El Camino

Jason Office

For this weeks submission of Aerodynamic, like Phil I went with the automobile route. But in another direction. This past Sunday I took the fam down to Hawkesbury for the annual Auto Expo. I looked around for a car show online and this one seemed to be the most interesting as it was advertised with “Over 2000 cars!”… Nope. Not quite. But still there were a lot of cars to droll over, that’s for sure.

The El Camino was the ride I chose to go with out of all of my shots. Why? I have always been a fan of these cars. A truck and a car all in one! What’s not to like about that?! Now, I know it’s not the most aerodynamic vehicle out there, which is why I took the shot at this angle.

I then took the image into Photoshop and started to go crazy with it. Since she is a classic, I wanted the photo to look aged. I applied a vintage texture from my vast collection. Played with the hue and saturation for a while, until I came up with the final product.

Here is the original shot…

And this is my second runner up. The Mercury Comet.

I hope you enjoy!

J

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Posted on Thursday, September 8th, 2011 at 5:00 am.
  • http://LearningDSLR.com Philippe Dame

    Nice shots and interesting angles. I like the texture you added – where do you find those? I have found some sites but I’m always looking and collecting.

    I like your second shot quite a bit. I like seeing the taillights. The difficulty with the first is it’s not your car and you can’t move it. You’ve got a reflection of another car in the dark paint of the Camino… tough to avoid but a bit distracting. If it could have been facing a park or trees (something generic), that’d be ideal.

    For the second shot, is there a text in there? How do you get the tone to change near the bottom?

    • Jason

      Thanks! I wish I could tell you where exactly I got this texture, but I have grabbed a bunch over the past while between my home and work computers.

      With that reflection, there was really nothing I could have done since all the cars are parked so close together. Although I guess I could have gone in and tried to desaturate it a bit.

      Yup, the text on the car is COMET. I changed the tone with a layer mask and gradient in Photoshop.

  • Vinh

    nice submission, Jay!  Very sleek aerodynamic lines indeed.  The reflection, it is noticeable and take a bit away from a great pic.  The second submission is very cool too, I really like tail as it’s purpose relates to aerodynamic and the colours you used. 

    I’m looking to find and collect some more Photoshop Actions.  Is there a way to share these somehow? 

    • Jason

      Yup! I just got a bunch last night. A friend from college was nice enough to send me a ton! My weekend is going to be nuts starting at 4 this afternoon. I’ll try to remember to send them to you. If I don’t by Sunday evening shoot me a text.

  • Adam

    Nice!  Maybe it was 2000 cars if they included the cars of the guests who showed up?
    I like the effect – matches the car perfectly.