Your thoughts? A friends wife wants a picture of "his" truck as a gift - problem is, I can't go re-shoot as it is to be a surprise and I got this on the sly at a graduation party--- your thoughts?

A guy who used to work for me had a pickup in pretty much the same condition. A semi driver making a delivery sideswiped it one day in the parking lot and did $50.00 worth of improvements.

As to what you can do with this shot....

Do you have the time and post process skill to cut the truck out of the background and put it in a better background

Or do you have enough time to get together with his wife to set up a diversion so you can get a better shot to work with

Thanks for the suggestions yogi - I've already taken a ladder from the base of the fence, green and yellow fuel and oil cans from a shelf in the shed, and a large trash can from behind the left-front fender :

The only way to get it in a different background (via diversion of some type) would be to move it - and I don't know the necessary steps to get it started anyway. I'd still need to do a good bit of house cleaning.

She wanted something in B&W - but this version simply disappears. I'll poke around to see what I have on disk.

But hey - new tires & wheels

Bob

OK - a different approach?

Hi Bob!
Great truck.
I agree, the background doesnt really help, but you worked with what you had.
I like your stylized PS re-work. Drops out the background distraction and further emphasizes the fun of the truck.
Nice job.
Scott G

Hi Scott, & thanks for the comment.

Looking at it with a fresh set of eyes, I think I'll try to diminish the opacity of the background a little - don't know how to go about that but learning how is half the fun

Maybe someone can clue me in - thus far it is an amalgam of NX and CS3 pp'ing.

Bob

How about viginette the heck out of it to loose the distractions in the corners? Nice truck.
Merv.

Not to diminish anyone's comments or suggestions, and I include myself in this, I had the opportunity to show the images to a colleague who is very well credentialed...

She much prefers the original: the horizontals (grill, fence, railing on top of shed) are all similar and provide a flow; the line of the lattice in the truck bed connects one's eyes to the background, the background surrounds the subject, and without the background one has no context for the truck.

I assured her most of what she saw was serendipitous on my part.

Always seeking to learn,

Bob

what about some edgeblurr and tighter crop

Thanks Scott,

For me the straight-up background misses something, but I'm not sure what - lines and perspectives aside.

I'll show her a print of the unaltered version (#1 above) and take it from there. I earlier did one with Orton Effect settings in NX and liked it - don't have that available here to post though.

Bob