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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 79: Rule of Thirds (with Purple) (Host: mlynn) >> Eligible: Rule of Thirds (with Purple) > 10th Place
Mercury Montclair
by Lonnit Rysher
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22-OCT-2006 Lonnit Rysher

10th Place
Mercury Montclair
by Lonnit Rysher

Long Island, New York

Canon EOS 5D ,Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
1/250s f/5.6 at 35.0mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Canon DSLR Challenge30-Oct-2006 23:05
Thank you, Jim. :) ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge30-Oct-2006 18:06
Good grief! So many comments. It'll take a while to read through all of that, but before I do, I'd just like to say that for whatever reason, I like this. The processing is interesting to say the least and it really accentuates the car - which is a heck of a find. Well seen, as they say :) Jim H.
Canon DSLR Challenge27-Oct-2006 03:23
Hey, Chris, that's great with me. If everyone liked the same things we'd live in an all vanilla world. How BORING would that be?!!! :) Thanks for being sincere.

Kiki,
Yes, that would be true if the main subject was the headlight and bumper protrusion. However, THAT is NOT my subject! My subject is the car as a whole. The car, is the subject, everything else is background. I want the eye to jump smack dab onto the car - specifically the entire general area of wheel/bumper/headlight, after which, the eye is drawn outward, via the leading lines of the car itself. This image is a story of a car, not the story of a headlight and bumper. Had I wanted the headlight and bumper to be the subject, I would have stepped in closer to the car, completely eliminating all background. You can't just arbitrarily slap on a grid and say,"There, it fits!". If I trap people by making them focus on the headlight and bumper, they miss the big picture. :)

As for Pop Tarts, it was just a centered composition. I'd only been shooting a couple months, brand new to photography, and I was thrilled to just get all of me in the picture. It was my first actual self-portrait. :)

~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge27-Oct-2006 03:00
Kiki, I think you are right, and that you understand the rule better than you think.

Lonnit, it is a very neat car, and I think that is the draw to this image. I personally am not a big fan of styling that you have done with the photo, seems over worked to me. But hey it is cool that you are trying things, I would just make it a little less photoshop looking.

Chris
jbhgmvo27-Oct-2006 02:55
Hmmm. Perhaps I don't understand the rule of threes. As I understand it, I can see it applied here on the horizontal levels, but not on the vertical. The main focal point of interest in this picture, reinforced by repetition, is the front light and bumper to the left. An axis there is further exaggerated by the left tree, and yet again under the car, in shape of the center of the car corner shadow. That axis speaks so strongly that the motive appears to be firmly centered in a "rule of fours" to me. Darn nice car though :)

Addition: Funny you should mention the similarity with your old self portrait, because I see exactly the same "rule" there.. the bended knee in the exact middle. But there the horizontal axis is also strongly centered. I guess I should read up on the rule of threes lol
Canon DSLR Challenge27-Oct-2006 00:32
Kiki, If it were just street to clone, it might be something to consider, but I just can't create the storefront scene. I too always see the faces in the car fronts, and often the rear as well. I was cropping out the car that was parked next to this one, on the right side of the frame. As is, it is sitting very nicely on the grid of thirds. I framed as well as possible for the existing and unavoidable conditions. There a number of ways a grid of thirds can be overlaid on any image. Had there been more flexibility in positioning, I'd likely have gotten the vertical line, that is next to the headlight, to run up the left line of thirds, which would have been more like your suggestion. Not being able to do that, I used the vertical of the bumper as it traveled up and along the window edge, which sits right on the left vertical thirds line. Using the crop that matches yours, I'd have adjust my position ever so slightly to line up that vertical by the headlight with the left side of the window above it. Thanks for the input. :)

Oh, my gosh, Olaf! I just brought up the images side by side... You are right, but for all the wrong reasons! You sensed the link, but you didn't truly compare. No, the subjects ARE the same! I'm looking at Pop Tarts and all I'm thinking is that it just must be the color cast from the light bulbs in the room, which I didn't correct for b/c I liked the mood it created. Then it hit me!!!

Olaf, the car and I are the same! We are posed alike. We are shot from the same angle. We enter the image the same way, growing from a small point and getting larger as we come into the frame, except that I am not cropped at the edge of the frame. The headlight is my bent knee. My bent elbow is the corner of the bumper. The flat of my ribs is the hood ornament. By chest connects to the base of my neck as the hood connects to the headlight on the right. The curve of my face and forehead is the curve of the headlight on the right. The Even the surroundings - the black pillow is the black tire, the picture frame the window. The pointy pillow below my head is the corner of the bumper on the right. The black shadow under the car is the black coffee table.

