Dusting off the camera (sort of) - Cup content!

mattf4r · Dec 27, 2016

I'm a 'Professional' photographer (aka photography pays my bills) and I used to be mega into shooting cars but it's been about 12 months since I've got stuck in and took any car photos.

Real life took over and I shoot other stuff to make a living but just had an urge after cleaning the cup today so took some photos!
Anyone else on here a light painter?

Not great quality, got to love compression (these are linked from facebook for ease)!

ADS_V6 · Dec 27, 2016

Looks great to me mate
Good job

Knuckles · Dec 27, 2016

Amazing pictures!

If that's faceache quality i'd love to see them properly

ADS_V6 · Dec 27, 2016

@LeeRS You need those seats in yours

mattf4r · Dec 27, 2016

I'll stop being lazy and upload them to flickr, there's not a huge difference but just less compression in shadows and a bit more sharpness :smile:

Glad people like em! Takes a bit of time to create one image

Clio Interior by Matt Smith, on Flickr

Clio172Cup by Matt Smith, on Flickr

Clio 172 Cup by Matt Smith, on Flickr

Stay Puft · Dec 27, 2016

Looks great! What shifter is that?

mattf4r · Dec 27, 2016

Davyy said:
Looks great! What shifter is that?

Pure motorsport mate, just kept the OEM gear gaitor on to neaten it up.

Canary172 · Dec 27, 2016

These look excellent! The seats, steering wheel and shifter combination look ideal too.

mattf4r · Dec 27, 2016

Canary172 said:
These look excellent! The seats, steering wheel and shifter combination look ideal too.

Cheers! It's a bloody lovely setup, I'm quite short so the dished wheel feels great. Recommend these seats to anyone, they're fantastic and the shifter totally transforms the car IMO.

LeeRS · Dec 27, 2016

@matt123roll what frames are the seats on?
Do they slide etc?
Really need to order me some but is ever so confusing as to what i need.
Also, what are you using and what is it fixed to for the seatbelt buckle? Im wanting to run the seatbelts the same as you.

imprezaworks · Dec 27, 2016

One of my old cars

Looks well

mattf4r · Dec 27, 2016

LeeRS said:
@matt123roll what frames are the seats on?
Do they slide etc?
Really need to order me some but is ever so confusing as to what i need.
Also, what are you using and what is it fixed to for the seatbelt buckle? Im wanting to run the seatbelts the same as you.

I'm on the xlow ones Jon sells. With the sliders that come with the seats.
I bought them from a guy on here who made a seatbelt buckle on some harness webbing (with a harness clip on one end) and then have an eyelet and spreader plate holding the subframe into the rear bolt hole.

imprezaworks said:
One of my old cars

Looks well

Shame about the bloody problems I've had! Hopefully be sorted soon

imprezaworks · Dec 27, 2016

Yeah big shame mate it silver lining and all that

leeds2592 · Dec 27, 2016

Brilliant, both the pics and car.

Mr Plums · Dec 27, 2016

Excellent photos mate, does the shifter rattle at at?

LeeRS · Dec 28, 2016

matt123roll said:
I'm on the xlow ones Jon sells. With the sliders that come with the seats.
I bought them from a guy on here who made a seatbelt buckle on some harness webbing (with a harness clip on one end) and then have an eyelet and spreader plate holding the subframe into the rear bolt hole.

Shame about the bloody problems I've had! Hopefully be sorted soon

Just read your othwr post on the thread about fitting seats, cheers.

Any chance you can grab a pic of the seatbelt area so i can get an idea?

Louis · Dec 28, 2016

Are these edited in photoshop? Just getting into photography and im fairly handy with photoshop but not sure where to start to improve pictures. These are amazing.

SimpleJoee · Dec 28, 2016

Fantastic pictures @matt123roll
I'm dying to get into light painting and test it out.

Typhoon · Dec 28, 2016

Louis' said:
Are these edited in photoshop? Just getting into photography and im fairly handy with photoshop but not sure where to start to improve pictures. These are amazing.

Lightroom is a lot better for photo editing than Photoshop is.

mattf4r · Dec 28, 2016

leeds2592 said:
Brilliant, both the pics and car.

Thanks mate

Christ Almighty said:
Excellent photos mate, does the shifter rattle at at?

Cheers, it has the usual 3k rpm rattle but with some music on I never notice it or I just rest my hand on it.

LeeRS said:
Just read your othwr post on the thread about fitting seats, cheers.

Any chance you can grab a pic of the seatbelt area so i can get an idea?

I'll do it when I'm next in the car and throw it in that thread

Louis' said:
Are these edited in photoshop? Just getting into photography and im fairly handy with photoshop but not sure where to start to improve pictures. These are amazing.

