Images and Notes » Automobiles

’32 Lincoln

James Howe — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 23:12:06 +0000

(Nikon D700,70-300mm at 145mm, ISO 250, Exposure 1/500 @ f/8.0)

I was going through my Lightroom catalog spending some time adding keywords and looking at images that I had ignored in the past when I came across this shot I took of a 1932 Lincoln. The car was part of the Classic Car Club of America show held at the Gilmore Car Museum. I really like the look of some of these old cars, especially the swooping lines of the fenders over the wheels. When I saw the image in the catalog, I immediately thought it would look good with a more painted look. The way the clouds were reflecting on the fender already had a sort of painted look so I enhanced it by applying some Topaz Simplify to the entire image. Just for kicks I wondered how the image might look with a bit more contrast, so I took the image into Silver Efex Pro2 and choose one of the darker presets which added just the contrast that I wanted. The black and white conversion made the tail light too dark, so I masked out the conversion, and applied a separate black and white layer which made the red color lighter, not darker.

As always, your feedback, comments and questions are appreciated.

1957 Buick Century Caballero Estate Wagon

James Howe — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:06:43 +0000

(Nikon D-700, 28-300mm at 180mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/2000th sec @ f/5.6)

I’m slowly going back over some images that I shot over the summer to find ones that I either overlooked or never got a chance to work with. This image comes from the 2011 Concours d’Elegance of America show held at St. John’s near Plymouth, Michigan. The car is a 1957 Buick Century Caballero Estate Wagon. What caught my eye when I saw it was the interesting “Mint Green and Dover White” color scheme and interesting styling. As I was processing the image, the thought crossed my mind that the image sort of looks like the Eye of Horus with the exhaust ports being the eyebrow and the tire being the eye.

For processing I did two main things. The first was to correct some of the lens vignetting created by the 28-300mm lens. As convenient as this lens is with it’s wide focal range, it does exhibit vignetting and several focal lengths. Fortunately this was pretty easy to correct using the lens correction feature of Lightroom. The other thing I did was to use the Topaz Detail filter on ‘Abstraction’ to smooth out the image. This eliminated some reflections that I didn’t care for and made the image more about the lines and curves of the shot. I did mask over the effect on the faux exhaust ports and the tire.

Comments and feedback always appreciated!

1933 Packard V-12 Convertible Coupe

James Howe — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:25:31 +0000

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 200, Exposure 1/350 sec @ f/3.5)

Yesterday I posted an image of a 1935 Duesenberg taken at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall. This image was taken from the 2007 Concours and was my first time visiting the show. The car in this image is a 1933 Packard V-12 Convertible Coupe, and is just one of fifty that were ever built. When new, the car sold for $4,000, which in 1933 was a great deal of money.

For processing, I chose a similar approach to yesterday’s Duesenberg image. I was experimenting with the Cutout filter in Photoshop and I liked the posterization effect it gave to the image. In addition to the filter, I also blacked out some areas in the corners to bring more attention to the details of the car.

I’d be happy to know your thoughts on this one.

“Clark Gable” Duesenberg – 1935 Model JN Roadster

James Howe — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:32:08 +0000

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 200, Exposure 1/60 sec @ f/10)

The Deusenberg is one of my favorite classic automobiles. The car just exudes power and class, and the companies that did the coachwork created automobiles with wonderful details. I took this shot at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. The car is a 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Roadster with coachwork by Bohman and Schwartz. The car has an interesting history. According to information displayed with the car, the automobile was purchased for Clark Gable from his wife, Carole Lombard. Gable owned the car until 1942 until his wife’s death at which time it was given away with instructions that it never be seen in California while he was still alive.

When I took the shot, I was trying to capture the interesting lines of the wheel covers, the pin striping, the lights, etc. The raw image, with the grass and reflections of the people sort of distracted from the design elements. I could have blacked out the grass, but I still would have had to deal with the reflections. I decided to try something a bit more ‘artistic’ and experimented with using the Photoshop Cutout filter. The Cutout filter does a nice job of dramatically simplifying color gradations but it kept the key elements of the car intact. Compare the finished image above with the raw image below.

Finally, here is a full body shot. I used Topaz simplify to create more of a painted background look.

Got comments or questions? Feel free to leave them below.

Buick Roadmaster

James Howe — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:33:45 +0000

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 27mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100 Exposure 1/160th @ f/7.1)

I’ve been going through my Lightroom catalog looking for interesting things to post to my Google + account and I came across this shot that I took at the Gilmore Car Museum in 2008. The car is a Buick Skylark Roadmaster, but I don’t know the year. I’ve just always liked this shot, the combination of red, black and chrome.

The image didn’t quite start out with such a nice background. As seen below, the car was sitting on a driveway and you can see grass and pavement. The shape of the car was pretty easy to mask around, so basically I just blacked out all the parts that I didn’t like. I finished things up by desaturating some of the colors in the chrome on the bumper, especially to remove the green from the surrounding area. I think it makes the chrome stand out better.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or feedback below.

Maserati in Grand Central

James Howe — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:14:57 +0000

(Olympus E-3, 7-14mm at 8mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/6 @ f/4.0)

This shot was taken a couple of years ago when my wife and I were in New York City celebrating our anniversary. My wife had never been to Grand Central so we decided to check it out. On display in the main concourse was this Maserati Quattroporte automobile. I like shooting cars and architecture, so this seemed like a perfect combination! It was cloudy outside and there wasn’t a lot of bright light flooding Grand Central so the lighting wasn’t the greatest. I was using my Olympus E-3 which tends to be grainy at higher ISO’s so I stuck with ISO 100. The car was isolated from the unwashed masses with heavy velvet rope held up by a series of metal poles. I was able to set my camera on top of one of the poles to get this shot. The image is rather sharp even though the exposure was just 1/6th of a second.

