Dave,

This last image is my favorite so far. Outstanding!

 

yep that was my favorite too. It just keeps getting better and better!!

Great work!

Richard

 

Thanks guys. The palm tree picture is still my personal favorite, but that second shot is definitely a close second.

 

Very nice shots! I can see where you cloned/blured out your mounts, coming from the opposite side of the car in the shots, up and over though Something like 3/4" pvc would work, using a little heat to bend them into shape, securing the ends together where the camera mounts, and the other two ends a few feet apart on the car for a good trianglular mount.

 

I'm a little surprised to finally get busted, and by a first time poster no less.

After 6 months, I suppose it's time to fess up. I don't have trained greyhounds with camera packs strapped to their sides. I'm not doing this exactly as you described, but close enough (camera rig and photoshop).

With that confession out of the way, welcome to NAM. :smile: I think. just kidding about that last part

 

OMG DiD! You lied to us! And I was here trying to train my dogs! Darn you DiD! HAHA J/K Hmmm... Now what are using to push the button? Maybe you got a bird on the button that press it!

Oh and Welcome to NAM!

 

Well we knew it was a rig and photoshop but show us the magic rig. :P

 

I was wondering how long that was going to take to be asked. LOL. Sorry, I'm not showing it.

 

Well obviously I knew the answer before I asked the question.

Used your D70 on the rig yet?

 

Actually, most of the pictures have been with my D70.

The only ones that weren't are the early parking structure shots and the ones of OctaneGuy's Indi Blue MINI. Those were done with my Nikon Coolpix 4300 (2.5 year old out of production P&S).

 

Do you really feel it's that rigid? You better be trusting your rig to do that.

Because it's homemade isn't it?

 

I knew where you had to have it mounted - it just took a little bit of filter work to show exactly where they were in each shot


VERY nice pics, I mean it! I would LOVE to have a shot like those of my car when it arrives! I definitely think I'll have to create a mount in a month or two!

 

^^^ mechanical engineer

I have confidence in my setup. That said, I conduct a proof test of the system each time prior to attaching the camera.

 

Once you know what's going on, the perspective pretty much gives that away. Most of the time I see this done in magazines now, it's pretty easy to tell where they are rigging from.

Can you do me a favor and not reveal any more of the mystery?

Getting a stable mount is the biggest problem. If you want to talk offline about it send me a PM.

 

...and it finally clicks. I had always been looking low for evidence, not high. But that means you are coming from even further away...even more impressive.

 

What lens is used? mostly interested in what focal length because either your rig is pretty far away from the car or that is some impressive wideangle right there.

 

Mostly the D70 the 18-70 kit lens, but like I said I also used the 4300 (with the WC-63 wide angle converter). I'm not sure what the effective focal length of the 4300 with the WC-63 is, but it's actually a little wider than 18mm.

 

Dave,

Don't worry about the technique being found out, it's still about the artistry!
Your location selection, lighting, exposure and photoshop work is incredible. Very few will have the time to invest in trying to recreate your work let alone the equipment!
Keep up the good work...it's going to take you places!

 

Thanks STER AG. :smile:

Here are a few new pictures I took after the C3 detailing session on Saturday.

At the time, it seemed like a good idea to try to angle the camera, but now I'm not all that happy with the steep angles. I played around with rotating the images and re-cropping them, but didn't get enough time to upload those yesterday (maybe later tonight).

 

The first and third have too much angle to them, not my favorite shots.

The 2nd one however... WOW! Amazing!

 

Thanks Kyle. It sounds like we had about the same reaction.

#1 - wasn't shot wide enough to allow it to be rotated without having angled corners (i.e. if the picture is rotated say 30 degrees Counter Clockwise, the car gets leveled out, but it's not possible to throw a rectangular crop around it -- problem areas are upper left and lower right corners after rotation).

#2 - I agree I do like this new perspective. I played around with rotating it a bit, but decided the angle (admittedly quite a bit less than 1 &3) worked for the picture and make the MINI look like it's leaning into the corner.

#3 - It does look better rotated and re-cropped. I'll post up a version of this one later tonight.
The main problem I see with 1 & 3 is that the angle doesn't help the image much and looks arbitrary, where 2 it almost makes it looks like a banked turn.

 

#1 feels like it's cropped too close---like it's going up a wall.
#2 is like the classic funny MINI character--distorted with a big happy smile, with great colors and clarity
#3 I like this much better than #1. It feels like I'm on a racing bike and have my camera on my bike leaning deep into the corner chasing you, but unfortunately, I would prefer more lead room in front of your MINI. It feels kinda chopped.

I like #2 and #3 best. Great job!!


The main problem I see with 1 & 3 is that the angle doesn't help the image much and looks arbitrary, where 2 it almost makes it looks like a banked turn.
Strange, I thought #3 had much more of an impression of a banked turn than #2.

Sorry I couldn't help with the shoot. I was still cleaning up past 6:30 after the clinic, and then I had to spend time with the wife and kid. :smile:

Richard

 

Richard,

RE: #1 being cropped to close - I probably zoomed in too far on #1. If you notice, #1 and #3 were shot from the same position. #1 was an (unsuccessful) attempt to get a shot showing more of the MINI in the frame. (they were getting so small. )

RE: the angle in #3. You're right it does do a little to convey that sense of banking, but the nearly 30 degree tilt is still a over the top IMO.

FWIW, in this shoot, I tried experiment more with angles and camera postion. Even though some of the results didn't come out as well as I would have hoped, I did learn some things from the process. Honestly the best part of the shoot was getting that front on shot setup. I'll play around with that a bit more in the future.

For now though, I need to start thinking about this month's photo contest and plan some night shots.

 

Hey, those a some pretty interesting angles you have going there.
I have to be the oddball and say I like them all, though I agree with everyone's assessment, so far, on Pic 2- the slight slant does give it that banking look.
What stands out for me in your third photo is the blurred vegetation. It adds to the sense of motion you're looking for.

As for nightshots for the challenge, it'll be another Monday off this coming weekend thus allowing me an extra day to get out. (If only this darn bronchitis would go away! )

 

Here's that third picture rotated 27 degrees. It's not quite level yet, but I think it still carries over a sense of the banking.

Let me know what you think of this rotation.