Bad Car

[photophorous]

Please, let me know what you think of this. I can't decide.

Thanks,
Paul

[starriderrick]

This reminds me of the scene at the loading dock / alley in the movie "Christine".

Now that was a BAD car.hahaha.

The bars do give a feeling of being "locked up" Bad Car
The title fits in this way.


Rick

[Copy_Kot]

Only nitpicks would be, that the car is too centered (for me), and the thin bright blue border/frame distracts from the image.

I like the image.

[photophorous]

Rick, I'm glad you think the title is fitting. I haven't seen/read Christine, but I'm sure it's premise had something to do with this.

Paul, I purposely centered the car in the image for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to give life to the car, as if I person was looking out from behind the bars. Dramatic, yes, but that's what I thought of when I saw this car. Almost as if it had been locked up for something that was not his/her fault. The second reason is purely asthetic; I like the patterns in the brick. I don't see any thin blue border...just the black border that is the film edge. Maybe it has something to do with it being hosted on flickr.

I'm attempting to take photos with a little more meaning behind them than I have in the past. Sometimes this means I sacrifice technical quality or break some rules. If you like the image, then I guess I succeeded on some level, but the lack of more response is not encouraging.

Thank you both for your time.

Paul

[Copy_Kot]

If you like the image, then I guess I succeeded on some level, but the lack of more response is not encouraging.

I know that feeling very well and I've made a conscious decision not to reply to anyone who doesn't at least make an effort to help out others as much as they ask for it (or close to it).

The reason I don't like the car being centered is because it's hard to get a sense of how deep the enclosure is (the walls help some). I think if just a little bit of the side of the car was visible, it would add a sense of greater depth to the image.

I hope that made sense (lol).

Oh and... I'm not familiar with flicker, but there is clearly a blue edge around the image on my monitor. I wonder if anyone else sees it?

[big baldo]

I'm no pro, but I really like it. I get what you were going for here. I like it centered on the hood ornament. The narrow alley, nice textures. It works for me. It kind of has an "album cover" look about it. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
A couple things I would fix:
Straighten the photo- I feel the horizontal bar at the bottom is distracting.
Get rid of the light line in the dark BG (above car roof)
Other than those, it works for me!!

[photophorous]

I know that feeling very well and I've made a conscious decision not to reply to anyone who doesn't at least make an effort to help out others as much as they ask for it (or close to it).

The reason I don't like the car being centered is because it's hard to get a sense of how deep the enclosure is (the walls help some). I think if just a little bit of the side of the car was visible, it would add a sense of greater depth to the image.

I hope that made sense (lol).

Oh and... I'm not familiar with flicker, but there is clearly a blue edge around the image on my monitor. I wonder if anyone else sees it?

Thanks for the explanation. I see what you're saying, but I feel like looking straight at the front of the car is the best way to give it life, making the front like a face. I want it to look like a sad face staring out, and I think more of a side view would detract from that. I know where this thing is so maybe I'll take some more shots and see how they turn out.

I'm at home now (work earlier) and I see a red line around the picture, but only when I put my cursor on it. You can click on it to go to my flickr page. No blue line though. I'm using Firefox at home and Internet Exploder at work. Hmmm..

Paul

[photophorous]

I'm no pro, but I really like it. I get what you were going for here. I like it centered on the hood ornament. The narrow alley, nice textures. It works for me. It kind of has an "album cover" look about it. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
A couple things I would fix:
Straighten the photo- I feel the horizontal bar at the bottom is distracting.
Get rid of the light line in the dark BG (above car roof)
Other than those, it works for me!!

Hi Big Baldo,

Thanks for commenting. Glad you like it. Here's a rotated and slightly croped version. The light line in the background is a hand rail coming down off a loading dock. I agree it's a little distracting, but I'm too lazy to clone it out.

What do you think of the rotated version? I actually did this before I posted the first one, because I had the same thoughts as you, but when I saw the cropped version...I don't know. It just seems to be missing something.

Thanks,
Paul

[HowLowCanYaGo]

Good edit. I was going to say crop that bottom out as well :P

Interesting shot.

[starriderrick]

Paul,I understand what you are saying.I will review my thoughts before I post. My bad.

Rick

[gahspidy]

Paul, I like the idea here and I think it came off successfully. I agree with the suggestions for improvement and feel the cropped rotated version is better. I think I would try darkening the walls on each side somewhat to get the car to stand out stronger and bring forth more of a mood.
Good subject and idea.

[Greg McCary]

I think that I would have tried a bit lower shot. I always try and aviod shooting from head height, it makes it look to much like a snapshot. I might have also worked on the B&W conversion some, there isn't enough contrast here, ther is just to much grey and it looks a little flat.

[big baldo]

What do you think of the rotated version? I actually did this before I posted the first one, because I had the same thoughts as you, but when I saw the cropped version...I don't know. It just seems to be missing something.

Ya I see what your saying. I like it better though. One thing that might be messing with us is that it seems to be focused on the bars and the car is OOF. I dont know if it would make that much of a difference but its a thought.
IMO this picture has alot of potential in PP.Some really cool effects could make this pic a sure winner............BB

[Chunk]

I like Greg's idea of a lower point of view. I also like the horizontal element being gone in the second version. There's a strong dichotomy between the elegance of the car and the brute force of the bars. Good positioning of the elements of the car with the hood ornament and lights showing through gaps in the bars.

[photophorous]

Paul,I understand what you are saying.I will review my thoughts before I post. My bad.

Rick

Rick,

I appreciate your different take on this and I'm glad you posted it. I'm going to think about that next time I'm taking a similar shot. That's how we learn from the critique forum. :thumbsup: Thank you.

Paul

[photophorous]

Paul, I like the idea here and I think it came off successfully. I agree with the suggestions for improvement and feel the cropped rotated version is better. I think I would try darkening the walls on each side somewhat to get the car to stand out stronger and bring forth more of a mood.
Good subject and idea.

Gary,

Thanks for your comments. I like your idea of darkening the walls. I think I should have given this a little less exposure, which might take care of that, but some masking might be necessary too.

Paul

[photophorous]

I think that I would have tried a bit lower shot. I always try and aviod shooting from head height, it makes it look to much like a snapshot. I might have also worked on the B&W conversion some, there isn't enough contrast here, ther is just to much grey and it looks a little flat.

Greg,

I always like it when people mention the B&W conversion for a B&W film shot. This is Tri-X, shot on my new Bessa rangefinder. I like your idea about going lower, but I don't think I could go much lower with out the hood ornament overlapping the windshield whippers. But then again, if I went low enough, I could hide that handrail in the back ground too. Hmm...:idea:

Thanks for your comments.

Paul

[photophorous]

Ya I see what your saying. I like it better though. One thing that might be messing with us is that it seems to be focused on the bars and the car is OOF. I dont know if it would make that much of a difference but its a thought.
IMO this picture has alot of potential in PP.Some really cool effects could make this pic a sure winner............BB

BB,

After looking at this more, I think I'm with you in prefering the crop. I think what was bugging me is that I wanted more than just vertical bars from the gate to show. I might be happier still if I had stepped back a little farther and included more of the gate.

I focused on the hood ornament for this. I probably should have focused a little further back. My original idea was to focus on the hood ornament/headlights, use a very shallow DOF, and have everything else blurry, but I tried it at f16 also and I think that came out much better. The shallow DOF just wasn't shallow enough for that idea to work.

Thanks again!

Paul

[photophorous]

Good positioning of the elements of the car with the hood ornament and lights showing through gaps in the bars.

Yea! Somebody noticed! I'm glad you like it. Thanks for commenting!

Paul