sixtoes : an automotive fine art gallery : returning soon!

  • Thread starter sixtoes
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Great series of shots.

The colour of the shots is lovely. 👍

My 2c's I prefer the first shot. :D
 
Sprite: Thanks, Sprite! The warm filter really did a good job (for a change!), so we'll see how I do. If I make the poll, of course. :) I'll admit I thought long and hard about which one of these to enter - and the sense of motion and perspective in the first one was tough to say 'no' to, but I liked the silhouette/backlit action in 5 & 6. Eh - who knows... I might change my mind again tomorrow! :crazy:
 
I've been working on an entry for the Photomode/Photoshop competition this week; normally, I don't enter that contest as I'm not good with flat-out manipulation. This week, though, the task is to produce a poster that promotes a car show or car meet (with pre-'89 vehicles only). There are some great entries already in the running, so I know I'm going to have to really bring my A-game.

Since I'm not much of a graphic designer, however I put this thing together, the emphasis is going to have to be on the photography. And, since the rules of this contest allow me to do whatever I want - :D - I've opted to use a little HDR. Each of these was created from a three-stop bracket (-2, 0, +2) with the exception of the last one which is a four-stop bracket (-1.5, 0, +1.5, +3). Each was then worked over in Photoshop - mostly with curves layers, selective sharpening, retro filters and noise. Some work was done on the standard models to fix the jaggies.

The fictional car meet I'll be promoting will be a 1969 event celebrating the first 15 years of the Chevrolet Corvette. Sadly, only one of the older model Corvettes is a premium model: the three I really want to emphasize are - gasp! - standard models. :nervous:

So I've done the best I could - and here, for your enjoyment, is a series of four Corvettes that I'll be using in some capacity once I sit down to design the poster.


First up, the original 1954 Corvette, shot at Daytona:



Next is the 1963 C2 model, shot at the top of the corkscrew at Laguna Seca (to get the 'looking up' angle):



Then we have my favorite of the series - the 1963 C2 race car driven by Bob Bondurant:



Finally, the only premium model in the lineup - the 1969 C3 Stingray, shot at the Red Bull Hangar:

It'll probably be another day or two before I can post the finished poster, but look for it soon!
 
Awesome shots. The first 2 are really good mate. The second in particular is superb. Looks like it could be an old ad/promo shot for the car.

I really like shot one too but feel it could have used more air around the car, seems a little to tightly framed for my liking. But still fantastic stuff 👍 👍

As always you HDR stuff is top notch.
 
Fantastic work on the standard cars, they look Premium car like! My favourite is the C2 Race car shot, it looks amazing.
 
Grand Prix: Thanks - it's definitely a different angle than we usually see, and it seems to work well with the shape of the car. (Though I did have to round off the front fenders a bit - the standard model polygons were just too obvious.)

Sprite: I appreciate the kind words; getting them to look like premiums required a couple tricks of the eye (using my custom old-photo filter helps), and some good old-fashioned hand-smoothing of bad jaggies/polygons. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, though - inspired me to try some other standards down the line somewhere.

HondaFanatic: Thanks - but which '63? :)

GPR: Yeah, the '54's a little tight, now that I look back on it. I was trying to eliminate the usual 'feel' of standard car shots - where the camera has to be so far away - so I cropped it really tight. Should have given it more space - maybe not on the left or at the bottom, but towards the right and top for sure. These were interesting HDR shots, as the difference was very subtle between the middle exposure and the tonemapped HDR - more so than my usual work, even. But it added just that extra something to make the images pop... :)

SVX: Thanks! These were my first standard car workups, and I was pleasantly surprised by how little Photoshop work was needed. I love that C2 race car shot, too - I know the stock C2's been getting a lot of comment love, but I love the look of that car, and capturing a little backfire was a first for me as well. :D

All: I've got a couple projects in the works, but I've got a busy weekend ahead of me, so keep an eye out early next week for the next shoot! (I might get a teaser up over the weekend, though.)
 
