We pulled my son's old slot cars out and had some fun.. There were cars shooting off the track right and left all afternoon.

C & C welcome.

Good Luck and Happy Holidays to all!

Karen



Edited by Karen Gilligan on Dec 17, 2007 at 01:22 PM GMT (Reason: updated photo)

Why didn't I think of this? I have a very good expensive car set for my son also and I sure do understand what you mean by the cars flying off the track left and right. The only critique I have is if there were someway you could clear up your blackdrop or background? It would definitely bring out the cars much better, but the execution on the cars are wonderful. Nice Job and I am sure a fan of these fun tracks.

Steve R.

Hi Karen,

Great shot. You have captured the motion in this shot wonderful and the slot cars are great and old corvette and mustang if I am not mistaken and they are a beautiful subject. I had a much cheaper set as a kid and these bring back great memories. Good luck this week.

Steve S.

Takes me back a while to when my own sons played with these. Great angle on the track and nice exposure.

Nice take on the assignment Karen! Excellent composition and fluidity.

I'm also inclined to agree with Steve R. about the background, would make a great shot even better, methinks.

Jason

Looks like fun.....great take...

Hi Karen
Love this shot. Great feeling of motion. Can you tell me was it the deceleration of the cars into the corner that gave you the progressive exposures of the cars or did you use multiple flashes.
I would like to thank you as my son saw this and asked if we could get the cars down for xmas. What sort of dad would i be to refuse!
Let the holidays start
Best of luck
Mark

Steven Roberts wrote:
Why didn't I think of this? I have a very good expensive car set for my son also and I sure do understand what you mean by the cars flying off the track left and right. The only critique I have is if there were someway you could clear up your blackdrop or background? It would definitely bring out the cars much better, but the execution on the cars are wonderful. Nice Job and I am sure a fan of these fun tracks.

Steve R.


Steve,

Thanks for the suggestions and help. I did burn the background to complete black and did a bit of burning on the track however; I left a bit of grain as I kind of liked that. It remaindered me of the street. I do think that it makes the cars pop a bit better. I just received Photoshop as a gift two weeks ago and am still trying to figure it all out.

Thanks for taking the time to help some new.

Karen

Steve & Bill,

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, view and comment. Words of encouragement always help. I love these car sets. It seems everyone gave their son one or received a set for themselves for one holiday or another during their childhood.

Again, thanks,

Karen

Jazno wrote:
Nice take on the assignment Karen! Excellent composition and fluidity.

I'm also inclined to agree with Steve R. about the background, would make a great shot even better, methinks.

Jason

Jason,

Tried a little of Steve R. suggestions with my new Photoshop software. I am much happier with the result. Thanks for taking the time to view and comment. Good Luck.

Karen

Mark Speight wrote:
Looks like fun.....great take...

Mark,

Glad you enjoyed it. We had a ball!!! It is amazing how much fun an adult can have with a kid's toy.

Thanks for taking the time to view and comment.

Karen

mark nicoll wrote:
Hi Karen
Love this shot. Great feeling of motion. Can you tell me was it the deceleration of the cars into the corner that gave you the progressive exposures of the cars or did you use multiple flashes.
I would like to thank you as my son saw this and asked if we could get the cars down for xmas. What sort of dad would i be to refuse!
Let the holidays start
Best of luck
Mark

Mark,

All of my shots are from the camera. This is due to the fact that I did not have anything but basic photo software until recently. Just received Photoshop as a gift, not really sure how to use it yet but I have it. Hence this one was all done in the camera.

What we (this shot was a family affair) did was use a very long shutter speed and creped the cars to a spot in front of the camera before the shutter closed. The idea was to get them to the end and have them sit there for just a bit so the final image of the cars would be more solid. We accomplished it on a few shots but I liked the composition on this one better and it kind of worked.

Also, glad that the shot prompted your family to get your set out. Just watch out for the flying cars! Thank again and glad you enjoyed it.

Karen

Karen Gilligan wrote:
Jazno wrote:
Nice take on the assignment Karen! Excellent composition and fluidity.

I'm also inclined to agree with Steve R. about the background, would make a great shot even better, methinks.

Jason

Jason,

Tried a little of Steve R. suggestions with my new Photoshop software. I am much happier with the result. Thanks for taking the time to view and comment. Good Luck.

Karen


My pleasure Karen, congratulations on acquiring Photoshop! If you'd like a hand trying to figure it out I'd be more than happy to try and help.

Jason

Karen, I see you did mess with it and it does help in my opinion. What I sent to you was an extreme version so you could see what I was talking about. leaving the track a bit more grainy does work for me. I understand what you feel with the Photo Shop as I realize that you have to no it to take your photo's to the next level. Most all do.. So good work with just getting it. I do believe it helps.

Steve R.

Karen - I didn't see your before picture as talked about in this post, but your end product is just great! I like the S-curve and the how the white line stands out. It was interesting to read how you obtained the car images. Super capture and lighting! Nice cars! You did a great job with Photoshop for just getting the software! Good luck with the program!

Jamie

Wonderful motion shot, Karen! Perfect capture for this topic! The way you set it up to get the cars to blur is really creative! Well done!

By the way, Photoshop can seem really intimidating at first. It's actually not that hard to get a rudimentary handle on if you take a deep breath and be patient in learning it. There are a lot of good books and basic online classes that you can do to get going. Once you learn a few basic principles, you can easily extrapolate to do whatever you want. Also, don't feel shy to ask questions of those who use it frequently.

All best wishes,

Endre

Oh yes, got to dig up that old track from somewhere and put it to good use

Hi Karen!! I LOVE this! You did an amazing job, my friend. I didn't see the first one, but this image is just super........I love the motion and color. I think it's just perfect!!



(I had a slot car when I was in High School....and boy did I love to race!)

Jamie, Endre, Jouko and Philly,

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Seems this shot is bringing back a lot of memories for a lot of us. Glad you enjoyed it. Good luck to all.

Karen

I like the simplicity of this set-up. Very effective at showcasing the theme.

Later,
Chad

Karen... Cool and creative idea!

Way to go, finalist!!!