Critique this please, part 2

Hmmmm. OK, here are my initial thoughts. First of all- really cool car. Looks like a Ford GT- not something one sees every day, and also is a car that not everybody gets to shoot. I like the low angle, but I'm not wild about slanting the entire frame. I'm not a big post processor myself, but it'd be nice to subdue the lighting on the wall & columns back there, maybe do something to back the hot spots down a bit.

It is not always easy to come up with one single compelling photo of a car that captures and completes the sprit of the thing. This photo works well enough in showing us the car. It gives us a complete enough view that by looking at this photo, we can "get it" easily enough. Looking more at this shot, I'll say that maybe the off kilter angle serves to provide a sense of imagined motion? While I don't love it, it seems to work on some level. At the end of it all, the car, in my opinion, needs to be shown from a handful of different angles, details need to be seen in order to round out the perspective. It'd have been really great to get up close to this and shoot it 100 ways.

Backing out to look at the overall image, it looks like the lighting here may have made for some difficulty? The big glare on the closest headlight lens looks as if it came from some sort of large point-source overhead lighting fixture- yet there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of ambient light in this space. Meanwhile, at the same time, there's too much light in the background. Maybe to was a bit of a chore, just to get this photo where it is, with the car reasonably uniformly viewable, in spite of the lighting? Those big, knobby mirrors on the car's fenders could have stuck out like big fat sore thumbs- yet you have them situated just where they can still be seen, yet don't dominate or stick out at all. There are no people in the shot, and no garbage such as velvet ropes, safety cones, or other crowd control measures or devices in the way, or anywhere at all for that matter. This is perhaps a small miracle in and of itself- and makes this photo somewhat unique just in that sense alone. This photo makes me think that you either, A: own this car, or B: had a sweet chance to be up close and personal in a cool space with a great car, with nobody- or very few other people in there with you. Again, perhaps no small feat. Not only will few people get a chance to see much less shoot this car, far fewer would get to photograph it alone with no BS or other people hogging up the scene.

For me, this shot all comes down to this: while I don't dislike this photo, if it was the same shot of almost any other car, I wouldn't give it a second glance. As it is, it's a teaser pic of a very cool car- one that somehow gives (almost) too much away while not really satisfying my personal desire for details. That said, there are a few things about this photo, as mentioned, that do make it a bit more of a stand-out, once one realizes all that is NOT seen here.

Hmmmm. OK, here are my initial thoughts. First of all- really cool car. Looks like a Ford GT- not something one sees every day, and also is a car that not everybody gets to shoot. I like the low angle, but I'm not wild about slanting the entire frame. I'm not a big post processor myself, but it'd be nice to subdue the lighting on the wall & columns back there, maybe do something to back the hot spots down a bit.

 

It is not always easy to come up with one single compelling photo of a car that captures and completes the sprit of the thing. This photo works well enough in showing us the car. It gives us a complete enough view that by looking at this photo, we can "get it" easily enough. Looking more at this shot, I'll say that maybe the off kilter angle serves to provide a sense of imagined motion? While I don't love it, it seems to work on some level. At the end of it all, the car, in my opinion, needs to be shown from a handful of different angles, details need to be seen in order to round out the perspective. It'd have been really great to get up close to this and shoot it 100 ways.

 

Backing out to look at the overall image, it looks like the lighting here may have made for some difficulty? The big glare on the closest headlight lens looks as if it came from some sort of large point-source overhead lighting fixture- yet there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of ambient light in this space. Meanwhile, at the same time, there's too much light in the background. Maybe to was a bit of a chore, just to get this photo where it is, with the car reasonably uniformly viewable, in spite of the lighting? " yet you have them situated just where they can still be seen, yet don't dominate or stick out at all. There are no people in the shot, and no garbage such as velvet ropes, safety cones, or other crowd control measures or devices in the way, or anywhere at all for that matter. This is perhaps a small miracle in and of itself- and makes this photo somewhat unique just in that sense alone. This photo makes me think that you either, A: own this car, or B: had a sweet chance to be up close and personal in a cool space with a great car, with nobody- or very few other people in there with you. Again, perhaps no small feat. Not only will few people get a chance to see much less shoot this car, far fewer would get to photograph it alone with no BS or other people hogging up the scene.

 

 

For me, this shot all comes down to this: while I don't dislike this photo, if it was the same shot of almost any other car, I wouldn't give it a second glance. As it is, it's a teaser pic of a very cool car- one that somehow gives (almost) too much away while not really satisfying my personal desire for details. That said, there are a few things about this photo, as mentioned, that do make it a bit more of a stand-out, once one realizes all that is NOT seen here.

WOW Ricochetrider, great critique! Thank you so much for taking the time to do that! It is a Ford GT Mark 4, and I do own it! I haven't raced it yet on my private race track, and in all fairness, must admit that it is 1/32 scale! "Those big, knobby mirrors on the car's fenders could have stuck out like big fat sore thumbs-"...its hard to make mirrors accurate with a car that is only 4" long. I posted this picture to see whether people would see what they wanted, or see what was there...you did both! I had to photograph the car in perspective that would match the background. Having been a commercial photographer most of my professional life, I had to many times match the exposure of the background (ambient light) with the subject (strobe) in believable balance. It is much easier to do in Photoshop! Thanks again for taking the time, and for writing such a concise critique!

AH! well that the car is only 4' scale model of the "real' thing does explain some stuff- namely, I kept looking at the tires and wheels- I was thinking they look sort of CGI'd; I was trying to decide if the vehicle was maybe in motion when you shot it! I kept looking at the body of the car and the sheen it has, as well... there was something happening but I couldn't put my finger on it, so didn't mention it. I thought maybe it was a by-product of a digital shot in weird light combined with some PP to bring the car more forward in the spectrum of visibility or whatever- like some barely perceptible aberration or artifact.

Knowing what I now know elevates the photo somewhat, in my estimation. Nice job of arranging the perspectives here, overall the effect is that it looks pretty real. I'll admit to studying this photo more than I typically do, and had fun with this exercise. Thanks for posting in critiques.

AH! well that the car is only 4' scale model of the "real' thing does explain some stuff- namely, I kept looking at the tires and wheels- I was thinking they look sort of CGI'd; I was trying to decide if the vehicle was maybe in motion when you shot it! I kept looking at the body of the car and the sheen it has, as well... there was something happening but I couldn't put my finger on it, so didn't mention it. I thought maybe it was a by-product of a digital shot in weird light combined with some PP to bring the car more forward in the spectrum of visibility or whatever- like some barely perceptible aberration or artifact.

 

Knowing what I now know elevates the photo somewhat, in my estimation. Nice job of arranging the perspectives here, overall the effect is that it looks pretty real. I'll admit to studying this photo more than I typically do, and had fun with this exercise. Thanks for posting in critiques.

It's actually a slot car that I do race! I'm a 70 y/o going through my second childhood. I enjoy photographing them almost as much as racing them! There are actually 3 more slot cars on this forum!

Interesting to step in AFTER knowing that it's a model . . . I'm going to give you my thoughts as if I didn't know . . .

The first thing that I see when I see great auto images is that the headlights are almost always on and it is usually made to look like the car was just rained on. I like the camera tilt very much and I even like the lighting on the back ground, it gives the look of natural light in an old French or Italian village.

The only thing that does bother me is that reflection on the head light. It would be less identifiable on the fender or hood if the light can be moved.

Overall though this is a great shot!