They are edited yeah but only really stacked in photoshop with a bit of cloning, most of it is done in lightroom but the lightpainting is done straight out of camera and the final shot is usually 3/4 exposures blended together

Typhoon said:
Lightroom is a lot better for photo editing than Photoshop is.

Lightroom is far better for actual editing but I use both on a daily basis for different tasks. People have a tendency to go crazy in LR when they start out because oooooo... sliders haha

Knuckles · Dec 28, 2016

When you say it takes a lot of time to make one image, do you have multiple images with different settings and then layer them or one RAW image and you manually duplicate and adjust it?

mattf4r · Dec 28, 2016

Knuckles said:
When you say it takes a lot of time to make one image, do you have multiple images with different settings and then layer them or one RAW image and you manually duplicate and adjust it?

It's mutiple images blended into one. So taking the good bits from each one and blending them to make one evenly lit image

On a very basic level, here are 4 frames of what made up one of the shots. The final image is more like 8 - 10 combined but hopefully gives you an idea. It's a basic technique that yields great results with practice once you know where to point the light.

Screen Shot 2016-12-28 at 08.46.05 by Matt Smith, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2016-12-28 at 08.45.46 by Matt Smith, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2016-12-28 at 08.45.35 by Matt Smith, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2016-12-28 at 08.45.23 by Matt Smith, on Flickr

Knuckles · Dec 28, 2016

Brilliant, cheers. I love seeing behind the scenes stuff

Jekyll · Dec 28, 2016

Hi Matt.

Car/pics look great. I briefly spoke to you on FB last night about how you did this. Interesting way of doing it. Did you do the interior the same way as the layers above?

@matt123roll

mattf4r · Dec 28, 2016

Dr Jekyll said:
Hi Matt.

Car/pics look great. I briefly spoke to you on FB last night about how you did this. Interesting way of doing it. Did you do the interior the same way as the layers above?

@matt123roll

Ah! Yeah all shots are multiple shots. Interior has the most believe it or not. It's a good way to stop it looking flat.

It's light from behind the camera, with drivers door open and then behind the seats then combined to make a good shot!

Niall · Jan 2, 2017

Looks good! Sure the calendar guys will love these.

mattf4r · Feb 9, 2017

Rude not to share a more recent one of my newly acquired BG 182

Clio 182 by Matt Smith, on Flickr

imprezaworks · Feb 9, 2017

Oh Very nice

Scrooge · Feb 9, 2017

Nice shot!

I need to get into layering my work as tend to try and fit all my lighting work into one exposure and it never really works

mattf4r · Feb 9, 2017

Scrooge said:
Nice shot!

I need to get into layering my work as tend to try and fit all my lighting work into one exposure and it never really works

Too much effort to do single exposures, always end up with light trails and odd areas. Prefer to do a base exposure with no lights, then one of the entire car, then a few for wheels, grills, interior etc and then just blend in PS. Can pick and choose where the light is much more

20vKarlos · Feb 9, 2017

Awesome pictures

SimpleJoee · Feb 11, 2017

I really need to give light painting a go, I just know it'll be incredibly awkward the first time (like something else...)

Niall · Feb 12, 2017

Saw your BG at the EFi day the other week mate. Looks lovely!

Stefan. · Feb 12, 2017

Damn, that bg 182 looks ace

mattf4r · Feb 13, 2017

Niall97 said:
Saw your BG at the EFi day the other week mate. Looks lovely!

Whey! Loads of nice stuff there I dumped mine in the corner haha.

Niall · Feb 13, 2017

matt123roll said:
Whey! Loads of nice stuff there I dumped mine in the corner haha.

If it's any consolation, mine didn't even make it. Sodding ring connector on the alternator live wire snapped the night before and Halfords only opened at 10am so I couldn't fix it before the day started haha.

mattf4r · Feb 13, 2017

Niall97 said:
If it's any consolation, mine didn't even make it. Sodding ring connector on the alternator live wire snapped the night before and Halfords only opened at 10am so I couldn't fix it before the day started haha.

Ah that sucks! Efi is literally a mile from me so thought I'd show my face for a good cause.

malcolmgt · Feb 21, 2017

Someone I know bought your old car, raves about it! Love the new photos and old ones.

mattf4r · Jan 24, 2018

malcolmgt said:
Someone I know bought your old car, raves about it! Love the new photos and old ones.

Only just seen this - nearly a year late oops! The cup?
I bloody loved that thing I'd buy it back in a hearbeat, it's changed hands since I think. Lad called Amin was who I sold it to but he didn't keep it long.

Have been busy with the camera and my mates mk4:

Dusting off the camera (sort of) - Cup content!

I Park Like a C**t

Gangsta