Retouching
While I really do try to get my images right in the camera, sometimes things are just easier and faster on the computer. Below are a few examples of these situations. In the photos of Quocs yellow 280Z, and Jorges gold Civic, the equipment required to make a similar image without excessive retouching is in the tens of thousands of dollars. My setup, including ultra-wide angle lens and camera body comes in just shy of $5,000. I think it’s worth the retouching!
The above image shows Quocs 280Z, which I photographed in downtown Los Angeles for Canibeat.com. As you can see from the image, my post processing consisted of some tonal adjustments, dodging/burning, and of course removal of that awkward steel pole jutting away from the car, along with my Avenger suction cups which are holding said pole to Quocs beautiful Fairlady Z.
Here’s a before/after of Chris Soehrens LS1-swapped (yep, Corvette engine) S13 240SX, in the paint booth at Elite Automotive Finishes.
This image required a lot of really basic stuff, so while nothing done was difficult it was still time consuming. The black square thing on the side is actually part of Chris’ seat, and I didn’t realize that it had been set there since when I intitially got my camera positioned it was inside the car. After cleaning of the car, it got left outside and I didn’t notice until later. The rest of the changes consisted of removing the window on the left side of the frame, fixing a light that had burned out bulbs, and then some tonal corrections.
The final images I want to share are of Jorges gold Honda Civic hatchback. This is another “rig shot”, and was done in under 5 minutes from unpacking my camera to pulling out of the parking lot. A car as modified (and well painted) as this gold Civic draws a lot of attention, which eventually brought the shopping center security over who had to ask me to leave. He was really nice, and very intrigued, but rules are rules so I hurriedly snapped this shot and we left before our welcome was wore out.
The retouching on this image was pretty simple… Remove suction cups, rebuild every corner of the image by hand, rebuild rear mudflap… You know, easy stuff ;) Oh, and some tonal corrections.
