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American Muscle
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American Muscle

by Brian Schrayer

Gallery: POP PhotosPosted July 19, 2012160 views2 comments
I'm a little hesitant to post this image in this gallery because in some respects it is little more than a glorified snapshot due to the fact that there are a lot of distracting elements in the background and it was taken at a local car show.

On the other hand, I made deliberate creative decisions so I hope it is a fitting addition to the gallery.

I composed this image at about waist-level and moved in as close as I could to capture a dramatic perspective of the lines of the car. I placed the point of focus about half way up the rear deck lid of the car in order to get enough DOF for the rear of the car while making sure that the Cobra logo was in sharp focus.

For processing, I worked with sharpening and noise reduction in the RAW file as this was shot at high ISO. There is virtually no discernable noise in the full resolution file with no loss of detail. This still amazes me. Once in PS, I converted the file to B&W using the default mode (after testing the various filters). I then added a curves adjustment using the normal blending mode to adjust global contrast to taste. I used TK's luminosity masks and luminosity painting techniques to target specific tonalities. Finally, I added a pretty heavy vignette to minimize attention on the background and to draw the viewers eye back to the car.

All comments and critiques are welcome. :wavey:

Specs:
D700
35mm
f2; 1/125 sec.
ISO 1000
Handheld; manual focus using live-view

Comments

2 comments
Comment posted by Kent Staubus on July 24, 2012 at 11:56 PM
The technicals are good, and I think the b&w decision helped you in that it reduced the distracting background. I would like to have seen the top of the hood on the car though.


Kent in SD
Registered on November 11, 2003, 121 Posts, 2098 Comments
Comment posted by Jim Erhardt on July 26, 2012 at 6:45 AM
A beautiful example of a 1967 Shelby Mustang - I think the photo does it justice!
Registered on November 1, 2003, 245 Posts, 2421 Comments