Car Show

[CNelson]

I had a new experience the other day. I took my camera gear and went to a car show. I'm not really a car person but I felt like a coyote in a hen house....didn't know where to start. I eventually found that a car show is not a really good place to shoot cars as they are all jammed together and people are everywhere so it's hard to get a clear shot let along a good angle. I got my shots as best I could but then resorted to various techniques in PP to minimize the background distractions and let the cars show their stuff. I used Topaz a lot to do this and sometimes I just went with a Topaz look because I liked it. I'd really rather get a good shot of these cars on a country road or in an interesting setting but here's five of my favorites and there's a lot more on my website.

Chuck

[stripe]

Really interesting PP work Chuck, I like the real car in a cartoon world idea, I have never seen that done before. Was all this PP done in Topaz? The second one looks fairly HDR'ish, is it?

I am very interested in your workflow. Noise has always been a huge bother for me when PPing, and these look very clean. Any tips or tricks to pass along?

[arith]

Brilliant stuff.

[carregwen]

Very interesting, Chuck. They would make good art-work for some poster or publication, I think. I've downloaded the free trial of Topaz to try it myself.

[Donald]

Chuck

Now that's really imaginative artwork. The beauty is that what you've done is, in my opinion, artwork. It's not somebody playing about with a clever piece of software. (Hope that makes sense)

As Rob suggests, this is poster material. Have you a means of letting the organisers of the see what you've done. If they organise other events, or the same one next year, - what a way to advertise it. They could easily get event text at the bottom of and at the sides of, for example, #3.

[CNelson]

Thank you Carregwen and Donald. I do like Topaz and recommend it. It allows me to take some photographs to a new level...and I find I must check myself so as not to overdo it. If you are a member of NAPP you get a good discount on Topaz and other products. I joined a couple months ago before upgrading Photoshop but I appreciate the training available.

I am about to head 300 miles north to shoot a bluegrass festival ( http://www.scottvalleybluegrass.com/) but when I get time I think I will design a poster for the organizers of the car show. It's a community outreach put on by the church I attend...they don't charge participants or visitors and it is well received. A cool poster that they could print and/or use on the web would help them get the word out and it should be a fun project for me as well.

Chuck

[Donald]

A cool poster that they could print and/or use on the web would help them get the word out and it should be a fun project for me as well.

Right we'll take that as a project and wait to see the final result!

And enjoy the festival. Got the website open and its looks brilliant. I play (played!) an accordion and once, when in upstate New York, did a jamming session with some old timers who were rattling out Appalachian Blue Grass stuff. It was magical.

ps Just clocked that the photos on the site are yours. Brilliant. Well done

[CNelson]

Wow Donald....bluegrass accordion....it's rare but not unheard of. You will find a photo of a lady playing the accordion during the street jam the night before the festival. It's toward the end of the 2009 gallery. I used to play guitar in a bluegrass band and once we jammed with a guy who did a mix of cajun and bluegrass style...he was an exceptional musician and played one of those small accordion thingys...I forget the name. In any event it turned out I was a better photographer than guitar picker so I put the guitar down and picked up my camera. Now I just pick for myself...one soon looses the performing edge when you don't practice and jam regularly.

Chuck

[CNelson]

Donald...I should add that if you play the 2007, 2008 or 2009 bluegrass festival galleries as a slide show you will hear music in the background. It was all composed and played by my friends who were in the band I used to play with. The amazing thing is that the music behind the 2007 and 2008 slideshows was composed by Dave Dalton and he is playing every instrument you hear and singing all the parts...he multitracks and turns himself into a one man band. I can't use professionally composed and played music on my website without dealing with copyrights and fees so these guys let me use their music for free. The music behind other slideshow on my website are provided free by the website host (Zenfolio).

Chuck

[JK6065]

I eventually found that a car show is not a really good place to shoot cars as they are all jammed together and people are everywhere so it's hard to get a clear shot let along a good angle.

It might sound strange but it's so true

I have to say you did a great job on the bluegrass site. Although I don't like some of the pp above I really like the "Jamin on mean street" photo shown on the front page of the site.
Did you approached them saying you have some photographs for them of how did you get in their picture?

[CNelson]

It might sound strange but it's so true

I have to say you did a great job on the bluegrass site. Although I don't like some of the pp above I really like the "Jamin on mean street" photo shown on the front page of the site.
Did you approached them saying you have some photographs for them of how did you get in their picture?

I attended the festival as a paying customer on the first year and made my images available to the promoters and bands to help promote the bands and the event in a severely depressed (economically) environment. Now they offer free tickets and I make images availabe to the festival organizers, bands, newspapers, etc and help them while getting a bit of credit. I've made images available to starving artists (like me) who make paintings from my images. I've become friends with the organizers and some of the bands and all is well. I am hoping that I may get some business from people looking for stock images but then I keep giving away to people who can't afford to pay. I shave a poor businessman every morning but I'm having a good time and hopefully contributing to the community.

Chuck