Picture that I won a contest with

[Henry Low]

Hi guys, i recently won this photography contest that was organized with the BC Photography Salon and Mercedez Benz Canada. This contest was held inside a showroom with models. There were hundreds of photographers~! Trying to get a good photo with out 20 phtoographers in front of me was the biggest challenge, and time was very limited. But it was really fun. It was held in the summer. THe prize was to get to drive any Mercedez car for amonth (Except the SL and S class) and i choose the smart car (owned by MB) lol. and I alson won $300 cash prize and a trip for two for Victoria in Vancouve Island.

Anyweho it was a great experence. Here is the winning photo.

Its really a glamour picture, but I couldnt post in the Glamour message board!

Anywho, cant wait until the next contest which is held in Richmond BC Canada in aberdeen center on November 8th! If u are local, do come by!

Heres the before the photoshop, and after.

http://www.henrylow.com/benz/sidebenz1.jpg
http://www.henrylow.com/benz/sidebenz2.jpg

[skade]

Congrats on your win! That's some great prizes you got there!

[Shutter22]

Very neat. Interestong pose for the model. Wise choice for the Smart Car! How I want to drive one. Yet American specs still won't let them in. I believe they're releasing the coop for '06? Maybe
'07. I can never remember. Anyways, congrats on the prize!

[Henry Low]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies

Heres the cover for the photographs that I submitted.

Before and After!
I did alot of masking and airbrushing to get rid of the door shadow. Lots of raw processing and layers.

http://www.henrylow.com/benz/cover2.jpg
http://www.henrylow.com/benz/cover.jpg

[symes]

You have really done some fantastic PP work here...do you mind giving us a little insight on how you did it?

Cheers,

[KaplanMultimedia]

That car looks like it's going to be amazing to drive. I really like the way you processed these images. It really added a lot. Congratulations.

[PEACHMAN]

Wow..don't you just love winning?...and you did it in style!!congradulations, and well deserved!

[Andy_T]

Henry,

awesome images, but what a choice on the car :shock:
BTW, what's a 'Mercedezes' :wink:

Best regards,
Andy

[berto]

congratulations, Henry. good edit work on your photos.

[Stevie@JC]

Excellant shot mate an congrats


but na let me loose in a SL55 AMG for a month!
stick the smart car lol

[SolPics]

Nice shot and Congrats! Really good job on the post processing.

[Henry Low]

Thanks for the comments. The smart car i took was a convertable. :) Having alot of fun driving to school with it. It actually drives really well, esepcialyl with the low profile tires and 16inch rims. :) Heated seats too! :)

[Henry Low]

Bascially for the photos I wanted to create a very glamourous look to make my photos stand out relative to everyone elses. I wanted flare so I played with lighting. I used the air brush alot in photoshop. To create the dyanmic lighting look I had to create some "fake" dyanmic range using photoshop by doing masking and leveling after. For the first picture, I wanted to make the model look sweaty to create that "hot seductive" feel to the photo so I isolated the skin of the model and stretched the levels to have that very dynamic look. It automatically made the skin look "Sweaty" and also made her look skinnier too because it exaggerated the curves in her skin (especially around the collar bone area where it created more depth which automatically made her look skinnier". The main thing was that I didnt want to use the clone tool to make her look skinnier. ITs amazing how lighting can make such a big difference. I think alot of photographers these days edit the images mainly using the clone tool, but many of the same results can be done just by changing the lighting, while creating a different look.

I hope what I said made sense, its late at night lol. anywho. Happy shooting.

[Salleke]

WOW! great pictures and congratulations.

[i2iSTUDIOS]

congrats, why did you choose the smart car though?

[Titus213]

To be honest I didn't see much in the original. Then I scrolled down and saw what you did with it. Amazing. Very good eye on both the posts to come up with the final product. Obviously very good post processing skills to match your good eye for a photo.

[DimensionZero]

Great shot!

I was wondering though, where did you hear about this event? Didn't notice this anywhere. I'll definitely check out the next one at Aberdeen :)

[bitbytes9]

congradulation ~

[JohnnyG]

Congratulations for a stunning photo and for the win!

[joekr]

awesome photoshop work!!! Congrats on the win!

[Henry Low]

To sign up for the contest in Aberdeen on Nov9th, u gotta go down to Aberdeen Broadway camera store to pick up the form, I am not 100 percent sure if u can sign up at the door.

Thansk for the comments :)

[Henry Low]

congrats, why did you choose the smart car though?

Cause I thought it was a "smart" choice. lol. I think its more rewarding to drive a Benz when i can actually afford to own one. :)

[learjet035]

Just curious, did you use a tablet for your airbrushing or just your mouse. I really like how these turned out!

[Henry Low]

thanks for the compliment.

I used the mouse. My tablet pen was in for repair. Using the mouse I had to be alot more careful and work alot slower, but it still works. I could imagine having my pen to work with it would have saved me ALOT of time.

[rickc]

Nicely done. Interesting poses, combined with unusual effects. Were you using CS?

[Henry Low]

Yes indeed, I was using CS.

I think you could have done the same with Photoshop 7 because I did not use any of the new features foudn in CSOne or CSTwo

[RAW]

Bascially for the photos I wanted to create a very glamourous look to make my photos stand out relative to everyone elses. I wanted flare so I played with lighting. I used the air brush alot in photoshop. To create the dyanmic lighting look I had to create some "fake" dyanmic range using photoshop by doing masking and leveling after. For the first picture, I wanted to make the model look sweaty to create that "hot seductive" feel to the photo so I isolated the skin of the model and stretched the levels to have that very dynamic look. It automatically made the skin look "Sweaty" and also made her look skinnier too because it exaggerated the curves in her skin (especially around the collar bone area where it created more depth which automatically made her look skinnier". The main thing was that I didnt want to use the clone tool to make her look skinnier. ITs amazing how lighting can make such a big difference. I think alot of photographers these days edit the images mainly using the clone tool, but many of the same results can be done just by changing the lighting, while creating a different look.

I hope what I said made sense, its late at night lol. anywho. Happy shooting.



Thank you for your explanation on how you post processed your shot. I wanna add that you did an exelent job which makes me look like a kid lost in a land of dreams. If I try to do this on photoshop I know I won't be able to, unles I have a step by step tutorial. Is there such a site where I could learn this things?

I have PS7 by the way...

Did you work with layers here?

Thanks for your help again...

I do portrait photography and the pro that I work with asks me to post proccess the photos and all I do is use the healing brush and some level correction. Sometimes some USM, but I would love to learn this kinda stuning work so I will suprise him with my results and hopefully get a full time job with him as his partner ( I work as his assistant right now.)...



My best regards,