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Cod_Father: Still my favorite as well - thanks! :)

All: Since not a lot of folks drop by the contest thread that I was working on an entry for, I thought I'd post the results of my work here for your review and comments. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a graphic designer; I'm just a photographer. So working with layout design and graphic elements isn't my forte, but I thought this was a fun result and worth sharing.

The contest required us to create a poster for a car meet for cars that are 1989 or older - nothing about the rules required the event to be current, so I decided to take a different spin on things and create a fictional event from the past. Since the 614 C2 race Corvette got its number from the street address of the sponsoring dealership (Washburn Chevrolet in Santa Barbara, California) - and yes, that took some detective work - I thought it would be appropriate to have the dealership be a 'sponsor' for this event, along with Bob Bondurant racing. The highlight of this fictional expo, though, would have to be the "brand new" for 1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible. I'm sure if they actually had held this event, they might have sold a few cars that day... :)

 
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That is an awesome poster and all of your work is creative. You are very talented with composing and editing. Appreciative envy sir, envy. :)
 
sems4arsenal: Thanks! Of course, Bob Bondurant was the original driver of the Washburn #614 back in its heyday... and I've long been hoping to get a weekend at his racing school for a birthday present. :D I'm hoping that's the feeling of genuineness that will help me do well in the poll once it closes Sunday - but we'll see (there are some very good entries).

im_remi: Let me be clear that I have no claim on deity! :scared: God-given talents, yes - and I'm grateful for them. But I'll let God be your God. :)

swervesauce: Thanks, man - I'll take a little envy, especially if it inspires some good photowork like what I see in your gallery! 👍
 
Saw you entry in the comp thread, pretty good. The feel of it does work with the age it's portraying, and the photos are a standout in there.

Also like the effort you put into trying to make it accurate to the time and place. Good job.
 
SVX: Thanks!
ceiling_fan: I appreciate the 👍, and I'm glad you enjoyed the Enzo shots - I thought they turned out quite well despite the lack of my usual retouching.
GRP: Thanks; I think I'll have a hard time against a couple of the very well-done graphic-type entries, but we'll see. Whatever the case, I figured I'd better play to my strengths!
grrlpurple: Lots of Apollo astronauts - going back to Alan Shepard in 1962 - were given leased Corvettes by GM. But the three members of the Apollo 12 crew (Conrad, Gordon and Bean) got matching Riverside Gold '69 Stingrays -- yes, like the one in the photo -- though they were 427s, and had some custom graphic work done to them. Here's an interesting story about 'em, with some photos at the bottom. :)
TVR: Well, since I'm not a graphic designer, "simple" is about all I can do on these! :dopey:
 
What program do you use to edit your pictures? I'm planning to get Photoshop CS4 or something.. and check out the new pictures on my gallery btw! (not a boatload of pictures, as you suggested!)
 

Thanks to the main page for linking me to those gorgeous shots :)👍

No idea how I missed your 512BB set, but that one is just brilliant! Every single one looks like a real shot.
Especially love the last 2 shots here. Awesome work sixtoes, really really impressive!!!!!:drool:👍
 
this deffo needs an update

one of the best galleries in gtplanet imo

Thanks for the kind words, nanabu - I've actually started working on an update, believe it or not.

He stoped being online soo ....

Yes I did, Lance... for far too long. Things got a little busy in the 'real world' and I let this go as a result. Looking forward to getting back in the action.
 
It's been over a year since I've been an active part of the photo forums here at GTPlanet, and I've missed the creative process. I suppose I took the "quality over quantity" approach a little too strictly in recent months!

Still, don't expect a slew of new material from me quite yet. I'm hoping to put up one-car projects every week or two, at least for the duration of the summer.

If my work is new to you - and there are probably a lot of you for whom that's the case - I hope you'll take a look through my gallery and enjoy what you find there.

Until my next update...
 
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