't otherwise be done. The trick, though, is ensuring that the image takes center stage, rather than the effect. Most of my work in this gallery is HDR - nearly all of it, in fact - and I'll be using that sort of subtle approach when I finally crank out that tutorial. :)
 
You know I'm a big fan of your "Evolution of a Heartbeat" shot, this one is *almost* as good. :P As always, your approach to HDR is clean and natural, the image is crisp and easy on the eyes. It's a shame the only Premium Mustangs are two models I'm not particularly fond of, oh what I'd give for an Eleanor fastback in GT5 :D
 
sixtoes
I'm a Mac user as well - I just assumed everyone else was a PC, so I recommended those for the free apps. :dunce:

The only decent free one I've found that has a Mac OS version is FDRTools Basic (the Advanced version is not free). It's worth a shot, at least. 💡
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I use GIMP. its free and i've yet to find something that there isn't a plugin for, but my shots are slightly amateurish at the moment though
 
Revolution.
You know I'm a big fan of your "Evolution of a Heartbeat" shot, this one is *almost* as good. :P As always, your approach to HDR is clean and natural, the image is crisp and easy on the eyes. It's a shame the only Premium Mustangs are two models I'm not particularly fond of, oh what I'd give for an Eleanor fastback in GT5 :D
Click to expand...

Well, I'll take *almost* in comparison to that shot, Revo. I'm with you on the Mustang models - an Eleanor would have been gorgeous, as would a '65 convertible. I'd have loved to do a two-car comp with a '67 and '07 Shelby GT500 - ah, but a man can dream of DLC, can't he? :rolleyes:

dazman
I use GIMP. its free and i've yet to find something that there isn't a plugin for, but my shots are slightly amateurish at the moment though
Click to expand...

GIMP's a fine editing application for those without access to Photoshop. But I didn't know that it had the ability to handle HDR images - does it do that via a plugin, or is it native to GIMP? In my case, I don't even use Photoshop's own HDR processing; Photomatix is far better (imho, of course!).

KiroKai
Finally found your gallery. Really love your work, your pictures are awesome! :)
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Thanks, KiroKai - glad you found it, and hope you'll stick around! :)
 
I was hoping to complete my current project - the 1976 Ferrari 512BB - in time to post the entire set this afternoon, but alas...

In the meantime, then, I thought I should at least provide a little appetizer of what's in store (worth the 'click to enlarge', without a doubt):

​

Stay tuned to this gallery, as the rest of this series (4-6 action shots at Monza and Nurburgring and 4 Photo Travel HDR images from Siena and the Abbey) will be posted tomorrow or early Friday!
 
Well, after far too long a time, I've finally finished a set of images. After working with the 512BB for a recent photo contest (in vain, since 1976 is not 1975 or earlier, despite what my math says), I decided to give this beautiful machine the full sixtoes workup. :)

First, four shots at Monza. These were not done with my usual HDR work, as I was going for a more 'real-world' appearance. Lots of curves layers and masks in Photoshop, though, along with some custom filtering and a bit of noise. Each shot really does deserve the "click to enlarge" as the grain just doesn't show in the automatically-shrunken images.






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Next up, four shots from my old standby - Nurburgring just after sunrise. I used a very mild HDR tonemapping (along with the obvious lens flare effect) on the first image. The second and third shots were single exposures, with several adjustment layers - the third shot inspired by the cool filter effect, but recreated in Photoshop as the in-game filter just couldn't get it quite right. The fourth image was a manual blend of two exposures, as I just couldn't get the look I wanted from tonemapping in Photomatix.






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Finally, after driving the car back to Italy, I parked it in a couple of famous locations and took my usual HDR shots. Again, these were heavily toned-down from the typical HDR appearance, as I was going for a very realistic film look.


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My next project is going to be a little different - rather than a full set, I'm working on putting together an HDR tutorial with an emphasis on using tonemapping to achieve something other than the typical surreal images we often see. I'm hoping to get it done tomorrow, but it depends on how quickly I can put together all the screen grabs of Photomatix and Photoshop! :crazy:
 
Wow, awesome. 👍 My favourite is the second last one though. It looks like something you'd see in a magazine article.
 

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