Event Coverage Super Hot Once Again - My Photos from the 2014 KKOA Leadsled Spectacular

The KKOA show in Salina, KS was back to being very hot (106-108) on the two main days of the show - Friday and Saturday. Here is my photo thread on it and it's peripheral events. Please be patient as I have a large backlog of this and other photos to work on along with my "daytime" job.




http://www.pbase.com/dlgphoto/kkoa_2014

 

Can't wait 2 see more Dan

 

I will be patient.

 

No Rush , Glad to be waiting for more

 

Thanks a lot Don, Ranchero59 and Dave!

 

Cool - Thanks

 

Thank you Jalopy Joker.

 

Love the '50 Ford! HRP

 

Thanks HRP! It seems to like to pose for me where I go - belongs to Arturo Quesada.

 

Have to interject this here.
I had seen Dans work for quite a while and was really impressed with it.
Was really honored that he asked to do and extensive photo shoot on my 5 Winder while in Salina.
Thank you Dan

 

You're welcome Don and thank you for letting me do it. Here is the first pic in which your 32 appears - although as a co-star to this 29 A sedan.

 

I have been wondering when you were going to post. Always worth the wait.
Later,
Dick

 

Thanks Dick!

 

A 1950 Mercury Monarch - a Canadian Merc that was part of group that drove all the way from Alberta for their first KKOA.

 

What a great way to start the week. First I viewed the pictures posted on the A Bombers event in Sweden (all 35 pages) and now your thread on the Leadsled Spectacular. Dan, as usual, great shots. Looking forward to see many more. Thank you.

 

Thanks so much Herb - great, as always, to have you on board.

 

keep them coming, I've got to get my butt back outside before you post more and I spend more time marveling over them.

 

Epic Photos... Nice!
What process do you use to create the HDR looking photos?

 

...not usually a fan of HDR for HDR's sake, unless it is done right to fully exploit the tonal range of the subject. It's real easy to go overboard and the results will look gimmicky.

Dan's got the process down to a fine art. It takes experience and a good eye to get consistently great results. You set the bar high Dan and I always enjoy your postings.

 

I always look forward to your show coverage Dan. Thanks for posting especially since I didn't get to make it this year!

 

Can't wait to see more Hopefully you got mine, I'd love to see what it looks like with your camera magic

 

Thanks for letting us see what we missed Dan, looks like it was a great show.

 

Hey Dan,

I saw you all over the place at the show, but everytime you were at work behind the camera. Sorry I never got the chance to say hi. Maybe next time. Great shots, as always, keep 'em coming.

And Crazy Legs--I oogled over your car all weekend. One of my favorites at the show. Can't wait to see it finished! E

 

Thanks a lot Mr48chev, Ownster, seadog, guthriesmith, Crazy Legs, Tom (wide34) and OG lil E.

In answer to your question ownster, here is one I gave someone else who asked this on my last thread.
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 above pictures are about half HDR and probably not the ones you think in some cases. As seadog noted, HDR when done in the normal way by beginners is often gimmicky and often garish and way overdone. It is an effective tool in cases like this years KKOA where there were a lot of high contrast scenes. Sometimes I will actually make something more HDR looking if I think it looks good on that picture.

 

Dan it was good seeing you again in Salina. Your photos are always the best. Look forward to following your HAMB thread. See you down the road at another show.

 

Great seeing you too, Mike. Thanks!

 

No rush Dan......... Just hurry!!! LoL!
It was good seeing you again, we actually need to hang out a little more in Wichita!


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

 

Thanks Jimmy!