RDJ was my Reaction to PD's lazyness lolnoo. he is cool.. PD looked more like this:
but the new locations are cool too.
City of Arts and Sciences - Night_1 by SnailRacing.Org, on Flickr
Peace fellas!
Now go get some sleep!
So the other week I got a request from @rallydakar asking how I went about creating this image
"Ready for Takeoff".
Step 1 - Lightroom
Now the first thing I always do is import the image into Lightroom and play around with the sliders (they're pretty much self explanatory). If you don't have Lightroom you can just download the Camera Raw plugin for Photoshop from Adobe for free.
What I like to do is crank up the clarity slider to bring out more detail in the image (this also increases the visibility of gradient banding but can easily be cleaned up in Photoshop), then adjust shadows/blacks then highlights/whites after. Usually exposure is the first thing I touch but in this case it doesn't need it. Bear in mind that each image requires different treatment to find the right balance you are looking for. This is what I ended up with below.
Step 2 - Field Blur
The next thing I do, is export the image to Photoshop. I then duplicate the image layer and go to Filter > Blur > Field Blur. What I want to do is soften up the background a bit more (this also helps to reduce the visible gradient banding).
Then I adjust the amount of blur I want. I settled for 10px.
After that I add a layer mask to the layer (rectangular icon at the bottom of the layers panel) and using a soft black brush (Hardness 0% | Flow 100%), I mask away the area where the main focus would be; in this case the car and a bit of the road surrounding it. Note: Use a white brush if you want to bring back what you hid.
Step 3 - Gradient Map
Next up, I add a Gradient map to the image. I click on the circular icon at the bottom of my layers panel and go to gradient map. The properties box should pop up and from here, click on the gradient to change what colors you want to use. The gradient editor window should show up and in order to get these preset gradients, click on the gear icon near the top and select Photographic Toning (only available in CS5 and later).
For this one, I chose "Sepia-Blue 1". This is what it looks like below.
I then go to the top of my layers panel and change the layer blend mode to soft light. This is the result.
Lastly I masked away the sky because I wanted it to be a bit more blue there. On a separate layer I grabbed a white brush with a low opacity and painted over the right side of the image to give the allusion of light coming from that direction. On another layer I grabbed a black brush (same settings) and painted over the bottom left corner of the image. This draws the eyes more towards the car.
Step 4 - Clean Up
For this step, I get up close & personal and scan the image for all the visible gradient banding with my eagle vision. Mainly the body panels of the car, the sky and bits of the background surrounding the car itself, since that's where most people tend to look.
I create a new layer and select the Mixer brush (only available in CS5 and later) in the panel to the left. I then use these settings below in the top panel. Note: Make sure you are using a soft round brush with the Hardness set to 0%.
I "alt left-click" on the area I wish to paint over (loads all the colors in the area into a bucket) then hold down "left-click" to brush over the gradient banding. What this does, is smoothly mixes the colors together to achieve a much cleaner look. This is the final result below.
Step 5 - Reflections
For this part, I create a new layer and hit "Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E" to stamp the entire image onto it. This gives me a flat image to work with while keeping all the other layers underneath, untouched in case I want to make any changes to it.
I then select this stamped layer and crudely cut out the car using the polygonal tool via layer copy. (It doesn't have to be perfect since I'm going to hide most of it anyway.) I then flip it vertically and place it underneath the car. I go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to soften it up. For this image I set it a around 3.5 pixels.
After that I go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur and make sure the direction of the blur is aligned vertically to the car.
Once that's done, drop the opacity of the layer and mask away the bottom part of the reflection. I then repeat the same step for the background elements, such as the barrier and the overpass in the distance.
Step 6 - Tail Lights
Okay, time for glowing tail lights. I go ahead and create a new layer, select a soft round brush but choose a red/orange color. The opacity is set to about 20-30%.
I brush over the tail light with a small brush and a single stroke. I set the layer blend mode to screen.
After that I create another layer and select a slightly more red color. Using a larger brush, I paint around the tail light area. Using the same opacity, I tend to build the paint up more by clicking a few times. I then change the layer blend mode to screen and mask away the edges to make the light fade with a smooth transition.
Here's what it looks like when both sides are done.
On a new layer, I paint the ground with the red brush to give the allusion of light reflecting off the wet pavement. I set the layer blend mode to soft light or screen depending on the image. For this one I use screen and lower the opacity to the point where it's extremely subtle.
Step 7 - Exhaust
For this image I wanted to add some subtle touches to it. So I thought it would be cool to add some smoke coming from the exhaust.
Firstly I brush over the exhausts with a white brush with a very low opacity.
Then I grab a stock smokey texture on a black background from the internet. I set the layer blend mode to screen, then add Gaussian blur and a touch of motion blur to it. I shrink it down and place it over one of the exhaust pipes. I mask away all the extra unwanted parts, then I duplicate the image 4 times and place it over the other exhaust pipes. I flip a couple of them horizontally so you don't see any obvious editing patterns starting to form.
Step 8 - Fog Mist
For the most part, the image is pretty much done but I just wanted to add one more thing to it to complete it.
So on new layer I grabbed a soft white brush with a low opacity and brushed over the horizon line to give the subtle allusion of fog mist in the distance.
Step 9 - Final Image
For the final stages of the image, I go over and clean up anything I have missed. Then I stamp everything on to a new layer and add 1.4 noise to the image...
...and that's all there is to it. Hopefully I could explain things well enough for you to understand. This took ages for me to put together; I won't be doing another one of these breakdowns for a long time!
