Classics at the Capital

Check out some shots from the car show this past weekend here!

 

Post production: try something extreme

Where red cars look better white or black.

2013 Charger SRT red converted to white and black.

The other day I did some HDR (high dynamic range) shots of this 2013 Dodge Charger SRT for Auto Imaging at Lake Johnson.

When I started editing those photos, I didn’t love the results. I was using a combination of Photomatix Pro (to merge and adjust the five exposures) and Adobe Lightroom 4 (to adjust settings of the composite image). Once in Lightroom, the image didn’t have the pop and intensity I was looking for.

2013 Charger SRT Red

Since the color wasn’t doing what I wanted it to, I got rid of it. I made a virtual copy of the image and started going extreme with my settings. I clicked the “Black & White” button and started adjusting the B&W Mix. I thought, “It’s all digital, let’s see what happens if I move each color slider from one extreme to another?”

I moved the Red Slider to +100 and the red became white…Hmm, that looks pretty cool! I began tweaking from there to make the white look best. Below is the final product.

2013 Charger SRT red converted to white.

Then while writing this post, I went back to Lightroom to check which settings I adjusted, and took the Red Slider to -100…The car turned black and looked SICK! So I created another virtual copy and tweaked it to look best as a black car. Below is that completed image.

A 2013 Charger SRT converted from red to black.

You never know what your final image could look like until try something crazy, so give it a shot and share with me what you create!

Discovery Channel. Viper. Photos.

The 2013 Dodge Viper photographed for John Hendricks by Auto Imaging in Cary, NC.

Discovery Channel. Viper. Photos.

Makes sense that they go together, right?

Context: the Auto Imaging Team and myself were specially requested by John Hendricks, owner and creator of the Discovery Channel, to photograph his new 2013 Dodge Viper SRT. The Viper was bought from Hendrick (not related) Dodge of Cary, where the team and I work, for John Hendricks’ resort Gateway Canyons in Colorado. At this resort, clients can pick from their choice of high end cars for the day including the 2013 Viper, the Bentley Continental GTC or even the all electric Tesla Roadster (2 hour rental only!). See the full list of cars and costs here.

Hendricks somehow saw some of the photos from when we photographed a black and silver 2013 Viper a few weeks prior (seen below) and wanted us to do the same for the Viper he had just purchased. Needless to say we were excited to photograph it for him.

2013 Dodge Viper photographed by Auto Imaging in Cary, NC.

And here is the same shot produced for John Hendricks (below).

2013 Dodge Viper photographed for John Hendricks by Auto Imaging.