I headed out before sunrise this morning to shoot a clump of trees in first light. It turned out to be an OK shot but will be better (I think) when some leaves come out. This was second prize – right at the pulloff that afforded the best view of the trees. The truck was in open shade with the sun still behind a hill to the left.
Something felt unbalanced here and after looking at it here I decided the back of the cab had too much visual weight. so I lightened it a bit and lowered the saturation. I had done a slight global boost to both Sat and Vibrance and it got overdone there. Maybe needs to be taken down even more.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I would have liked to explore more angles but was hemmed in by a fence on my left and another junk pickup (but too new to be interesting) on my right. I’ll bring a wide-angle lens next time and see what more I can do.
Technical Details
I shot 2 frames, the first with a small slice of an OOF fence post on the left side and then reframed to the right to eliminate it. Looking at them in LR, I realized the second one was too tightly framed on the right, but they combined well as a pano. Minor tweaks in LR, quite a bit of masked tonal work in PS. I didn’t mess with the BG except touching out two minor spots – got lucky there.
Diane, a really nice find here. I really like this old castaway scene. It seems like your merging of the two images worked perfectly. Looks like an old early 70’s version of a Chevy short bed fleet side 1/2 ton. All of these vintage 1/2 ton pickups got heavy usage throughout the years both as work horses and for recreational outings.
My wife and I had 74 style Chevy short bed fleet side 1/2 tons.
I used mine to tow my race car and she used hers to tow a horse in a trailer. Seems like a life time ago now.
Something from the 70s doesn’t feel that old, somehow. And that looks like a perfectly good tire. Would I have shot it if it hadn’t had the Coors sticker?
I prefer the OP version since the paint has a natural sheen that seems muddy on the re-edit. But oh what a great truck. I remember riding in the bed of my dad’s many pick ups starting in the mid-1970s. Maybe he had one just like this. No Coors sticker though.
OK – final edit posted above. Detail brought back into the red but still holding down the red saturation, which had been punched up from the capture. Tamed the window a bit, too. It was facing some open pre-dawn clear sky and had a lovely frosty glow.
It’s on a hillside shoulder of a funky gravel road going down to the right (camera was level to keep the hanging chain vertical). There are two more interesting-looking old trucks down there, maybe 300 ft away, but I’m always afraid of getting shot messing around places like this.
I love the old truck photograph. very cool. just curious … do you use photoshop . ever use the vibrance filter. I use it to fool around with the color photos. Your photography is really good and ill be watching and looking at your work. Beautiful image…
Diane, what a great find and capture. Old pickup trucks are my favorite, but my husband prefers old cars. I well remember when these were pretty popular on the roads. Telling my age.
Thanks, @Gill_Vanderlip and @Shirley_Freeman! Gill, I live and breathe LR and PS! I often use Vibrance, as I love the subtle notes it can give the less-saturated colors. But every image is different, as is my mood with each one. I also like Selective Color for nuances.
I try to establish a good WB and camera profile in LR and then often refine things in PS as editing progresses.
Hi. I don’t you Lightroom. Just Photoshop. I use photoshop mainly like a darkroom room. Burning and Dodging and the Contrast filters are my main focus. Posterized every once in a while. And I’m really starting to vignette more and more. Try to create my own style. I don’t think to much about being real technical but create something different. Even be a little wonky and No Rules. Today has been a great day on the Network. Amazing photographers and people who love the Art.
I’m on Instagram if you want to check it out. And Spotify and YouTube with my do it yourself kinda weird instrumental music.
I’m posting this as a new member. This is who I am and what I do.
Thanks everyone for today. I’m learning how to use the Network and meet other photographers.
Hi @Gill_Vanderlip – if you shoot raw you are first starting with Adobe Camera Raw, which is the raw converter supplied with PS, but a separate entity. (You could start with other raw converters and still use PS after raw conversion.) ACR is basically the same engine as the Develop module in LR, with a different interface. That is the part of LR people are almost always referring to when they say they did something in LR.
If you are shooting in JPEG then you would be opening an image directly in PS.
I’ll see if I can find your music, but so far I haven’t even been able to find my son-in-law’s – too many Scott Woods. (He gives us DVDs.) And I don’t think he has put up what I think is his best stuff.
