Just a few shots over the last few months.

Great pictures especially this one:

 

totally agree desktop worthy!

 

Great info :applause2: and I understand what you mean about being a personal taste, I think the pictures turn out fantastic but I can see where people get ticked off when others say that that's the way the picture came out...actually as a mater of fact, this is how ignorant I am when it comes to editing images and what not. I used to look at these types of pictures and say man I wish I had a camera that could take pictures like that hahahahaha.

I guess the draw back is when others try to pass images like these as there own and claim that that's how it came out lol...oh well thanks for sharing good info :thumb:

 

I'm with Nica about being torn about the "cheating"issue. I mean what if a guy is an incredible detailer and does a phenomenal job on a car and takes his first $109 digital point and shoot camera and snaps a pic when he finishes. He has no photography skills and a cheap camera so his picture does absolutely no justice to how the car actually looks. The car make look better than anything any of us have seen but he just has a cheap camera and no photography skills so it looks like a good job instead of an incredible job.

Now take a detailer that has good skills and does a good job on a car but he has a $2000 camera set up and very good photography skills. He knows how to get the best lighting and composition with what he has and can make the pic right out of the camera look as good or better than it does in person. He actually made the car look better by manipulation of settings in the camera but the pic is straight from the camera.

Is it really fair to judge each one's detailing skills based on the pics? Is it that bad if the first guy does a little editing to get the pic of the car to look like the car did when he was standing there? If he does that does it put both guys on more level playing field?

I know some guys on here have incredible photography skills and equipment so does that automatically give them a leg up on the others when posting? Just a thought.

 

See that describes me ... cheap camera and shite for photography skillz!

 

I hear you Wolf, but to be honest with me pictures are just that..heck I've detailed a vehicle which the camera did not campture the swirls I could not remove...in person it looked bad and I felt ashamed of my self :acry2: but when it comes to competition and what not I'll be honest images do play a role as that's all we got to go by but there is more...I mean you can tell from someone who know's what they are doing compared to editing images...well at least I can..oh not on the editing part becuaes I'm clueless when it comes to that part but when the person speaks of how he uses the products/process well that's where they give them selves away.

I don't pretend to have all the answers but to me it comes down to trust and honor, I trust everyone here till they prove them selves or are proven otherwise, I know that that's not the way the world see's things and unfortunetly there are people out there that take advantage of such trust but life is to short to worry about thos scammers....I don't know that's just my personal take on it.

Besides I like the saying, one man can never know it all but a smart man would soround him self with people that know more then him I like that saying becuase it's so true. I know a bit but not as much as some of you so I rely on that and when you guys share opinion/feed back well that's what the forum is all about sharing opinion and that's how you learn but I like to soround my self with knolegable individuals...um..that's a compliment to all..just in case anyone mist it :whistle:

Hmmm...I wonder how the Lexus would like with some HDR editing hmm...:thinking: lol.

 

lol..he's on to you Motor hahahahaha just teasing eace:

 

he always is...lol

Well good thing the vehicles look better in person or I'd be in some trouble...lol

 

I hear you Nica and that's why I don't envy the judges in the monthly contests. You guys know enough though to be skeptical and that's where we contestants are lucky. Although I may not have the skills to manipulate the settings on my camera to get the truely best pictures I have learned a ton about composition from seeing some of the shots on here and I think that plays as much a role in a "perfect" picture as the right aperature, film speed, etc.

I was just kind of thinking out loud before because I have often wondered what some of my details would look like in a picture if a true photographer could capture it.

I wish I knew more about editing photos because I would love to have some of my car look like those that 04 posted. Heck I'm good if I can get rid of red eye when my wife uses the wrong flash setting!

 

Nice pics!

Man I miss Vegas.....

 

Yea I was thinking the exact same thing, or like the buildings one man I'd love to be able to do that and frame them at home, wife bugs me about that all the time..well I'm sure if I do more reading I can get it but all in due time..besides now that 04 is here he can give us the low down on how to do it and we can run to him if we get stuck...between Scott and 04 me thinks we are set :applause2: :applause2:

04 and Scott you guys are DB members for life :deal: :deal:

 

here 4ever....even when i go to photography school in cali...i will share all my wisdom on the fine art

 

Nice..look forward to it :applause2: :applause2: we'll have wicked detailers and edumacated photographers :thumb:

 

Any of you that would like some HDR stuff done, PM them to me and I'll play with it.

They won't be as nice as the ones in this thread, because you need to take the pictures the right way for HDR, but I can still get some cool tone mapping and semi-HDR stuff going.

Besides I always can use new pics to practice with.

/thread jack lol

 

Here is a question, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the XTi Rebel along with other cameras would take all three pictures at once? Or am I think of taking three consecutive pictures? I could have sworn I read that the XTi can take one under exposed, normal, over exposed picture? Is that correct? Sorry don't mean to jack as well but it's kinda related :whistle:

Okay so if the camera can not do the three images what settings do you guys change? Just how much light is allowed in the lense?

 

I actually ordered both Photomatix and the plug in for Photoshop. I found a 15% coupon online so I couldn't resist. Although I can't get the plug in for Photoshop to work. So i need to figure that out...

 

is the plug in really needed?

 

^ Not really. I bought Photomatix Pro. It was $99 by itself, and with the plug in it was $119. So after the 15% off it came out to just over $100. So I went ahead and got the plug in. As far as needing the plug in, I thought it would be easier to just transfer after merging all the photos to do the tonemapping and and Photoshop touchups in the same screen. It really isn't a big deal, saving then going over into Photoshop isn't a big deal. I couldn't be happier with Photomatix.

 

WOW!! :druling: Very impressive pics!

 

cool thanks man