A repeat (I know!) of an earlier shot but these are fun shots to set up. I borrowed my wife's 1992 BMW 325i convertible again, tied my tripod into the backseat of the car using rope, and set up the camera with a remote shutter release. This time I had my son Charlie help out holding the tripod and hitting the shutter release when I said 'GO!". Hoping that this will not be pounded too badly for being a 'remake'. Setup for Shot Description
Editing:
1. Shot in RAW, converted using CS4 with slight adjustment to vibrancy and saturation and curves, converted to JPEG. 2. Generated two duplicate layers
3. On one used Topaz Adjust Portrait Smooth to smooth the motion
4. on the second used Topaz Adjust Clarity to sharpen the car.
5. Masked each and used opacity adjustments to get the final look.
6. Merged layers and adjusted Hue/Saturation.
7. Minor "sponge" to saturate the yellow line.
8. Added another dup layer for the road to darken and adjust hue/saturation.
9. Resized and performed Adamus sharpening, followed by resize for web.
10. Added border and text (after searching BMW Car ads for ideas)
Please Note: "BMW" and "The Ultimate Driving Machine" are all registered with the BMW motor company.
[May. 31st, 2009 12:14:09 PM]
The comments have been awesome and helpful all around. I agree with the comment about the image being slightly off kilter with relation to the car - I hadn't noticed it until it was mentioned...good catch. Also, the comments about font size - I reviewed a lot of BMW ads online before I decided on the final edit - the small size is typical for BMW - understated yet obnoxious - so I went small and funny. Cheers!
Post Challenge: The Blue! How cool is that especially given all the awesome shots in the challenge - I expected senor_kasper to put something awesome together - and he did along with many others.
Thanks for all the tremendous comments during and after voting. Yep, it was a remake but I guess you have to practice to get things the way you want.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 68 Avg (all users): 7.6108 Avg (commenters): 8.8261 Avg (participants): 7.1613 Avg (non-participants): 7.7132 Views since voting: 11656 Views during voting: 505 Votes: 167 Comments: 64 Favorites: 28 (view)
Great shot. Maybe the text should be more FUN/excitement per gallon (because it sure eats up a lot of gas), hehe. I only say this as an owner ('08 3 series)and the roads here in Germany are great for this car!
Ah, if only I could remake a few of mine and ribbon with 'em... :-) Looks like it is indeed a fun shot to get - and that's more than half the joy of it, isn't it? Congrats!
WOW .. !!!!!!!! .. this is just TOO GOOD .. !!!
you've taken the most amazing photograph .. i can feel the motion .. insane . !!
everything is perfect ..
your text is inspired .. excellent font and size & its the placement ..
oh .. CONGRATS ON THE BLUE AND AN AMAZING SCORE ..:)
I love this professional looking image that would look beautiful in any high-end magazine! Congratulations on winning a blue. Thanks for sharing your editing techniques, too!!
I'll be honest and tell you I gave it one of those 4's. Not because I thought it was poor, because it is not. Normally I would have probably given it a 7. I was trying to understand the people who normally vote low on good entries and I was trying to vote on a scale of don't like<--->like instead of bad<--->good. It was an interesting experiment and I gave low and mediocre votes to some killer shots, while some lesser pics that appealed to me got higher votes. This looks exactly like an ad I would see in a glossy magazine, and also one that I would turn past without a second glance. Glad to see my experiment didn't hold it back any. I didn't think it would.
Totally something I would see in a car ad. It makes me go WoW! What a cool drive in a cool car. Like how your text is small and allows the advertisment to speak for itself. Nicely done. I'll try not to hit any more wrong keys. =)
At first, I didnt think this was a BMW, but I knew I had see this before. I am assuming this is bassbone, as I just saw a similar photo on your portfolio, and after reading the description, I see that this is a Beemer. Great photo, and my choice for the blue (my only 10). Good luck.
There is a lot about this I like. The location is great, I love the fact that despite all the motion blur you have that solid looking yellow line right down the middle leading away into the distance. The solid red colour of the car sits in nice contrast to the surroundings.
The text is just a tiny bit small for me, but it's far better that way than too large which it is in a lot of the others.
A couple of people tried this, but you pulled it off by far the best. A really well executed image of movement, and one that fits the challenge exceptionally well. Something I could easily see on a billboard.
Compared to a similar image, I think this is nicely done. Nice conveyance of motion, and nice POV helps the viewer visualize being in the car and "experiencing the ultimate driving machine." Well done.
One of my top three picks. Your image is one of the very few in this challenge that I feel actually looks like an advertisement, instead of a photo trying to look like an advertisement. I love the colors, the motion, the contrast... I also very much like the placement and color of the text, and I think that the statement really fits with the feeling of the photo. If I had to nitpick a little, I can't help but feel that the left side of the car is tilted down a bit, and it's a tad bit distracting, but otherwise this is a very perfect entry, both as a photo and as an advertisement.
The Ultimate Driving Machine
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