Quote Originally Posted by Medley
Quality of shot notwithstanding, there are some things that can be done. First, and from the point of view of an avid Photoshopper: Either change the lighting or ditch the brick background. The reflection on the hood picks up the rough texture, giving the glare a pitted or pocked appearance. It is for that reason that I chose not to enhance the glare in my edit.

Secondly, forget about color. There's not enough of it in this shot to make a difference, and in my editing, a subdued much of what WAS there. This image is about lightness and contrast. Here's my edit:


And the original, for comparison:


The first thing I did (and the one that is most obvious) is to apply Shadow/Highlight to the entire image. This lightens the right side of the car (left, as you look at it) and enhances the wheels and highlights on the passenger side.

The headlights, fog lights, grill, wheels, and windshield were all selected individually with the pen tool, and copied to their own layer for enhancement. In most cases they were either lightened with a Levels command, or given increased contrast with the Curves command. The grill, wheels, and windshield had the blue desaturated to varying degrees.

Increasing the "shine" of the car involves painting with white or a light grey on a new layer, changing the blend mode to "soft light" and applying a luminosity selection as a mask.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have. You might want to google for a tutorial tough. Just a thought.

- Joe U.
Hi Joe,

Thank you for the edit, and thank you for all of the very helpful tips - I really appreciate you going out of your way here :thumbsup:

I'm going to hopefully get some time to do more shots this weekend, and then I'll post them with the great advice I now have under my belt.

I'm still amazed though at how crisp some people can get there shots such as this one:

It's so perfect - you barely see any pixels.

Yet, regardless of what I shoot, it never comes out like this? Does it have anything to do with shooting in RAW?

Again, any help is greatly appreciated!