# Getting the "magazine look"



## yardley (Mar 18, 2010)

I'm going to be shooting some cars and I'm trying to get the look in the following pics, which I call the "magazine look". Can anyone give me some pointers on how to achieve this look? It's almost like this un-natural exaggerated look that works really well with cars. The following is a link to a raw file of a picture I took. If someone could color correct it to have a simliar look as the examples I've shown and post an explanation that would be awesome! Thanks in advance!

LINK: http://rapidshare.com/files/365248521/IMG_2080_copy.CR2

EXAMPLES:


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## NateWagner (Mar 18, 2010)

If these aren't your images, you really shouldn't be posting them on here...

That being said, it's entirely possible it is some sort of tone mapping/hdr work.


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## yardley (Mar 18, 2010)

NateWagner said:


> If these aren't your images, you really shouldn't be posting them on here...
> 
> That being said, it's entirely possible it is some sort of tone mapping/hdr work.



I tried doing HDR with Photomatrix Pro but I wasn't getting results anywhere near these pictures. These are not my images but I got them online and figured I'm not hurting anyone by posting them as examples of some great work on here.


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## rufus5150 (Mar 18, 2010)

Large DOF, tons of light, and look into post plugins like LucisArts or Topaz Adjust -- those tools will get you about 80-90% of the way there. The source material has to be spot-on though.

I did the following (granted, the truck is NOT clean, and also I should have cloned out the light post coming from the exhaust) by exposing in broad daylight, large DOF, wide angle, and used the 'portrait drama' preset in topaz adjust 4 while pushing the 'detail' slider up to around 2. It's not perfect, but this was literally a quick shot of a friend's truck I took while we were visiting:


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## yardley (Mar 18, 2010)

rufus5150 said:


> Large DOF, tons of light, and look into post plugins like LucisArts or Topaz Adjust -- those tools will get you about 80-90% of the way there. The source material has to be spot-on though.
> 
> I did the following (granted, the truck is NOT clean, and also I should have cloned out the light post coming from the exhaust) by exposing in broad daylight, large DOF, wide angle, and used the 'portrait drama' preset in topaz adjust 4 while pushing the 'detail' slider up to around 2. It's not perfect, but this was literally a quick shot of a friend's truck I took while we were visiting:




That looks badass and is definitely the kind of look I'm going for. Would you recommend something like F11 or higher? Also could you post the original picture? Thanks for all the info I really appreciate it!


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## rufus5150 (Mar 18, 2010)

Use whatever fstop will get you the DOF you want. I know that's a non-answer, but it's true. I was going to shoot this somewhere between f8 and f16, but f11 got me what I needed.

Here's the original (with the license plate blacked out of course). I did reconstruct the bumper and the shadow under the bumper to remove the license plate, crop, healed out some of the ugly grease bits... etc.


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## yardley (Mar 19, 2010)

rufus5150 said:


> Use whatever fstop will get you the DOF you want. I know that's a non-answer, but it's true. I was going to shoot this somewhere between f8 and f16, but f11 got me what I needed.
> 
> Here's the original (with the license plate blacked out of course). I did reconstruct the bumper and the shadow under the bumper to remove the license plate, crop, healed out some of the ugly grease bits... etc.



You've got skills my friend. Thanks again!


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## webmaster705 (Mar 19, 2010)

Well background off all your pictures is really wonderful and ideal, but its not so focused as it should, try to have your main focus on cars, with little effoprt you will have amazing results


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## BrandonS (Mar 19, 2010)

*image removed*


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## rufus5150 (Mar 19, 2010)

BrandonS --

I do have listed that my photos are _not_ OK to edit. I would ask that you respect that.


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## BrandonS (Mar 19, 2010)

oh i'm sorry i'll take it down immediately... I thought it was the original posters.  Sorry for the confusion.


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## rufus5150 (Mar 19, 2010)

Thanks


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## LearnMyShot (Mar 19, 2010)

I would keep the backgrounds simple with hard sunlight......but try shooting with long exposures at dawn or dusk....we used to shoot cars on the desert at dawn..incredible light...just before the sun came over the horizon.


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## yardley (Mar 19, 2010)

BrandonS said:


> oh i'm sorry i'll take it down immediately... I thought it was the original posters.  Sorry for the confusion.