The resemblance is uncanny! No wonder I loved this image so much - it is yet another self portrait! I am so thrilled that you pointed this out! Do you recall how I said that as I was processing this image the passion overwhelmed me and I fell in love with the idea of shooting these old cars? I must have subconsciously sensed this! What an amazing thing! I wonder how many of my images are linked by shape.

Enormous {{{{hugs}}}} to you for pointing this out! WOW!!!

~ Lonnit
jbhgmvo26-Oct-2006 20:53
To me, a cars front is a face. The headlights are the eyes. At an angle like this, the wheel is an "ear". I would have moved the image 84 pixels to the left, and possibly done some serious cloning on the right side, unless something is cropped out. Tested this with "rule of three" guideline overlay.. look what happens..
Guest 26-Oct-2006 20:25
I specifically said that they are not the same. But, there is _something_ that tie these two together. Even without knowing that one took five minutes and the other an hour, I'd say it is obvious that this one is more refined in its processing. Still, there is something about the tones and muted colors of the everything but the main subject that make the 'feel' of the two similar - at least to me.
Canon DSLR Challenge26-Oct-2006 19:58
CJ, it does make me happy when people do spot my work. I think it's a good thing to have some recognizability, although I would not want a very strict, predictable style, where every image looks the same. I do think I have a strong variety of images, but I'm glad that they have that certain somewhat elusive something, that makes one think "Lonnit". Actually, I really love that there is not a strict definition to what comprises a Lonnit shot, but somehow, Lonnit comes thru. If I had my druthers, that is precisely what I would want people to experience. So, although, earlier, it was somewhat frustrating to me that people couldn't really define what made my shots recognizable, now it thrills me and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Have fun playing with your car shots! Those classics have so much personality, you can have a ball playing around with them. Just think about what the image says it wants, and don't concetrate too much on my workflow. Just play around with all the PS gadgets and something will start to look cool - you'll know it when you see it - and then keep it going in that direction. :)

Olaf, there's absolutely no similarity between this and that. :) For this, see the generalized workflow below. For Pop Tarts, the only processing was to make the picture on the wall (behind the couch) blank, and then I ran a simple PS plastic wrap filter over the whole image. That was a very quick job, this one took much more time and effort, with multiple filters, color replacement, sign edits, and assorted blending modes, and burning in. Pop Tarts was maybe 5 minutes of edit time, this was probably close to an hour. I was playing a lot here. :)

Dorys, ohhhhh, yes, you're right. I did shoot that old car, from behind, while it was driving down the highway, in front of us. Ok, that could be the connection. That one was in tones very similar to the background of this one. :)

Bob, I didn't realise *I* was into cars and other cool stuff!!! LOL! This is my first car shoot.

~ Lonnnit
Canon DSLR Challenge26-Oct-2006 19:19
Great shot Lonnit! I too, thought this was yours from the thumbnail - you have a certain style, and that's not a bad thing! I have quite a few shots of old cars too but need to do some interesting processing to make them look this good - so thanks for the work-flow! :-) CJ
Guest 26-Oct-2006 18:51
I do see similarities between the processing on this and one of the first lonnit-images ever submitted to these challenges - 'Waiting For PopTarts':http://www.pbase.com/cslr_challenge/image/21668800 (I am not saying they are the same!)
Guest 26-Oct-2006 18:18
I don't know why I knew it was yours... I just did. Weird huh. I think it might be from a CTF challenge way back when... Album covers. This has a bit of the same feel. But maybe that's not why. Maybe I have some inner sense that just "knew" this was yours.

:-)
Canon DSLR Challenge26-Oct-2006 12:50
This is great Lonnit, I didn't realise you were into cars and other cool stuff. My guess is that this is a 1956/7 ish ford which I don't think ever made it down under. Customlines did I used to drive one. (... when they were a few years older!!) "COOL"! ~ Regards Bob
Canon DSLR Challenge26-Oct-2006 01:53
Thank you ladies. The process isn't an exact science yet. In general, I first changed the bottom color of the car from orange to purple. I used Nik's "old photo color" filter to desat and bring up the edges of things a bit, but I played around in various blending modes in CS2 to get the look I wanted, not the direct filter result. Being an old car, I thought the old photo filter was a nice touch. I then also used the Shadow/Highlight tool to give it that somewhat drawinglike look, which was a superb treatment for the chrome. I also played around with the blending mode on that layer as well. I finished with some burning in around the edges, which is something I do on almost every image. Oh, there was also the altering of the name of the store so it would not be identifiable. That's something I do very often, particularly when I know the image might be used for stock. In this case, with the car in it anyhow, it couldn't be used commercially, only for editorial, but, I did it anyway.

