Car Shows/Meetups

[rayallen]

One of my passions is shooting custom cars/hot rods but there has not been a lot of that going on lately due to COVID-19.
Here is one of my favourite images taken in my very early days with my Canon 1Ds and an EF 28-80mm. It is not a highly rated lens but it seems to perform OK for me.

[Isac]

Beautiful restoration job on this one. Wow those tyres are really close to those mudguards! This one was restored in 1987 and is a 1932 Ford model 18 V-8. Lovely photo BTW, but a bit dark on my monitor though. TFS.

[rayallen]

Beautiful restoration job on this one. Wow those tyres are really close to those mudguards! This one was restored in 1987 and is a 1932 Ford model 18 V-8. Lovely photo BTW, but a bit dark on my monitor though. TFS.

Yes, it is beautifully restored and it is always well presented. Yes, the mudguards don't have much clearance but they are attached to the suspension so the distance never changes.
How do you know when the car was restored? Do you have a connection to that specific car? I am curious. The current owner is a member of the Central Coast American Classics group.

The image does not look dark on my calibrated monitor. It's probably just how I prefer to process my images.

[Isac]

The car info is on the NSW car registration website. Not much info but make and year and modification dates are there. I suppose my interest is because back in the day I was a mechanic and did lots of mods to my car and others.

I suppose "dark" may have been the wrong word, I meant the shadows were just hiding a few details. Please forgive the error

[rayallen]

Ah, that explains it, Isac. I didn't even think about looking it up there.
I was never a mechanic but my best mate was and he helped me a lot but only on the major stuff that I could not do.

When I processed that image I was more interested in getting the car right and I wasn't too bothered about the shadows. Consider yourself forgiven.

[HansE]

Have to appreciate the work that goes into these restorations. Presently helping put a V6 motor in a HJ Holden ute. I like your photo of the Ford. It is worthy of a calendar. My opinion for what it's worth is that it looks like it is presented more like it would be for a black and white print than a colour monitor. Not that I would change it.

[rayallen]

Thank you very much for your kind words, Hanse. Now that you mention it I will reprocess it as a B&W as i should convert well. I processed a few from that day to B&W but that one was not included. I'll post it later.

[rayallen]

I have reprocessed the above image to B&W with ACDSee Ultimate 2020. In this case I processed the JPG version rather than the RAW because I thought that it look a bit "cleaner".
Anyway, here it is with thanks to Hanse for the suggestion.

[rayallen]

Thanks, John. Now changed to "With explanation". That makes sense.

[HansE]

Both the image and the car have style. But I think the shadows are a bit gloomy and have lost a bit of detail. Looks great in B&W as well.

[rayallen]

Yes, I think I was a bit hasty by posting it like that. I will reprocess the RAW image with ACR and Photoshop...and maybe a bit of NIK Silver Efex.

[Grumpy John]

I hope you don't mind Ray, but I had a crack at giving your classic car the vintage look. I used NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 > Vintage > Dark Sepia.

[rayallen]

No, I don't mind a bit as you have done a great job. I am not normally a big fan of sepia but I do like that Dark Sepia. I have not used it before so I must give it a try. This is definitely the benefit of mixing with like-minded people (of similar vintage!!!).

BTW, this car club meetup is normally held on the second Sunday of each month at a large cafe in the Tuggerah Business Park. Because of COVID-19 it is not on for the present but I am looking forward to when it restarts. It always attracts a good variety of machines.

[rayallen]

Here's my reprocess. It is quite similar to yours, John, but I chose Soft Sepia. Let me know what you think of it.

[Grumpy John]

Looks good Ray, you have lifted the shadows a tad and that improves the overall look of the image. I felt that the car was facing downhill a tad so I used the pole where the guy's head it as a vertical reverence to straighten the image. There are a couple of us here that are a bit anal about our levels, but that is our problem and we need to deal with it

[Grumpy John]

I thought that I had already asked this question, but obviously not. Do you know what make of car the red one in the background is? Isac and I can't seem to agree .

[HansE]

Buick and Mercury both had grills like that!

[rayallen]

I'm not sure what it is, GJ. It has been highly modified and all nameplates have been removed. It is also a lowrider. Don't ask me why they do that.
Here's a better photo of it. Number plate is 62680-D (NSW Conditional). HTH.

[Grumpy John]

That is definitely NOT an FJ Holden, not even close.

[HansE]

There are two different b&w images here Look at the lady in the shadows I see a reduction in the highlights in isacs with the lady looking in the same direction as the red car . As far as the car goes I like either picture.

[Isac]

Strange Hans, I haven't posted any images here?? It would be fun to try Photoshop's Image Calculations method. Real cool results.

[HansE]

Too much to get my head around at present having troubles getting to grips with the luminosity masks. I thought they would be good for noise reduction but got into a bit of a mess.

[Isac]

Looks like a hybrid from the early 1950's. Made up of Dodge Meadowbrook, 1954 Chrysler DeSoto Firedome and maybe some others.