color/crop help on car picture

[willg]

ok here is the full frame version pretty much unaltered
http://www.spideronthefloor.com/upload/files/zback.jpg

here is with the levels adjusted so the sky is black and that seemed to change the color of the car a bit...i kind of like it:
http://www.spideronthefloor.com/upload/files/zback2.jpg


and now the question is how to crop for a big print 8x10 seems to completely alter the image:
http://www.spideronthefloor.com/upload/files/zback2crop.jpg


what do you guys think?

[Tyger]

you could probably lose a little at the top to adjust it to 8x10.

[MarioD]

Hi willg

I'm no expert by any means but I find the background takes the attention away from an otherwise nice and sharp shot


Mario

[scottwills]

It's a great shot -- the car looks great at this angle -- but Mario has a good point. You might like to try it with a different depth of field. This is just a suggestion:


http://www.scottwills.co.uk/temp/_car.jpg

[blue_max]

It's a great shot -- the car looks great at this angle -- but Mario has a good point. You might like to try it with a different depth of field. This is just a suggestion:


http://www.scottwills.co.uk/temp/_car.jpg


On the money Scott! Result!

Graham

[Radtech1]

This is where I might have gone:

When you put in a DOF, you have to take the good with the bad, that is, if your subject extends to 15 feet away, and you want the whole subject within the DOF, THEN the 15 feet non-subjectareas must be in the DOF. That is why Scottwills shot looks so fake. The stripe is out of focus, even though it is as close as the car.

What I did was separated the background into 3 "distance fields", and applied progressively more blur, the further away. Just like a real lens would.

Also, I desaturated the distant objects some. With real bokeh, you find the blurred object loose some intensity.

I got rid of the buildings. No explanation should be needed for that.

I lightly applied PS's "lighting effects", to give the feel that the car is under a streetlight.

I hope that some of the techniques are helpful to you.

Rad

[willg]

This is where I might have gone:

When you put in a DOF, you have to take the good with the bad, that is, if your subject extends to 15 feet away, and you want the whole subject within the DOF, THEN the 15 feet non-subjectareas must be in the DOF. That is why Scottwills shot looks so fake. The stripe is out of focus, even though it is as close as the car.

What I did was separated the background into 3 "distance fields", and applied progressively more blur, the further away. Just like a real lens would.

Also, I desaturated the distant objects some. With real bokeh, you find the blurred object loose some intensity.

I got rid of the buildings. No explanation should be needed for that.

I lightly applied PS's "lighting effects", to give the feel that the car is under a streetlight.

I hope that some of the techniques are helpful to you.

Rad

thats right on the money...the other one although it looks cool, looks very fake

[tim]

Print it 8*12 and the problem goes away.

[willg]

or 12x18 :)

[anttor]

i fixed the color on photoshop, it looked a bit warm, i also sharpened it.

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3858/untitled15ej.jpg

[willg]

i fixed the color on photoshop, it looked a bit warm, i also sharpened it.

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3858/untitled15ej.jpg

i don't really like the over sharpened look...the color is interesting though, i am going to have to think about it for a while