I don't always do so much processing, but I started getting very passionate about these car shots and they were begging to be tweaked. I just do what the pictures ask, that's all. :) ~ Lonnit
elips26-Oct-2006 00:33
Fabulous, Lonnit! I'd be interested in hearing your workflow as well! ~Sharon
Canon DSLR Challenge26-Oct-2006 00:12
Fabulous shot of this cool-looking car! Looks as if it could have been an ad for the car when it originally came out :). Can I ask how you processed it? I like the look... --Melanie
Canon DSLR Challenge25-Oct-2006 13:15
Thank you, Vikas. Subtle desat? LOL! Wasn't all that subtle. ;)

This car series got my heart racing. How wonderful it is to discover one posesses a previously unknown passion! I could make a biz out of shooting these cars and selling the images to their owners. I could definitely enjoy that! ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge25-Oct-2006 13:12
Now, Dorys, tell me... how on Earth could you know that this was a Lonnit by the thumbnail? I am utterly dumbfounded! It's a subject matter I've never shot before, and it's a new processing technique I've developed in playing around with this image! So, how do you take all that, and STILL recognize it instantly as a Lonnit? The only thing that I'm thinking could be a hint, is the angle. I like to go for the atypical viewpoint. I was in a full down squat on this one. I don't want the same vantage point as everyone else. That morning, I'd gone to the botanical gardens for a photo event. They had some models posing with light setups. I walked away from that - bores me to tears, plus, what?, get on line behind all the other photogs and take the same shot that everyone else does, all pre-set-up? YAWN! I HATE those setups! So, I wandered past that and saw a group of retired chorus girls. No lights, just them posing in a line together. And there are all the other photogs, standing side by side, shooting the same thing. Shaking my head, I walked over to the side of the ladies, lay on the floor, and shot nothing but their legs and feet from a low angle. Done with that, I went outside to check out the garden. There they were, bunches of photogs, with and without tripods, all standing - and on rare occasion, squatting - hovering OVER a flower, looking down on it, all taking the same pictures. Where was I? Once again, squatting under the flowers, trying to get as low as possible, shooting from under the flowers, upwards, with the sky as my background, camera tilted askew. I got some shots I just love - and discovered I like shooting flowers, which previously bored me, sick of the same old standards. I can't wait to post the shots. Wish I had a purple one to enter. I might take a pink and tweak it purple.

Oh, and a bit of confession here... the bottom of the car (and the awning, I think) were originally orange, but that didn't qualify. LOL! ~ Lonnit
Vikas Malhotra25-Oct-2006 06:28
Great one Lonnit, love the subtle desat and the prominent purple.

Cheers, Vikas.
Canon DSLR Challenge25-Oct-2006 06:03
I knew this was a Lonnit original by just the thumbnail. Nice job girl. Dorys
Canon DSLR Challenge25-Oct-2006 05:26
Oops! Meant to provide the link to a few more of them from the same day.http://www.flickr.com/photos/20351097@N00/ ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge25-Oct-2006 05:25
Thank you, Nico. Yes, I am so anal about the rule of thirds - I've always taken every image and overlay a grid on it to use as a guide to make sure all the main elements are following the rule. I'm to the point now that minor cropping is all that is necessary to make a precision adjustment. On this image, I threw on the grid, as usual, tweaked it around a bit, then came to realize that I'd nailed it perfectly in camera and no cropping at all was necessary. It's a great feeling when that happens, and I'm finding that it is happening with more and more frequency.

Oh, and speaking of passion... I'd not shot these old cars before - well, ok, one that I saw at a museam. But I saw these and really started getting into it. During the processing of the images, I've found that I am absolutely passionate about doing these old car shots! ~ Lonnit
jnconradie25-Oct-2006 05:14
Nice to see one of your creations in Eligible again, Lonnit! :-)

You had mentioned that Rules of Thirds is a passion for you in terms of composition - and it is clear to see that the front wheel is placed with mathematical precision in this instance.

Lovey colours and a really interesting port-processing. Compliments and regards ~jnconradie