1957 Buick Century ‘Caballero’ Wagon #2
by James Howe on Sep.21, 2011, under Automotive
(Nikon D700 28-300mm at 28mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/2000 sec @ f/5.6)
Yesterday I posted a detail shot from this 1957 Buick Century Wagon which I saw at the 2011 Concours d’Elegance of America show at St. Johns. It seemed to be popular so I’m posting a couple more shots today. The shot above shows another detail element of the car and the picture below gives you a look at the entire car. Processing on the first image was similar to yesterday’s shot. I used Topaz Detail on ‘Abstraction’ to smooth out some of the details, mostly in the paint, and then masked out the key elements such as the chrome ‘Caballero’ badge. For the bottom image, I used Topaz Simplify to make the background more abstract and painterly, but I masked out the car itself.
Your comments are welcome and much appreciated!
Copyright ©2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
1957 Buick Century Caballero Estate Wagon
by James Howe on Sep.19, 2011, under Automobiles
(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!
Copyright © 2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Guggenheim Museum – New York City
by James Howe on Sep.16, 2011, under Architecture
(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/200 sec @ f/4.5)
This is a shot of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City that I took a couple of years ago. It’s actually a panorama created from three shots (the original pano is shown below). I’ve actually been working on variations of this image since I took it. I’ve played around with a variety of ideas. I recently purchased theTopaz Labs Detail plugin and I experimented with it on this image. I boosted the detail of most of the image and then masked out the building. It gave the colored elements of the shot an interesting look, especially the taxi. However, at a smaller size the image looked to ‘crunchy’. So I then applyed Topaz Simplify and again masked out the building to create the final image. I still like the funky look of the yellow cab and I’ve always liked the way Simplify works on people as a way of de-emphasizing them.
As always, would love to hear your thoughts or questions.
Copyright ©2009-2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
1933 Packard V-12 Convertible Coupe
by James Howe on Sep.09, 2011, under Automobiles
(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.
Copyright ©2007-2022 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
“Clark Gable” Duesenberg – 1935 Model JN Roadster
by James Howe on Sep.08, 2011, under Automobiles
(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.
Copyright ©2008-2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved