This is going to be a thread where Lil'Buddy struts his stuff. Feel free to interject with comments & critiques if the spirit grooves you, or photos of your own if something you see spurs you to shoot something or there's something you wanna share.

I'll start w/some taken @ the dealership where he was sitting out front for a bit for all to admire, until I picked him up.

I was once playing around in Lightroom and made some 'over-processed' yet interestingly compelling images, as it make the metal surfaces look liquid, and accentuates reflections. Then a few weeks or months later I saw a thread about it, where apparently it was already known as an established named technique, I just can't remember the name [!] ... I asked on my photography 'home', pentaxforums.com, if anyone knows the name of it.

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Not too outrageous ... a better treatment even I'd say.


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Get'n a bit outrageous, but still works (IMO)


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It's get'n... It's get'n... It's get'n kind'a hectic
It's get'n... It's get'n... It's get'n kind'a hectic ... :D


(I've got some even crazier, here)

...my 2009 Factory JCW MINI...his name is Lil'Buddy.

 

I'm going to make it my business to run into you when you have your camera handy. Probably in King's Park

 

Look'n forward to it.

 

Though I like the 2nd, & 2nd to last of the "intentionally over-processed" ones, here's a more conventional treatment... between the 'drabish' originals hardly processed, and the intentionally overly processed ones....
the keeper I think:

 

For certain.

 

Is it bad that I'm REALLY looking forward to taking delivery of my JCW so I can take some pics?

Some nice shots you've got minim8o.

 

Beautiful MINI !!

And you could have become a detailing legend if you told us you polished and waxed that car to get those reflections instead of being honest and telling us you over processed them.

Some of accused me of doctoring my photos after detailing and then I have to be honest and tell them, "I wouldn't know how to do that if I had to" !!

Sweet MINI... thanks for sharing !

 

great looking car... and so SHINY,...

 

I'm glad I took these pics in the lot. Sad realization hit today that the car will never look that clean/pristine again. I spent all afternoon cleaning my 3 cars, 560SL, C43/55 AMG, and MINI. Where you play the sad game of "spot the new scratches & chips" @ the same time. ...Lil'Buddy already has 3 chips on the front bumper area and a few scratches behind the front tire from rocks kicked up by them, regardless of the mud flaps...

 

I got me a new SIGPIC...

 

Second pic is amazing

 

I finished converting some more I took soon after delivery that had been sitting in the camera...

 

Nice!

 

Replaced the sigpic w/this. Not as 'hi-key' treatment, tho boosted a good bit still, but close to how the eye would have seen it w/a bit more 'pop'...

 

I spent all day on the North Fork of Long Island. Took the Pentax K10D and decided I'd travel light, and took just an old used SMC Pentax-A 50mm F1.7 lens and to focus framing a bit tighter coupled it with my old Pentax 1.7x AF TC [both of which I bought off eBay] ... hitting a restaurant, exploring the south shore of the north fork and stopping by Pindar winery. Hogally Mogally I was surprised by that lens + teleconverter combo! [I'll post the pics on PentaxForums.com tomorrow it anyone is interested in that stuff.]

Here's one of the final shots I took today when I made a detour on the turn-off 3 houses from my house, and went down the hill to stop by the beach and snap a few mor of Lil'Buddy with the setting sun; heavily worked in Lightroom...



Or how 'bout just an untouched JPG right out of the camera:

 

Nice. A couple of things you may want to play with though...
1. Over-sharpened! Look at the jagged lines on the belt-line, wheels, antenna, etc. These reveal just how over-sharpened the image is.
2. Windows with specks. Raindrops or just over-processing? You may want to smooth that out, but it is not apparent in your scaled down sig version.
3. The ground visible below Lil' Buddy should be processed (or at least look like) the ground in other parts of the image.

I dig your recent sunset photo with the warm and cool tones. You may want to get rid of the halos around the interior bits though (play some more with the brush size and settings for your mask work).

 

I don't have PS but do Lightroom. That doesn't allow for selective processing. Version 2 can I think. I'm going to want to upgrade. (not sure of what you mean with #3 with that)

I was going for 'over boosted' / hi-key with those/that one, but ya, I object to the 'jaggies' @ the same time. I'm with you. Good eye w/the halos on the interior; missed that. I wanted to use more 'Recovery', but was getting a bad 'outline edge' on the trees off in the distance. Thanx for the comments. I think I've taken this versio of Lightroom as far as it'll take me. I'll need something that will allow sections of an image to not get a particular treatment.

 

That sunset shot is absolutely stunning!

 

Ah, I assumed you were doing your edits in PS and didn't realize they were only in lightroom. Keep in mind the product goals with lightroom and PS; LR is for image management and simple overall photo adjustments whereas PS is the industrial strength tool for image editing. LR v2.0 adds more selective editing, but is still much more limited/restricted than what can be done in PS. You may want to look into PS, PS Elements, or The GIMP rather than a LR update if you're looking for more powerful editing tools. You really need them for editing something like your sunset photo. If you're on a budget, you simply can't beat The GIMP for it's value and power, plus it works on Win, Mac, and *nix boxes.

 

Along these lines...




Those neon lights light up the white of the hi-rise apartment building's bricks to make the orange glow you see here all the way to the top. This was a few nights before the two above, before I had all those spots to myself.



I finally got out there and shot some of the MINI. Disappointing...




Rolfs behind had already turned its lights off so I had no color on the leaves, and there were cars close in front and behind. These also are JPGs right out of the camera. When I load them on my other computer with Lightroom, I'll sex up the RAWs and make'm sizzle a little.

I'll try again one day next summer and can hopefully duplicate the C43/55 shots. The streets might become clear around Christmas when many people leave NYC, but then the leaves will be gone, so...

 

Lightroom for conversions from RAW rocks...