Mar 06 Contest Discussion

[T Paul]

Add your comments, questions or general discussion about the March Contest entries as well as the contest itself here. This is also a great place to share your techniques or ask others about theirs.

[T Paul]

I will post the contest rules and image later tonight.

[T Paul]

I will accept replacing the car's license tag or removing it. I just don't want the original one used.

[PhotoB]

I can't get the image to load?

[Kraellin]

hehe, this is going to be devious. already the entries are showing how hard this is going to be to judge. and i was waiting for one with tinted windows...hehehe...cheater!

craig

[LonK]

Mwah? I actually did a lot of work on the interior. Once I got to a point where the whole thing looked OK to me, I paid a bit more attention to the plethora of car ads on TV and looked around at some major car sites. Didn't take long to realize that tinted windows are pretty much the norm for car ads. I suppose it's often done to disquise an occupant, but more likely because they're selling the exterior style. Hard to say, as I've never done car pix. What surprised me in a couple of the other entries was that the driver's reflection remained in the interior rear view mirror. (There goes my claim to paying attention to detail ) Anyway, this was fun and I look forward to more entries. There's a lot more work to this kind of thing than I ever imagined.

[Kraellin]

There's a lot more work to this kind of thing than I ever imagined.

and that's one of the reasons i said this was going to be devious. there are reflections and 'lights' all over the place. if you're really going to remove all signs of the street, then i would say you have to remove all signs of the street lighting. ok, that's nit-picky to death, but studio lighting would be different.

the reflections, the glares, the shadows, the interior where the guy was sitting...it's a lot more work than one might first think. and all that glass...ugh! i think T has been taking lessons from Ro in sadism i may have to enter just so i can play judge.

(btw, lonnie, i think you set the standard here so far. excellent work!)

craig

[LonK]

Can't speak to devious, as your comment was valid. And I agree about the complex nature of this challenge. To reiterate, it's my first contest entry here at RP. My initial thought was to wait 'til the last minute to submit as a comparative challenge of this type would seem to favor those who do so since they can tweak their submission based on previous entries. Being a compulsive person though, I just jumped in the frey when I was happy with my initial result. Winning has never really been an impetus for my efforts. I just love doing the work. Furthermore, I probably will be disqualified since I took liberties with the "white background" instruction. I figured the license plate thing had already done that, but TPaul ultimately allowed that flexibility.

Let me just say that I'm anxious to see your entry, Craig.

[Doug Colwell]

Originally Posted by LonK

What surprised me in a couple of the other entries was that the driver's reflection remained in the interior rear view mirror.

I think physics suggests that the reflection is of a passenger, and I know one of the contestants snuck himself into a ferarri.

[LonK]

Dang, I knew there was a logical explanation. So much for my visualization skills (P.S. Actually, that's me! I hid in the back seat. Sorry to be so intrusive.)

[Lorraine]

It took me a week to figure out the that the car is a Ferrari

PS to Craig -- tinted windshields and front side windows are illegal in New Jersey. Semi-tinted mine just to be legal.

Lorraine

[Kraellin]

lorraine,

craig

[InfiniteMonkey]

Hi there, just posted my entry and thought I'd pop in and say hi. It certainly was a toughy. The reflection in the rear passanger window drove me to distraction. I didn't want to just tint it, but had no real ideas as to what to put in as detail. Nightmare. It was interesting to see how other people treated the reflections as a whole. It just goes to show, there's never a right or wrong way to go about retouching. That's what i love about it. Certainly got the old grey cells working.
If nothing else, I've really enjoyed the challange and will hopefully make some new friends. Good luck everyone!

[studioj]

I'm loving this challengue, this is my first and I have not finished. Could we ad a little tunning? It will see great with some neon lights below or inside.

Also MOMO wheel

[Cameraken]

Could we ad a little tunning?

Well mine hasn’t been thrown out (yet). But I just changed the tyres.


Ken.

[Lorraine]

I just wanted to welcome the new people here -- LonK, InfiniteMonkey and studioj.

LonK and Mr. Monkey -- nice work.

studioj -- I'm looking forward to your neon submission and/or whatever you want to do with the wheels.

Lorraine (still staying legal to the USA motor vehicle laws).

[studioj]

Don't expect much, I'm delaying my entry cauze have a lot of work to do, and I can't have fun

Don't like that

[studioj]

Ok, I finished my Ferrari, Doesn't have neon lights, well, It haves but I didn't turn they on for the picture

[Gigadals]

Hi everyone, i'm a newbie here, and a newbie to photoshop too.. hope everybody / anybody can teach me more..

the image was a nightmare! all those reflections, i did'nt even know where to start, so i just changed the color and tinted the windshield, sorry bout that.

oh, i loved every minute of the contest...

hoolah!

Gigadals

[studioj]

Welcome to RP Gigadals, you will find this site very interesting, I have something like 2 months here and I didn't stop reading about everything, you can learn a lot from the posts and the tutorials.

Have fun

[Gigadals]

hi again everyone..

i was wondering how you extracted the ferrari from the background. i personally like using the quick mask, but it takes awfully lot of time to extract. can anyone suggest a faster way?

tanx a lot guys!

Gigadals

[RL Design]

Did everything by hand myself... but I can mask fairly quickly, expecially when the object has smooth lines. I do use a stylus as well.

[Duv]

When I have something will strong well defined lines, I find the Pen Tool does and awesome job.

Dave

[studioj]

I resize the image at least 200% and then use the pen tool, once I finish, I create a mask from the working path that I created and use the "feader" (don't remember the correct spelling of that) of 1 or 2 pixels to soften the edge, now I remove or hide the background.

And then I resize again down

[KR1156]

studioj.....great job on the interior.

[studioj]

Thanks!

Goofing around, I tryed a different interio, buuuuuut, this will not be retouching, isn't?

[InfiniteMonkey]

ok, here we go. This is how I like to create masks. I find it quite effective and also quite flexible. First you increase the image by 200% then create a path. Make the selection and go to quick mask mode. Once there I blur the mask. How much depends on the size of the image. Once it has been blurred I go to curves and adjust the contrast until the mask, visually, cuts into the image by about a pixel. Then I switch back to selection mode and apply the mask. Done. Nice and neat. Probably a bit over complicated but I've been using it for a while and it's always worked fantastically for me.

[Lorraine]

Originally Posted by Gigadals

hi again everyone..

i was wondering how you extracted the ferrari from the background. i personally like using the quick mask, but it takes awfully lot of time to extract. can anyone suggest a faster way?

tanx a lot guys!

Gigadals

Normally, I avoid masks until the very end when I have to detail the finest points, and then use the layer mask. For most of the extractions, I use the selection tools and the eraser. Also, I use a Wacom.

Lorraine

[moonwriter]

This is my first contests, hope everyone is having fun with the challenge. I had a time with the windows, trying to make them look as real as possible and still capturing the items behind them. Allen

[ferdberfel]

Then decided I'd rather shoot on black plexi! AWESOME!