Photography - The Common Passion with Porsche - Photo Tips

[Peanut]

There is some really amazing stuff being posted on this thread, so I don't want to minimize the quality in any way - I am humbled by many of the photographers here. Just wanted to comment that Setho sure has worked hard, and his latest posts are really good.

[matt911]

Great shots Seth, keep it up...

I enjoy shooting at vintage car events, however I get bored easily.
Im finding myself straying away from clean, technically correct shots and shooting a little more dirty, abstract stuff.
Ironically, I took this photo of a Mustang at nearly 120mph and the orange blurs in the foreground are photographers trying to capture that shot you have seen thousands of times

[tpdorsey]

Love it, Matt!

[John Z Goriup]

I am enjoying this thread very much. It has answered questions, opened my eyes, motivated me to try harder, allowed me a glimpse into the minds and outlooks of other photographers, and the exchange of opinions, ideas and the comments and critiques have been hugely useful.

So much so that my participation on this thread has forced me to delve much deeper into what had been to me for years the " black art " of post-processing. I have finally set up my computer with the precise set of software to enable me to post process all my new photos to reflect my ideas of how I'd like my work to look, as well as create a strong desire to re-visit some of my favorite older events, where I shot memorable cars, but never achieved anywhere near the quality and impact I pre-visualised and searched for due to my very lackadaisical and casual attitude towards post-processing.

I have finally and fully accepted the need to electronically alter and condition every worthwhile photo, because let's face it, no matter how hard you try and pay attention to the smallest detail of exposure, focusing, depth of field, composition, etc. there is no such thing as a perfect photo straight out of the camera. Every shot can be improved, or, to put it more specifically, the photographer with the right tools and attitude can close the gap between the original file that the sensor downloaded to the SD card, and what he really intended his photograph to say. Consequently, and for what it's worth, I now have installed Adobe Lightroom 5 for my general photo manipulation, and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 for all my black & white work. Both are extremely user-friendly, reasonably easy to learn, very intuitive and in the case of Silver Efex, immensely powerful. I have never been able to come close to doing some of the things with black & white that I can now summon up with one click of the mouse..........I can't recommend it highly enough.

I just wish we could get more participants to post their work, generate more debate, commentary and honest critique.

Attached please find three shots from the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours when Mercedes and Audi emptied their museums to show their best example of the Hitler-mandated series of the legendary Silver Arrows Grand Prix cars, a Barnato-era Bentley detail, and one of the Baby Turbo shot in August recently at the Historics.

JZG

[setho]

I feel like I've just won the "Most Improved Student" award. Thank you all, especially you pros, for taking the time.

JZG - Silver Efex is amazing, as is Color Efex if you haven't tried it. I've started playing with some of the VSCO filters. They're very film like.

That last shot of the Martini car is so interesting looking. I love the subtlety in the different shades, and how the body lines and paint come together. The Martini cars are usually so bright, so it's interesting seeing it presented this way.

[tpdorsey]

Apologies in advance for a tool tangent: looking for recommendations for a flatbed scanner. Not photo-specific - I use it mostly for OCR, but also for scanning artwork and photos.

[John Z Goriup]

Canon Canonscan 9000F Mark II - outstanding unit in terms of capabilities, price ( in the $ 200.00 range ), reliability, results.........but its on-board software is not it's strong suit. I submit that it's very worthwhile to add "Silverfast" software to complete a superior package.

I recommend this package highly based on personal experience.

JZG

[John Z Goriup]

A couple more shots that have been converted and manipulated in Nik Silver Efex Pro II to illustrate its capabilities and versatility, then I just gotta get some work done around the house............supposed to be the hottest day in quite a while here.

Photo 1 is a '57Maserati 450 S, one of 9 ever produced. Enormous promise and potential, but alas, it never materialized. One of the most intimidating and fearsome sports racers ever, but by then Maserati was struggling and out of money.
Photo 2 is an interesting study of the different lines drivers take through the corkscrew.............you can make up or loose lots of time in this turn.

JZG

[Xavier PJB]

I walked the "Sunday in the Park" concours with Seth -- every major marque gets a "section" of the Lime Rock track (e.g. Porsche)-- some marques are broken down into models (e.g. Mustangs) and some marques are included as a country (e.g. Italy and France). The sign next to the Citroen originally read "French Cars" with an "s" on the end that Seth photoshopped out. At that time in the morning (early), the Citroen was the sole representative of your illustrious country!

Jim, Thanks for the explanation
At least the "S" links people together

Take care
Xavier

[TZombek]

John,
A great shot of the trio of 911s. I only wish I could have been there that day.