redline
11-04-2006, 03:09 AM
Recently I was asked to clean this image up because its going to be featured in a small Nissan parts magazine. The owner of the car took the photo with a digital rebel XT, but has little to no experience with photoshop. So I decided to document my steps as I worked, and hopefully this will provide a nice reference for those of you working on your own images.
Here is the original image. In my opinion, the car has an aggressive stance, but this photograph doesn't show it off all too well. Further more, I think the wall behind the car can actually work for the image becuase of the clashing colors. But as is, I think the wall is too over-powering.
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1445/1rawom3.jpg
First off, lets identify the problem areas:
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5489/raw2jw3.jpg
a.) As I mentioned earlier, I think the wall is overpowering. So we'll take it down a few notches. But since this is a tuner car, I think it can lend to a nice "Grunge" atmosphere that has become so popular when photographing these cars.
b.) Again, the cracked pavement can provide a nice "Grunge" touch, but as is, its over-exposed and lacks detail. So we'll bring this down to more appropriate levels and try to extract some fine detail.
c.) The main problem with this shot is the harsh lighting. There are bits of the paint that are white (ie overexposed). On top of that, the reflections are a mess, and very distracting. We can't really do anything with the over-exposure other than exposure correction in Adobe Camera Raw, but the reflections we'll take out completely. This will be the most tedious part of the editing process.
So lets get started: I've opened the image up in Photoshop. I think that ACR has done a good job on "automatic" mode with the settings (exposure correction, etc) so I'll leave them as is. And since the photo was taken with ambient light, we won't really have to adjust the white balance, or color temperature.
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/364/acr1yk0.jpg
The first thing I've decided to work on is the ground. So I've made a selection around the ground area, and feathered it about 25px. Then I've copied it and pasted it into a new layer. From there I will adjust the levels (apple + L) first, by sliding the middle slider to the right.
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/1897/groundselectionpc3.jpg
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8215/groundlevelswp9.jpg
Then I will flatten the image (Image>Flatten Image [at the bottom of the menu]). The ground still isn't looking exactly like I want it to look, so i'm going to try to bring out more contrast and fine detail. For this, I will re-select the same area (Select>Reselect). Then I will copy and paste this onto a new layer. Now to bring out detail and contract, I'm going to adjust the blending options on the layer palate to "soft light"
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7231/ground2ep3.jpg
(note that layer 1 is set to "soft light")
Then I'm going to basically repeat the same steps for the BG.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9723/bglevelshd1.jpg
(BG Select and Levels adjustment) Make sure that when you are selecting areas around the car, you are extra careful. The more accurate the selections, the better the results.
Now after I've repeated the steps for setting the layer to "soft light" (flatten image, select>re select> blending mode to "soft light") then I'm going to lower the saturation of the wall to lessen its impact on the image.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1493/bgsaturationty3.jpg
Now to get rid of reflections we're going to make selections and clone them out using the stamp tool. The hood was too much to clone out, so I tried to make it match the rest of the paint by using the replace and match color tools (image>adjust> match color and image>adjust<replace color). Remember to always work in new layers!!
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2990/reflectionno8.jpg
And if you want that studio paint look, then you can blur the area. To do this, first flatten your image. Then make a selection around the area you want to blur, but make sure you leave out door handles, door lines, and major highlight/shadow shifts or changes. Then copy and paste that selection onto a new layer, and re-select the area (select>reselect). Then go to filter>Gaussain blur. I usually set the blur radius to around 15.
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1984/perfectza1.jpg
After a few more levels changes, here is the final image compared to the orig:
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1705/finalbh7.jpg
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1445/1rawom3.jpg
Here is the original image. In my opinion, the car has an aggressive stance, but this photograph doesn't show it off all too well. Further more, I think the wall behind the car can actually work for the image becuase of the clashing colors. But as is, I think the wall is too over-powering.
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1445/1rawom3.jpg
First off, lets identify the problem areas:
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5489/raw2jw3.jpg
a.) As I mentioned earlier, I think the wall is overpowering. So we'll take it down a few notches. But since this is a tuner car, I think it can lend to a nice "Grunge" atmosphere that has become so popular when photographing these cars.
b.) Again, the cracked pavement can provide a nice "Grunge" touch, but as is, its over-exposed and lacks detail. So we'll bring this down to more appropriate levels and try to extract some fine detail.
c.) The main problem with this shot is the harsh lighting. There are bits of the paint that are white (ie overexposed). On top of that, the reflections are a mess, and very distracting. We can't really do anything with the over-exposure other than exposure correction in Adobe Camera Raw, but the reflections we'll take out completely. This will be the most tedious part of the editing process.
So lets get started: I've opened the image up in Photoshop. I think that ACR has done a good job on "automatic" mode with the settings (exposure correction, etc) so I'll leave them as is. And since the photo was taken with ambient light, we won't really have to adjust the white balance, or color temperature.
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/364/acr1yk0.jpg
The first thing I've decided to work on is the ground. So I've made a selection around the ground area, and feathered it about 25px. Then I've copied it and pasted it into a new layer. From there I will adjust the levels (apple + L) first, by sliding the middle slider to the right.
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/1897/groundselectionpc3.jpg
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8215/groundlevelswp9.jpg
Then I will flatten the image (Image>Flatten Image [at the bottom of the menu]). The ground still isn't looking exactly like I want it to look, so i'm going to try to bring out more contrast and fine detail. For this, I will re-select the same area (Select>Reselect). Then I will copy and paste this onto a new layer. Now to bring out detail and contract, I'm going to adjust the blending options on the layer palate to "soft light"
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7231/ground2ep3.jpg
(note that layer 1 is set to "soft light")
Then I'm going to basically repeat the same steps for the BG.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9723/bglevelshd1.jpg
(BG Select and Levels adjustment) Make sure that when you are selecting areas around the car, you are extra careful. The more accurate the selections, the better the results.
Now after I've repeated the steps for setting the layer to "soft light" (flatten image, select>re select> blending mode to "soft light") then I'm going to lower the saturation of the wall to lessen its impact on the image.
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1493/bgsaturationty3.jpg
Now to get rid of reflections we're going to make selections and clone them out using the stamp tool. The hood was too much to clone out, so I tried to make it match the rest of the paint by using the replace and match color tools (image>adjust> match color and image>adjust<replace color). Remember to always work in new layers!!
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/2990/reflectionno8.jpg
And if you want that studio paint look, then you can blur the area. To do this, first flatten your image. Then make a selection around the area you want to blur, but make sure you leave out door handles, door lines, and major highlight/shadow shifts or changes. Then copy and paste that selection onto a new layer, and re-select the area (select>reselect). Then go to filter>Gaussain blur. I usually set the blur radius to around 15.
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1984/perfectza1.jpg
After a few more levels changes, here is the final image compared to the orig:
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1705/finalbh7.jpg
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/1445/1rawom3.jpg