Event Coverage Photos from the Super Sunny 2014 Stray Kat 500

Thanks Ted - I was happy with how it came out.

 

Love that truck, Awesome shot Dan!

 

you caught another one that I didn't see.... Very Kool!

 

Thanks Adam (inkstain27). Thanks to you too, Mick. I look at Travis's pictures to see all the ones I didn't see at the show, however that happened.

 

That is a bitchin pic Dan!!!

Oh, and a couple bitchin birds too!!


Posted from the throne room using the Wicked kustom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Thanks Jimmy! It was great of them to park next to each other like that.

 

Awesome pics, Dan, as usual!

 

Thanks for posting Dan . I love your work.

 

Glad you caught those two 'Birds of a feather while they were flocking together! I had been walking back and forth between the two on Don Tyler Ave on Saturday, comparing the similarities and differences. I coulda saved some steps had I waited 'til they roosted!

 

Thanks very much Philippe(Frogz), Hilo hotrodder and Duncan(arkiehotrods)! Duncan - at first I did not realize I was seeing 2 different cars. I saw them in different places and knew something was not quite right. I finally figured it out when I saw them both together.

 

nice

 

Thanks Josh (MRPants)

 

Believe it or not, I am not done with this thread yet - interrupted by real life and other car shows.
Happy 4th everyone.

 

Dan, I enjoy your photos. Would it be possible to post the original photo along with this one so we can see a comparison?

 

Thanks Ken, this was made with 3 different exposures of the same thing. Here is what the base exposure one looked like.

 

Now you have me intrigued Dan. I thought this was a filter (filters) treatment done in Photoshop or some other image altering program. Can you spare a few minutes and describe the process, or direct me to a website the explains it. I am sure I am not the only one interested in the steps it takes to create such stunning photos. If this is your top secret private thing, then don't give it away. I have been interested in Photography for some time and am always interested in learning new things.

 

Hi Ken,
Unfortunately there is no simple answer but I will try to give you a few places to start. First off, every picture is different, obviously and needs different things to make it work in my mind. I do use Photoshop extensively and various add in filter packages - the main ones being those from Nik, Topaz and On one. I shoot raw always. I use a polarizer pretty much always. I use Photomatix 98% of the time for HDR conversions when I need to do HDR. I almost always shoot bracketed shots so I am prepared for HDR if I need it, depending on how contrasting and wide ranging the light was - in the case of this show with it's bright blue very sunny skies it helped a lot. One thing you need to get good at for this type of thing because it invariably comes into play is being good at masking in PhotoShop. Most of the time, applying a filter will help one part of the picture and make something else worse, so you need to watch for that and know how to make masks and use the eraser or paint brush to apply the effect where you want it. Also I do a lot of clean up most of the time. This involves using Content Aware Fill, the patch tool and the clone tool, alone or in combinations to get rid of things. I usually try to restore the light, contrast and color when cars look as washed out as this did. I have about 30 or 40 different ways that I do this depending on the car, the situation etc - most of those are Nik ColorEfex or Topaz Adjust or Topaz Detail presets - a lot of which I made up myself via experimentation. It obviously helps to get as clean a picture as your can to start with. The biggest thing is that it takes a lot of experimentation and judgement to know when to use what. The Willys above was first combined in PhotoMatix. Then it had a bunch of manual cleanup done to get rid of power lines and other things I didn't want and to clean up the sky. Then it was denoised in Topaz Denoise. Then it had Topaz Detail applied to it selectively to make the car more alive looking. It had a Nik Skylight filter applied to warm up the overall light a bit. This was a pretty simple one.

So I hope that helps. It is just a lot of learning curves to go through.
Dan

 

Thanks Dan. That sure is a lot to take in. It is great of you to take the time to explain it. I like to do the shooting, but have little patience to do the editing. I can edit and be creative with video all day, but I can't sit still too long for photo editing. My wife on the other hand will work with a photo all day long to get it where she wants it. She has never created anything like your car shots, but she can sure clean up an old photo that she has scanned.

 

You're welcome.

It is a lot to learn, but you don't have to know it all to get nice results and it is a lot of fun although it can often be exhausting. It sure is fun to see the results in a finished print or also make your own books. To give you some inspiration, you can check out my books at http://www.blurb.com/user/store/DLGPA101 which can all be previewed on line. Also my main body of work, which includes much, much more in the way of cars and also non car subjects is at: http://www.pbase.com/dlgphoto

Good luck.