car lights

For the past six or seven years, a small nearby town has attracted zillions of people in December by covering commercial buildings on several streets with dense arrays of colored lights. I was wishing that cars weren't parked in front of the lights I wanted to shoot. But, then, I saw this car was parked on one of the decorated side streets . . .

It's fun taking non-conventional photos with lots of people milling around. I should've kept track of the questions I was asked about what I was photographing.

9 exposure HDR
ISO 200, f/29 (made for some long exposures), zoom lens at 64mm

Photomatix -- tone mapping
added masked layers from two of the exposures to darken the street and the wheel well
healed away evidence of a car parked in front
cropped from the top to golden rectangle proportions
Topaz Simplify -- preset based on BuzSim
Photoshop Plastic Wrap filter
Color Efex -- Tonal Contrast and Polaroid Transfer
Levels
Curves -- 2 non-overlapping masked layers

Nice work overall, Dennis! Tons of colors! Good techs. I might try to eliminated some or all of the upper right corner with a crop and tone down the one bright spot on the hood, but the rest works for me!

Wonderful colors and much effort put into this image. For my personal taste, I don't mind the upper right corner as it helps define the car. I would however be curiuos to see what toning down the bright spot on the hood would do.

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Originally Posted by Dan Brown

. . and tone down the one bright spot on the hood . . .

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Originally Posted by Dave Woeller

. . . I would however be curiuos to see what toning down the bright spot on the hood would do.

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Thank you, Dan and Dave. One or more of the processing steps had made the center of that street light reflection gray, already. Based on your comments, I tried toning down the brightness of the outer ring -- the brightest part of that reflection. That helped, but the whole reflection was still a distraction, and I didn't want to darken it so much it became too gray. So, I decided to give the reflection center stage instead of trying to minimize its impact. The filter I applied was Red Giant's Knoll Light Factory.

After posting this, it occurred to me that I should probably have popped the saturation and/or brightness ahead of time in the area where the Knoll filter affects it. Trouble is, I applied a number of light settings in the filter and had to tweak each separately a substantial amount. Thinking out loud, maybe I can apply something on top with the right blend mode. If I get time, I may go back and work some more on it.

Nicely seen and photographed, Dennis. Wonderful colors/sparkle effect. FWIW, I thought the original bright spot was kind of cool because it defined something in the reflection that I might recognize...( A street lamp?). I like the dark space framing. Very cool Lincoln! :S3:

I really like the original post! Nice processing and colors and I like the dark background.

Dennis, Wonderful image and the repost with the starburst it over the top!!:S3:

Super presentation, Dennis, both look great with an edge to the second.

Thanks for sharing.

Gus

Hi Dennis,

I'm not into cars, but your image is way cool! I do like night images. I do like the repost with the starburst.
9-exposure HDR: what was the exposure range? Well done.

Roger

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Originally Posted by Roger Clark

. . . 9-exposure HDR: what was the exposure range?

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Thanks for your comments, Roger. It was 1 EV each. The street light reflection was the reason I decided to max it out. (Plus and minus 4 exposures with up to 1 EV is the limit with my Nikon.) I'd only done a few nighttime HDRs before this one, and the subject was entirely different, so this was a good learning experience. I went for the maximum range because of the bright street lamp reflection. I still have to do a lot of careful reviewing of all the images I took that night. I do realize, now, that I could've bracketed fewer exposures and done one additional for just the street lamp. The difference among exposures, though, went way beyond what I expected. More often that not, my images are HDRs, but I'm not photographing anything that's highly polished. There are great reflections along body contours/character lines in a few of these exposures that aren't apparent at all in others. (If I'd looked more carefully at them when I put the final image together instead of when you asked the question, it would've been a better image. Some of the good stuff didn't make it through Photomatix.)

Serendipity combined with great technique. Wow!

The repost is great, Dennis!

Very cool composition, Dennis, and nicely seen. Like the repost, but if it were mine I would remove the hood ornament at bottom just left of center. Great treatment.

Hi Dennis;

I love your repost, and now that Brendan mentioned it, the emblem is the only realistic item on your presentation, and I agree, if it were mine I would either remove it or treat it to blend in.

Thanks for sharing it

How about a Roller nex time :S3:

Gus

Dennis, I like them both but I think I like the OP better because it's simpler and more sleek (if that makes any sense). Beautifully done - I love your combination of filtering - it worked perfectly on this image.

Wow! I love the colors and creativity in this image. I would have had to look at it a long time to figure out it was a car. I can well imagine the questions you got while taking the photos. Wonderful sweeps of color. I like not knowing what it is. To that end, I would try to disguise the tire a bit more. The upper black area in the OP bothered me--perhaps having the rays of light in the black area only, cloning them out of the car area and cloning out that bright spot. So many possibilities! Whatever version, it is a fun image.

Dennis, I missed commenting on this. One phrase...."off the charts" says it for me. I like both...maybe slightly more for the starburst. Very well seen..........the combo of colors, textures and shapes makes this a very special image. Congrats!