Tag: cars

More Playing with Topaz Adjust

Posted on by Nick Roberts
He Retired in Kansas
Retired Kansas Farm Truck

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Here’s another image from Cawker, Kansas. I had a polarizer on my Nikkor 12-24 mm lens which really cut down on the glare and saturated the colors before any processing was done. Once again the sun was almost directly overhead but by using Topaz Adjust with the Spicify preset I was able to bring out the texture and patina on this old Ford farm truck. Spicify really enhanced the crazed windshield glass as well as the reflections inside the headlights.

The current version of Topaz Adjust has the ability to create layers of effects and control the amount and transparency they apply. Not only that, they have added a robust Vignette and Borders feature that didn’t exist in earlier version. I can also apply sharpening within the Topaz application which allows me to finish the image inside Topaz and eliminate the added step of returning to Aperture 3 for final sharpening.

Happy St.Patrick’s Day

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Greendrops Keep Fallin' On My Head
Greendrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head

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In the tradition of honoring my Irish roots I thought I’d post some green images today. For me green is the color of spring, hope, rebirth and my eyes. This first image is my favorite shade of green too. All these images come from the past several years of the NSRA Streetrod Nationals held here in Louisville, Kentucky.

Bullet Nose Beast
Bullet Nose Beast

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Bullet Nose Beast #2
Bullet Nose Beast #2

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REO Speed Wagon
REO Speed Wagon

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Emerald Buick
Emerald Buick

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ImageBrief Submission

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Twin Engine Dragster Burnout
Twin Engine Dragster Burnout

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I came across a site today that says it can get photographers some additional work. The name is ImageBrief and they list briefs from designers and other customers where they describe what sort of images they need along with a compensation amount. They take a 30% commission and the photographer receives 70%.

I submitted two images to a call for automobiles doing burnouts. I don’t know what will come of it but I thought about something Mike Moats said the other night in his talk at Outdoor Photo Gear about finding many small income streams to add to his annual earnings from his photography. I decided that submitting a couple of images that were sitting in my library made sense and might even be worth the effort.

Smokin' Burnout
Smokin’ Burnout

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Here’s a link to my work on ImageBrief:

http://www.imagebrief.com/photographers/nick

Oldsmobile Rocket

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Rocket 88
Rocket 88

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I shot this image a while back and processed it using NIK Define 2.0 and Viveza 2.0 to bring out the colors in the photo. I liked the pinstripe work and the artist’s choice of colors for the car. It’s a simple image and there’s not much else to add about it.

 

1956 Chevy

Posted on by Nick Roberts
1956 Chevy
1956 Chevy

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I had a tough time shooting this year at the Streetrod Nationals due to the weather and time constraints of my own. The opening morning there wasn’t a cloud in the sky so the light was very harsh which as most photographers know makes things difficult. The second morning it was raining almost the entire time I was there which left me pretty much consigned to shooting closeups and detail shots with waterdrops on everything. I threw in the towel by noon and wrote off the event for this year.

I di manage to get a few images that I liked and this is one of them. One of the toughest factors I face when photographing at this event is what I refer to as the “visual pollution” that is created with all the tents and popups that the participants erect. Due to the tents and the folding chairs that are everywhere; it is nearly impossible to isolate the cars from the clutter. Another problem arises when the owner decides to open the hood on the car to show the engine; this act usually destroys any hope of getting a decent shot of the car no matter how interesting the car is.

Today’s image is from the first morning I was there and even though the whole car was incredibly well done, the place where it was parked was so cluttered with tents and the attendent items such as BBQ grills, lawn chairs, coolers and stacks of “stuff” I could not cet a clean shot of the whole car. I opted to shoot the front end and framed it as well as I could to remove those distractions. I shot a five exposure bracket set that I then edited in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3 to produce this image.