1936 Cord Convertible Coupe

(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 19mm – 2x crop factor, Exposure 1/60th @ f/5.6, ISO 250)

One of my favorite cars of all time is the 1936 Cord. It has really great lines, cool chrome exhausts and I love the ‘coffin nose’ hood. This particular Cord is a 1936 Cord Convertible Coupe and it one of many vintage Cord’s that are on display at the Auburn, Cord, Dusenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana. Not only does the museum have Cord automobiles of different vintages, they have a wonderful collection of Auburns, Dusenbergs and other classic automobiles. The museum is housed in the original Auburn Automobile Company factory and headquarters. The main floor of the museum occupies the old showroom. This particular cord is displayed on a rotating platform, much as it might have been when it was on display in the original showroom.

Taking pictures of cars in a museum is about as difficult as taking pictures at car shows. Unless you have special permission, you really can’t do much to control the light or other factors. I was pretty fortunate with this shot that the car was being displayed in a ‘natural’ environment for the car and there we’re too many distracting ropes or signs surrounding it. There was one cable, or something, that appears in the original image which required removal. For the rest of the processing, In Photoshop, I used the Topaz Simplify filter on the ‘Buz Sim’ preset to create an image which looked more like an abstract painting. The filter removes details and gives the image a slightly hand crafted look. Since I wanted to emphasize the car, I used a layer mask to remove the effect from the car itself. I also reduced the opacity a bit on the sign which appears just outside of the building on the right. The sign is a historical marker which talks about the building. I wanted the text to be readable, but I wanted the other exterior elements to be more abstract and less of a distraction.

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