I went back to the parking garage tonight where I did some pictures last weekend.

Here's the shot from last week that turned into the MotoringFile Desktop Wallpaper



And here are the new shots from tonight.





I'm not really happy with the way the colors came out on that one, so I tried a B&W conversion.



Again, all shots on my nikon 4300. I'd really like to try this new setup with the D70 when it gets back from Nikon. Hopefully that will fix the color issue I'm having with this type of lighting.

 

Oh My! GREAT...absolutely amazing! What camera that you're using?

How do you keep the focus on the car so clear and blur in the background? I jaut can't picture how you did it, but some how you got it nailed.

 

they look great. i should work on some that i took the other night. i also need more photo shop skills.... good work dave.

 

Dave, I really LIKE this one! What about it did you not like? I like the color, the composition, the action quality of it. Excellent!

Clover

 

would really appreciate an idiots how to guide for this please

 

Dave - I think the last one of the garage pics is one of my favorites. What I like about it is that the car, because of the lighting, seems to really pop out of the background blur. Also, I really like that the car is rounding the corner...it helps tell a story.



Mark

 

Beautiful stuff Dave. It only reinforces my thinking that a cheapie point and shoot can do incredible stuff in the right hands! Ok, it's not that cheap, but it's a lot less than an SLR, and it's a discontinued model. For those that don't know, I have one too.

I love the pics, but there is one strange thing, and maybe it's cause I have an MC an not an MCS, but is that an indentation between the headlight and bonnet scoop??? There is a shadow there--I can see a fluroescent light reflecting in the bonnet.

Btw, your pics have a color that oddly reminds me of something from the Matrix. I think its the green from the florescent lights (Will I ever figure out how to spell that word). It makes the pics almost seem rendered--almost not real--which is really cool. Did you do any post processing to enhance the background blur??

 

Those shots came out great

 

Excellent Dave! I really like the shot from the rear quarter. It is my dream to shoot a shot like this in a tunnel. There is a tunnel downtown that I'd love to hit at about 3am and try it out. Need the equipment first though. Still, gorgeous stuff, keep it coming!

 

Thanks guys.

MyPocketRocket: I'm using a 2+ year old Nikon Coolpix 4300. It's a 4 MP camera with a 3x optical zoom. For those pictures I'm also using a spin on WC-E63 Wide Angle Converter Lens. As OctaneGuy pointed out the 4300 has been discontinued now.

Clover: The issue I have with them color wise is the greenish and sometimes purple tinge in some areas of the shadows. Look at the "turning" picture in the area on the ground just to the right of the front tire.

Mark: I like the turning picture a lot too. It's the same reason I really like the Cabrio picture that wound up going into the NAM calendar. It's just so characteristically MINI.

Richard:
Reflection on Hood
The Cooper S hood has a very hard curved surface right next to the headlight, where the hood dives down to meet it. The hood sits higher in the middle to clear the intercooler on the S. That's where that reflection is coming from.

Natural Background Blur
I have done nothing to enhance the background blur. That's exactly as it came off the camera.

Green Tinge
I actually tried to play with the levels a bit to correct the tinges and it helped some. With the D70 it's quite a bit easier to correct for this since you can shoot RAW format and then custom edit the white balance and make custom curves.


Hafid: I have had the same thought. There are a couple tunnels here I wouldn't mind shooting in, but you're right any traffic going through a tunnel in either direction would be a major problem considering what's involved to shoot one of these.

 

Hey DiD,
I have a Circular Polarizer for my 4300 that I rarely use if you want to give it a go on your next 4300 shoot.

Richard

 

I knew the wide angle was threaded for filters, but you're the first person I know of that has the right size filter for it. Cool. I'll have take you up on that.

 

Sorry I goofed. I have the Circular Polarizer that fits the 4300---I forgot you also have the wide angle. But coincidentally, I noticed the thread size of the wide angle is 72mm which is the same size threads on my professional video camcorder, but turns out I only have a UV and a 812 Warming Filter in 72mm. I sold my 72mm Circular Polarizer awhile back cause I wasn't using it.



Sorry!

Richard

 

As always, LOOKS GREAT DiD!!!! Hopefully I can post some of these next week...

 

I know of a tunnel . . . (it's not on westside though).


Great shots David. Keep them coming!

 

I did some tunnel shots... it was tough. I had my Dad set up in the tunnel with a strobe flash and gel and I had to keep driving back and forth through the tunnel. I must have made the tunnel pass 100 times that night and our shots suck!!!! I come to the conclusion that the tunnel shots would need to be done really late and night and not on a Friday/Saturday night!!! When/if you do some tunnel shots take another car and park it with the hazard lights on to alert other motorists... It would be great if you could shut down a tunnel like the big boys in Hollywood do!!!! Shut down the city for our playground!!!

 

Great to hear your dad was willing and able to assist you.

Keep trying, the idea sounds terrific.

 

Dave,
AWESOME shots! Nice job. Man, those photos are truly worthy of inclusion in the MINI catalog - they show off the car's lines really well, and they manage to capture the giddiness of actually seeing the car in motion. Very impressive!

If you'd like to give the circular polarizer filter a shot, I've got one on the way to me in the mail that's 72mm. I ended up ordering the Panasonic FZ20 (which happens to have that lens size), and ordered a 3-piece filter kit for it (UV, polarizer, FL-D). I'd be more than happy to loan it to you, especially since I didn't know I needed it until you suggested it and I went and read up on it.

Plus, I owe you for those skid plate bolts... :smile:

Chris

 

Thanks for the offer Chris. You sent me some CD's for the bolts remember?

Anyhow, why don't we try this. How about you try it out with your camera for a bit. I should have my D70 back shortly and I'll be able to use a circular polarizer on that to see if it makes any difference for this process. If it does then maybe down the line I'll borrow it for a bit from you, to try out with my light weight setup.

BTW, the "circular" part of a circular polarizer means that you can spin the polarizer around such that you adjust the polarizer until it removes the reflection off the surface of interest. So as you look through the viewfinder, spin the polarizer and the reflection should disappear. Make sense? It took me two months to bump into that. I read where people recommended circular polarizers, so I got one, but no one really explained to me how they worked.

Also, the UV filter is sometimes referred to as a protective filter. It's totally clear, so you could mount it on the camera to protect the real lens from getting scratched. The lens hood is good to keep on as well for the same reason, plus it provides a little coverage to keep the lens from getting bumped.

 

Wow. Great shots. You really are seeing the benefit of a lighter camera that you can extend so far from the car (and cheap enough that you don't care). Do you worry your body panels may start denting soon?

 

The setup would need to be attached to the body panels for that to be an issue.

To answer your question more generally, given the light weight of the current setup, I'm not concerned about damage to the car.

 

Ah well, it is as pictured at the top of the thread.

 

The photos posted earlier in the thread were from my Nikon Coolpix 4300 P&S. I went back to the same structure today with my D70, and took the following photos.

These first three were taken using the D70 paired with the 70-200 F/2.8 VR







These next two were taken using the D70 and the 18-70 kit lens



This one is a bonus shot that was actually taken a couple weeks ago, but that I only now decided to put up.

 

Wonderful stuff, David! Thanks for posting them.

Mark

 

I really like the 3rd pic, the head-on shot. The two parking space lines in the background add a subtle symmetry to the photograph.
Did you think of cloning out the concrete support in the upper left-hand corner?
The others in this set are excellent also, especially the motion ones.

Keep them coming Dave.


-Juan