Processing involved a couple of different things. First, I created a square crop to make the Maserati a strong element in the image. I also adjusted the white balance a bit, the original was just too yellow. I also like what it did with the hanging posters in the background. I used Topaz Adjust to bring out some detail, mostly in the floor. In an earlier version of this shot I also used Topaz Simplify in a mode which created more of a line drawing and combined that layer in luminosity mode which made for a ‘crunchier’ image. It looked ok, but it made the car too noisy and I decided that I didn’t like it. I finally settled on adding a bit of local contrast using PhotoTools, using it a a very low level to avoid halos. You can see what the image looked like out of camera below.

As always, I’d be interested in any feedback you might have.

’37 Cord 812 Sportsman Convertible

James Howe — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:50:38 +0000

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 122mm, ISO 200, 1/500 sec @ f/11)

The mid 30′s Cord automobile has long been a favorite of mine. The distinctive feature being the ‘coffin’ nose and on some models, exposed chrome exhausts. My favorite Cord designs are the model 810 and later. The 810 was introduced at the 1936 New York, Los Angeles and Chicago auto shows. The show car was unique in that it had copper accents. The show car is on display at the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg museum in Auburn, Indiana. The 810 was designed by noted car designer Gordon Buehrig. The 810 was originally going to be a 1935 Duesenberg but after incorporating a front wheel drive design, the vehicle was renamed the Cord 810.

The car above is a 1937 Cord 812 Sportsman Convertible automobile, on display at the 2011 Concours d’Elegance of America show held in Plymouth, Michigan. The 812 grew out of the 810 and was introduced in 1937. The 812 included a supercharger to increase horsepower, and featured the distinctive chrome exhaust pipes.

My main goal in processing this image was to draw attention to the two key details of the Cord, the exhaust pipes and the coffin nose. The original color shot (seen below) was a bit too bright, so I reduced the exposure in lightroom to bring back some details. The D-700 raw file is pretty forgiving of slightly overexposed images, you can generally reduce the exposure and have a nice shot, a benefit of ‘exposing to the right’. After some other minor cleanup in Lightroom, I used Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert the black and white. I think the end result sort of looks like an alien being, or the sort of car that an Imperial Stormtrooper might drive.

Here’s a final shot to give you an idea of what the full car looks like. I used Topaz Simplify to rework the background and used a layer mask to bring the car back to ‘normal’.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts, comments or questions.

Packard 8

James Howe — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:15:55 +0000

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 98mm, ISO 200, 1/1000 sec @ f/5.6)

Here’s another shot taken at the 2011 Concours d’Elegance of America held in Plymouth, Michigan. This one shows a detail of the engine cowling of a 1940 Packard 180 Convertible Victoria. The Packard Motor Car Company started life in 1899 as the Ohio Automobile Company. Packard started the company after accepting a challenge from Alexander Winton to build a better car than was being produced by the Winton Motor Carriage Company. The Winton company was one of the first companies to sell motor cars and Packard had complained to Winton about the quality of his car. Packard changed the name of his company to the Packard Motor Car Company in 1902 and moved to Detroit in 1903.

Not much to say in the way of processing. The main changes were to reduce the vibrance a bit to eliminate some of the blue sky which was reflecting in the chrome and to make some minor tweaks in contrast.

Here’s a quick shot of the full car:

Thoughts?

’58 Cadillac Eldorado

James Howe — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:16:32 +0000

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 33mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, 1/400 sec @ f/3.2)

I was spending some time going through my Lightroom catalog looking for some interesting images to post to my Google+ profile when I came across this image that I took in 2008. The car is a 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham and it was on display at the annual Eyes on Design car show held in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan. I don’t think I ever posted this image anywhere before, so here it is now!

If you compare the image to the raw image below, you will notice that a few things have been done to get to the final version. One of the first things I did was to remove all the grass surrounding the car, simply painting over it with a black brush. I used a couple of different HSL layers to remove some of the color which was reflected in the chrome. I wanted the chrome to look more silver than either green or blue. I used Topaz Simplify to give the body a somewhat HDR look, but I masked the effect elsewhere. Finished it off with a bit of sharpening and that was it.

Please feel free to leave any feedback you might have below. Thanks!

Gold – 1933 Plymouth PC Sedan Hood Ornament

James Howe — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:01:25 +0000

(Nikon D700, 105mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/60 sec @ f/16)

I took this picture of a 1933 Plymouth hood ornament during the 2011 Motor Muster held at Greenfield Village. The gentleman who owned the car gave me some information on the history and evolution of Plymouth hood ornaments. The 1933 had the flying figure and by 1934 they had switched to a stylized sailing ship. The key bit of information was that the 1933 ornament actually used gold in the medallion. True or not I thought the ornament was pretty cool. I took the shot with a 105mm macro lens that I had rented. I have a couple other shots which used a more open aperture, but the field of focus was too thin. I closed it down to f16 for this shot and managed to get more of the ornament in focus. Sometimes razor thin DOF looks cool, but for this sort of shot I prefer to see more detail.

Processing of the image was fairly simple. The first thing I did was give the image more of a square crop. There was too much dark space at the top of the image which didn’t really add anything of value. Similarly there was a dark corner in the bottom right that also didn’t really add anything. After cropping I used a HSL layer in Photoshop to remove some of the green and blue from the reflections of the trees and sky on the hood and used a layer mask to restore the color to the medallion. In general when I’m shooting cars outside, I’ll try to remove some of the color from any chrome. I prefer that my chrome be more silver than whatever color is being reflected in it.