Junior
11-01-2007, 11:36 AM
For those that may know or those that may not know, I work at a graphic artist and do production on digital images all the time. Nothing is more entertaining to me than chopping pictures of my car.
I'm posting this here, since there's a lovely Mazda3 model in my chop and figured I'd share the process with all you here.
I'll take you from where the chop starts, right up until the end. Total time to do a chop like this: Approx. 45 mins.
Step 1: Choose a shot to do up
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop1.jpg
Step 2: Fix imperfections. I went around and just kind of cleaned up the cars and didn't worry too much about the background (since I'll be changing that later) and I also felt that the Mazda3 needed a DUMP. So I slammed it.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop2.jpg
Step 3: Foreground. The beat up ground in the pic does nothing to help my shot so why not throw in some healthy grass up front. After all, it's the first thing you catch a glimpse at, since it's the first thing up front. Fresh cut grass added.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop3.jpg
Step 4: Colour. My 'fresh' grass was a little dull, so I had to pump some green into it.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop4.jpg
Step 5: Blur. The background is taking away too much from my objects of focus (the cars) so I needed to mute them out by adding a blur.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop5.jpg
Step 6: Brighter and more vivid colour.. My cars were looking a little dule with the new found pumped up grass up front, so I had to brighten those up. Red bling.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop6.jpg
Step 7: Background. My sky was looking muted and dull... almost like a plain white sheet of paper. It's time to add some 'flash' to the pic without taking away from my objects. I added in a new sky with clouds and removed some trees that looked like they were interfering with my focal points.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop7.jpg
Step 8: Colour. Again, my sky was lookin a little pale, so bumped up come blue to give it personality.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop8.jpg
Step 9: Colour correction. My shot was lookin good at this poiunt but still needed some highlights and color correction. It looked good to the regular eye, but to the magazine dudes and the photo-shop gods it was lacking. Had to play with brightness, hue, saturation and contrast. Wanted my chop to have a 'heavenly' feel to it. Also added some accents to the headlights...
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop9.jpg
Step 10: Depth. My image still feels a bit flat so I had to give it some depth and a reason to focus on my objects (the cars). Plus i want my viewer's attention to be drawn away from the backgrounds and to focus on my objects. Added a feathered darken to the outer edges.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop10.jpg
Step 11: Extras. If you thin maybe you need a little more 'signature' ... you could always frame it off or add text and what not. I simply wanted a bit of attitude, so I jacked it up with a messy border.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop11.jpg
That's it! It's easier said than done, but with a little practice and tonnes of patience it's done. Someone new to photoshop would take much longer to find all the tools to properly do a nice photoshop.
I pretty much know my way around photoshop, so I specifically know what I'm looking for to play with colours and stuff, so it's 10x easier for me to do this chop, than when I first started off working in advertising.
My word of advice for anyone looking to make great chops. Stay way from filters. Anyone can use filters. It's more about putting uniqueness in your shot to make it stand out. Magazine covers can be worked on for 2 - 3 weeks just to work out all the kinks and imperfections, so if it takes you 3-4 hours to make yours look pro, don't worry. It could be worse.
BuLLeTs"
- Thr33 5ive -
I'm posting this here, since there's a lovely Mazda3 model in my chop and figured I'd share the process with all you here.
I'll take you from where the chop starts, right up until the end. Total time to do a chop like this: Approx. 45 mins.
Step 1: Choose a shot to do up
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop1.jpg
Step 2: Fix imperfections. I went around and just kind of cleaned up the cars and didn't worry too much about the background (since I'll be changing that later) and I also felt that the Mazda3 needed a DUMP. So I slammed it.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop2.jpg
Step 3: Foreground. The beat up ground in the pic does nothing to help my shot so why not throw in some healthy grass up front. After all, it's the first thing you catch a glimpse at, since it's the first thing up front. Fresh cut grass added.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop3.jpg
Step 4: Colour. My 'fresh' grass was a little dull, so I had to pump some green into it.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop4.jpg
Step 5: Blur. The background is taking away too much from my objects of focus (the cars) so I needed to mute them out by adding a blur.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop5.jpg
Step 6: Brighter and more vivid colour.. My cars were looking a little dule with the new found pumped up grass up front, so I had to brighten those up. Red bling.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop6.jpg
Step 7: Background. My sky was looking muted and dull... almost like a plain white sheet of paper. It's time to add some 'flash' to the pic without taking away from my objects. I added in a new sky with clouds and removed some trees that looked like they were interfering with my focal points.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop7.jpg
Step 8: Colour. Again, my sky was lookin a little pale, so bumped up come blue to give it personality.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop8.jpg
Step 9: Colour correction. My shot was lookin good at this poiunt but still needed some highlights and color correction. It looked good to the regular eye, but to the magazine dudes and the photo-shop gods it was lacking. Had to play with brightness, hue, saturation and contrast. Wanted my chop to have a 'heavenly' feel to it. Also added some accents to the headlights...
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop9.jpg
Step 10: Depth. My image still feels a bit flat so I had to give it some depth and a reason to focus on my objects (the cars). Plus i want my viewer's attention to be drawn away from the backgrounds and to focus on my objects. Added a feathered darken to the outer edges.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop10.jpg
Step 11: Extras. If you thin maybe you need a little more 'signature' ... you could always frame it off or add text and what not. I simply wanted a bit of attitude, so I jacked it up with a messy border.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b228/pro5junior/JuniorCustoms/ko_jr_chop11.jpg
That's it! It's easier said than done, but with a little practice and tonnes of patience it's done. Someone new to photoshop would take much longer to find all the tools to properly do a nice photoshop.
I pretty much know my way around photoshop, so I specifically know what I'm looking for to play with colours and stuff, so it's 10x easier for me to do this chop, than when I first started off working in advertising.
My word of advice for anyone looking to make great chops. Stay way from filters. Anyone can use filters. It's more about putting uniqueness in your shot to make it stand out. Magazine covers can be worked on for 2 - 3 weeks just to work out all the kinks and imperfections, so if it takes you 3-4 hours to make yours look pro, don't worry. It could be worse.
BuLLeTs"
- Thr33 5ive -