"Old West GS" - motorcycle HDR

[Mountain Drifter]

http://desertdave.smugmug.com/photos/663761279_pJfJP-L.jpg


Just learning and trying different techniques here. I was trying to get the look of an old painting from days gone by with the twist of a modern machine. Did I get close? I've been looking at it to long now to be objective anymore :lol:

[Gary McDuffie]

Nice job. Gives it a very interesting look. I think it is "near" painting look. I'm no expert on how to do it better though. :(

[fly my pretties]

Harsh processing

[kirkt]

Hope you don't mind, I attempted a couple of things. The current version has a large DOF with similar tones and values in the GS and the background. I tried to separate the GS from the background with a little fake DOF blur (Lens Blur and an alpha map made hastily with the pen tool) and a cooling filter on the background. This preserves the late sun glow on the GS, and separates it from the background. Also, I tried to reduce the contrast that gives the tonemapping a cartoonish look - I dialed that back a bit. Your original was pretty saturated, so I tried to preserve that idea, giving it almost a Leica kind of look. As a result of my edits, it looks like there is some posterization starting to appear in the sky.

Love the location and the BMW. You need some big ass hard-case boxes on the back!

Kirk

http://kirkt.smugmug.com/photos/680887079_Y5Msd-XL.jpg

[Mountain Drifter]

Hope you don't mind, I attempted a couple of things. The current version has a large DOF with similar tones and values in the GS and the background. I tried to separate the GS from the background with a little fake DOF blur (Lens Blur and an alpha map made hastily with the pen tool) and a cooling filter on the background. This preserves the late sun glow on the GS, and separates it from the background. Also, I tried to reduce the contrast that gives the tonemapping a cartoonish look - I dialed that back a bit. Your original was pretty saturated, so I tried to preserve that idea, giving it almost a Leica kind of look. As a result of my edits, it looks like there is some posterization starting to appear in the sky.

Love the location and the BMW. You need some big ass hard-case boxes on the back!

Kirk


I don't mind a bit! I really like your version and thanks for taking the time to explain what you did. I'm pretty new to this stuff and honestly photo editing in general. I'm pretty happy with my subtle HDR results on photos where you wouldn't even guess it's HDR, but this more surreal/fantasy type of look I'm just getting started, so your points are well taken.

As for DOF it's usually large as I'm currently using point and shoot cameras and it's hard to get the background blur outside of macro. I really like the look of the barn in focus, but after seeing what you did, the seperation really does work here. I've taken other photos of just the barn, I suppose I can just look at those when I want it to be the subject.

And for the hard bags, I'm currently running soft side panniers, lighter off road and they actually cushion the bike when it falls over :D

[R1200GS]

GS's are awesome. I like the pic to.

[cb1]

looks good, maybe saturate it in cs4?