I think I am beginning to hate this site. I see all the great work so many others do and I just am amazed, jealous, disheartened, and more. I would have never thought you could start with your original picture and ended up with a poster that looks like that. Simply amazing. I have a Harley I would love to do something like that with but I wouldn't even know how to start. My post processing skills are extremely minimal and I only have Elements 2.0. Even with that program I am sure it will do so much more than I know how. I'm still learning to try to take better pictures, much less do all those post processing things with them.
Again, looks great to me. Would be better with my Harley in it though
SJMD wrote:
Profession work - great job - anyone would be pround to produce such a great image - how long did it take
Thank you SJMD.
I think the actual photoshop process took about maybe three or four hours of messing around with it and tweaking it. The design part to me is the toughest.
Just coming up with an idea that will turn out good.
Just sold some at a car show today, will start working on the designs tonite.
I appreciate all the love... ;>)
Jeff
Hey Dan, don't despair and don't give up, that's the worse you can do.
Just keep practicing, learning, reading all the thousands or millions of tutorials on the internet. It's a great way to learn and it's free, just requires your time.
Hang in there, man...and thanks for the compliment.
Jeff
I find it very confusing why you used a bad picture to begin with for your poster (especially on a photography forum). The picture was taken against the sun, and in return the poster image looks very flat. Also you didn't select out the background completely. I can see fringe marks around the edges of the bike, and on top of that you didn't bother selecting out the background on the brake rotors. The added graphics are very trite and plain... gradient, reflection, beveled font, and an alienated filter to the "own the track" slogan.
Poor photo, poor graphics. Add some dimension to the poster.
Unfortunately I'd tend to agree with SonicZoom to an extent (although not being quite so harsh!!!)
I'm no pro myself so I can't say too much, but I would have probably started with a frontlit shot of the bike, perhaps even on a slightly overcast day (to provide even lighting) and then used the actual GSX-R logo rather than writing it (GSX-R) on the poster.
Not to say it's a bad poster - especially considering the pic you started with, but it does appear a little flat.
As many Photography pros will say - do as much work as possible 'in camera' and then save yourself time later!
Well since two people now have suggested that a frontlit shot would've been better, I'm gonna throw in an additional two cents: Experience with these type of shots will tell you that a fronlit shot in direct sunlight is actually a bad idea for making posters. Note that Jeff took this pic at 6:30 in the evening. The glare from the sun off the chrome and edges of the polished portions of the bike would've made the shot difficult to expose and created a lot of extra work in Photoshop. Sometimes a photographer doesn't have a lot of time to choose when and where a picture is taken, and if that's the case here I think Jeff did the right thing.
Something that has just occurred to me - so take it for the way it's meant - The mirrored image of the bike in my humble opinion should be at the same angle as the plain its supposed to be reflecting shouldn't it? or at least offset at an angle I think - this may help create or enhance the illusion that the bike is realistically standing on a polished surface - what do you think?
Whew, gettin' crazy here. ;>)
Just to clarify.
I took the picture on the spur of the moment.
I didn't take time to set it up.
I was just experimenting with it to see what I could come up with.
I am happy with the results, I wanted it to be clean and simple.
From the comments and good advice you all have given me here I think I could probably come up with something a lot better.
But I'm done with that picture and have moved on to actual posters of show cars that I am selling.
Again I just want to thank everyone for responding and the critiques, I have learned something from them all.
Take care and have a great weekend everyone!
Jeff