Hey Brandon, the link to my picture is http://rapidshare.com/files/365248521/IMG_2080_copy.CR2


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## BrandonS (Mar 19, 2010)

I've downloaded it but CS4 won't open it.


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## yardley (Mar 19, 2010)

BrandonS said:


> I've downloaded it but CS4 won't open it.



Here you go, I saved it as a TIFF.

http://rapidshare.com/files/365622956/IMG_2080_copy.tif


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## ANDS! (Mar 19, 2010)

Lol.  As if that were the Mona Lisa. . .

Anyway, as has been clearly demonstrated here - you can get ok results from mediocre beginnings with what you have.  Just run the posted file through Photomatix or a similar program.  Something like this:







Which is just an extreme example of what you can "fake", if you can't make it in your camera.


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## yardley (Mar 20, 2010)

ANDS! said:


> Lol.  As if that were the Mona Lisa. . .
> 
> Anyway, as has been clearly demonstrated here - you can get ok results from mediocre beginnings with what you have.  Just run the posted file through Photomatix or a similar program.  Something like this:
> 
> ...



Thats pretty cool. Mind sharing how you processed the picture? I tried Photomatrix and actually used exposure bracketing but I didn't get the results I wanted. Either I'm not good at tweaking the settings or I'm not taking good enough exposures. Here's a set of bracketed exposures. I'm I doing something wrong?

http://rapidshare.com/files/365713153/car.zip


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## kami (Mar 20, 2010)

Maybe you might want to ask a friend of mine who just recently shot some exotics. He used a couple of vivitar flashes and 1 AB which he moved around to light up the cars correctly then he made a composite. 

check it out:

Flickr: Jan Paul Yap's Photostream


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## BrandonS (Mar 20, 2010)

I think I went the wrong way with my PP; but since I spent time; here ya go lol.  I'm willing to bet those are HDR's you posted along with multi flash/diffuser/reflector setups.  Instead of see everything, I ended up with a dark grungy look. Sorry.

What I did was dodge the highlights and burn the shadows to make the features pop a little more.  I also went over the ground dodging highlights and burning the shadows.  Where there were tire marks I went over them once again.  I desaturated the picture, which is just my taste, but I think it lends itself with the black car because you don't have the background colors distracting you.  I also created 3 layers of gradient from black to white and put those on Multiply for their type to create a vignette affect; of which I controlled the amount with the opacity of the layer.  I also have 2 brightness/contrast layers with masks.  One controls the entire image minus the car and the other is just an inverse of the first ones mask to control brightness/contrast on the car.  There are probably better ways to do this, but this is how I've figured it out and I know how to do it so it's how I do it; haha.

Good luck.

Additionally, looking back I would have not burned the tar line and cloned it out.


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## yardley (Mar 21, 2010)

kami said:


> Maybe you might want to ask a friend of mine who just recently shot some exotics. He used a couple of vivitar flashes and 1 AB which he moved around to light up the cars correctly then he made a composite.
> 
> check it out:
> 
> Flickr: Jan Paul Yap's Photostream




Thanks for the link! Really like your friends pictures.


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## yardley (Mar 21, 2010)

BrandonS said:


> I think I went the wrong way with my PP; but since I spent time; here ya go lol.  I'm willing to bet those are HDR's you posted along with multi flash/diffuser/reflector setups.  Instead of see everything, I ended up with a dark grungy look. Sorry.
> 
> What I did was dodge the highlights and burn the shadows to make the features pop a little more.  I also went over the ground dodging highlights and burning the shadows.  Where there were tire marks I went over them once again.  I desaturated the picture, which is just my taste, but I think it lends itself with the black car because you don't have the background colors distracting you.  I also created 3 layers of gradient from black to white and put those on Multiply for their type to create a vignette affect; of which I controlled the amount with the opacity of the layer.  I also have 2 brightness/contrast layers with masks.  One controls the entire image minus the car and the other is just an inverse of the first ones mask to control brightness/contrast on the car.  There are probably better ways to do this, but this is how I've figured it out and I know how to do it so it's how I do it; haha.
> 
> ...



Thanks for taking a shot at it Brandon, and for the detailed explanation! I def have to look into some equipment for multi-flash work.


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