Automotive composites - critique's wanted

[Neillo]

Hey all, long time member but this is my first upload for a critique. I am a print/press artworker by day and occasionally get to do some retouching for my client (Mitsubishi Motors UK). But this upload (and a few others to come) have been the first set of proper retouching/compositing projects I have been given in an official capacity - although I do lots of smaller retouching things for them in a more 'backroom, file versatility' capacity.

Brief from client was to create a set of Dawn, Day, Dusk, Night images of a static Winter scene which could be used either in print or web.

As stated, these are my first retouching projects, there are things I would change or tweak, but the client is happy with them and I just wanted to show you guys the work too and maybe get some feedback.

http://flic.kr/p/aEQ4vV

cheers
Neill

[vdsq]

Hi.
Nice work but:
1. reflection on the car is from original image;
2. tires, bottom part - to much snow/splash in front of them. It looks like car is breaking in deep/fresh snow.
Motion blur = wheels are spinning - i think you need more tire thread there.
3. front right tire - why so little snow on lateral/back-front? wheel rotation will make that part round and even.
4. low left part of the windshield - too much white there. reflection is also off. Maybe because top right corner is too dark from lateral windows.
5. perfect sharp car body - you have to have same part of the car with minor blur on (motion blur, camera shake, dof). To make things realistic you have to create same minor imperfection.

[Repairman]

Some nice things going on there Neill, especially the ambience. In addition to the above, your shadows are all over the place - take your clues from the tree shadows and carry that through to the vehicle. Some hilights on the bonnet shouldn't be there (dusk). The perspective isn't quite resolved either. I wouldn't expect the left/right distortion to be so severe given the (notional) position of the photographer. You could have had a bit more fun bouncing those headlights off the deck aswell! Anyways, plenty in there to be pleased with so stick at it.

[Neillo]

Smashing, cheers both for the comments - yes plenty to digest there. I'm pretty raw to all this so being picked up on specific areas to look at or things to watch out for is a good learning curve for me. Lack of time and source files all played a part here, but no doubt that is a regular bug-bare to retouchers so I'll not use that as an excuse - just a lack of knowledge on my part.

[kav]

Hehe.. i've been playing around with modeling cars lately. It's a pain in the ass getting the lines right without cad source data.

On the dusky shots the dark colors in the background are significantly colder and darker, giving a higher contrast feel than areas like the tires down to where they hit the ground. It's just that the range of density is so much wider on one than the other. I know they shouldn't be exactly the same as you want to emphasize the car. This kind of thing could also happen in a non composited shot to a degree with a vehicle heavily lit on location as it could be much brighter than what it's up against, but perhaps the tires could feel a bit more connected to the ground toward the very bottom without killing the really nice detail of them. The shadows beneath the truck are just kind of all over the place to a degree. While you're probably better at this kind of work than myself, if I had to do something like this, I'd probably look for photo references to study the shadows. Even just a little lighting adjustment could probably go a long way with this. The hue of the car paint seems to shift quite a bit over the vehicle. Having some of this is normal, but I would guess you'd want this to be fairly controlled.

I'm not sure if you feel like mentioning this, but how did you source the snow + tire tracks in the road? I'm just wondering. They have quite a bit of detail.

[Neillo]

Thanks Kav... yep, there's plenty wrong with the whole set of shots and feedback is vital if I want to learn more about retouching. Source image for the truck wasn't a clean studio shot but was taken from a dusty desert image, so there was sand and all sorts of shit flying up around the tyres - hence the reason they look so ropey. Snow and tire track shots were sourced from a stock image library we have access to.

Time was most definitely a major factor here, and the fact that I still had to do my normal 'day job' workload at the same time, so it was a case of having to dip in and out of these retouch jobs as and when I had chance. But as you say, shadows are all wrong and vehicle lighting is all off kilter. I think next time I'll not try and overstretch myself... my abilities are clearly not there yet. In total I had 5 vehicle sets to retouch each of them having a DawnDayDuskNight rendition, so it was kinda rushed with a 'that'll do' mentality. My Bad Many thanks again for all responses and feedback, very much appreciated.

Neill

[kav]

I liked your work. I wasn't shooting it down, and I don't think it will generate hate mail from your client . Most of the work appeared to be quite clean, meaning that applying some adjustments and finishing to them would not be terrible if you know what direction you want to go.

I haven't worked on cars before. If I had to do one, it would take me a lot of reference material.