Pixelogist

Sunday Drive

Canon EOS 40D

settings

Aperture f/5.6 ISO 200 Shutter 1/400

upload_date

Feb, 2013

Views

2616

Likes

+45

Awards

Editor's Choice

Member Selection Award

Staff Winter Selection 2015

Runner Up in Photoshop World

Outstanding Creativity

+13

Peer Award

+11

Absolute Masterpiece

Top Choice

Superb Composition

Exceptional Contrast

Superior Skill

Jaw Dropping

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 20 rank

Top 20 rank week 1

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Top 20 rank

Top 20 rank week 2

Top 20 rank week 1

Top 30 rank week 2

Top 10 rank

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Top 10 rank week 2

Top 30 rank week 1

Behind The Lens

Location

This photo is a composite that's made up of a variety of images that were pieced together, however all the photos used were shot by me and various times. The mountain range in the background are from the High Tatry's in Slovakia which were shot on family vacation. Road and road sign were shot on the back roads of Arkansas and the FJ Cruiser I found in parking lot of a local mall in Florida. And the rain bouncing of the road was shot in my neighborhood.

Time

Various times of days, but it was important to make sure that light direction and shadows were consistent on the various elements.

Lighting

Not much regarding this image.

Equipment

I used both a Canon 40D and 6D with a 28-135mm lens. No external lighting was used in shooting any of the elements.

Inspiration

I love photoshop, I love compositing and I love pushing myself when it comes to learning the skills needed for creating a composites. After I saw the photos of the mountains, I knew there was something about them that i wanted to expand on. After messing around a little bit trying to determine the direction, I noticed that there was a little break in the mountains that looked like it should have a road going through it. So after I decided on the road, it was a natural progression to turn it into a car ad type image with a rugged 4 wheel drive vehicle braving the treacherous mountains as easy as though it were taking a "Sunday Drive", which is the title of the image

Editing

This image was nothing but post-processing. From the clouds to the grass lining the edge of the roads, everything was carefully manipulated, merged, blended and priced together to create the image. The most challenging part of the composite was the rain drops bouncing off the road surface. The rain itself was done using traditional rain streak techniques, but the rain drops were different. I couldn't think of a way to recreate them from scratch, so I just waited for a day when it rained and then shot a bunch of pictures of bouncing rain drops from underneath an umbrella. However the hard part was still to come, because I would still need to select and separate those rain drops from the background that they were shot on. I ended up bringing the rain images into Topaz Remask and spending some time selecting the white areas of the rain splashes. The reason this technique worked so week is because of the undefined edges of the selections. This allowed it to stay loose and look more realistic..

In my camera bag

I'm also a Real Estate Photographer, so I have a Pelican case that I drag around to each shoot that holds a Canon 40D for elevated shots. A Canon 6D for the main shots and a number of Yongnuo YN560 II and III Flashes. I also have a variety of shoot through umbrellas and a number of SUnpak 66OI UT tripods for the flashes.

Feedback

Well, since this image is more about creating composites then capturing something straight out of the camera, my advice is a little different. When it comes to composites and using Photoshop, the more you know the better. The better you know your tools, (photoshop in this case) the more options you have available to you. For example, if I handed you toolbox that had 20 separate tools in it, but you only recognized 5 of those tools, the your limited to only what you can do with those 5 tools. However, on the other hand, if you not only recognized every one of those 20 tools, but had used them before and knew how to make the sing, then your options are limitless.

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Pixelogist

Sunday Drive

Behind The Lens

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