how did they do it?

[z999]

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2007/02/newmondeo_hires004.jpg
the photo (http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/ford-mondeo/157725/)
I saw this photo on a website and I really liked the post processing on it and I wanted to ask if you know how they did it. (I don't think they could create the blur only using the camera)

[alissasanderson]

It's possible it's created with the camera. My brothers are big into cars, and they've had professional "rolling shots" made, where someone mounts a camera onto a vehicle (or hangs out of a window, or sunroof) and takes the photo at speeds ranging from 5mph to 100mph. And they look like this. They're awesome!

I'm betting the blur in the wheels and road is authentic. The bright stuff may have been post-processed, and I'd have no idea how...

[googlit]

It is possible that most of the shot was accomplished in-camera...

But you can certainly add blur in Photoshop by doing selective blurs. This tutorial does a decent job of showing how:

• motion blur with masks (http://www.picturecorrect.com/photoshoptips/motion_blur.htm) at picturecorrect.com

It's also possible that they took the road shot, then superimposed the car on it, adjusted the lighting, added the shadow, and put some blur on the car.

There are so many ways to accomplish anything in post-processing!

[robwilliams]

could be done with the panning technique

[wulf]

I can't remember the link but, now I think of it, I did see a site not long ago that had an article on photographing sports cars. The technique involved attaching a rig to the car, taking a slow shutter speed picture (but the rig keeps the position of the vehicle constant) and then painting out any sign of the rig at the post-processing stage.

Unfortunately I didn't bookmark it. Anyone else remember something with a shiny orange car?

Wulf

[speednut]

Wulf, I'd love to see that article if you ever find the link to it. Some web browsers retain the history of the sites you've visited recently (hint-hint). :D

To me, this looks like a rigged shot. A great example of this can be found here (http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1552085) (scroll to the bottom to find out how it was done). Only issue is that a portion of the car isn't in the photo to hide the rig. I'm still trying to learn more about rigging, getting the whole car in the photo, and the post processing work required, but most who've been successful at this are tight lipped about it.

I'd rule out panning due to the direction of travel and the sharpness of the car throughout the photo.

I still need more practice doing "rolling shots". I had a friend drive his Exige in a large circle around my car traveling in a tighter circle (~5-10mph). We synced up and I had my camera mounted to the outside of my windshield, prefocused in Aperture priority mode. Used remote shutter by sticking my hand out of sunroof. Seems the sweet spot for shutter speed is around 1/10 to 1/4 of a second for what I've attempted so far. Anything faster and there isn't enough motion blur; slower can be more artistic, but also more subject blurring (see 2nd photo below).

http://davejenson.com/photos/Cars/Lotus/G7FR6298.jpg

http://www.davejenson.com/photos/Cars/Lotus/G7FR6328.jpg

[omega]

A lot of car graphics are not photos. Many are cg made in Max, Maya, etc. and then thrown into aftereffects, photoshop, the works.

[mdwsta4]

pretty sure i read the same article because that's the exact thing that popped into my head when i read the question. i'm sure it's a rig though and usually they mount directly to the car. i didn't save it, and googled all over for it, but came up empty.

I can't remember the link but, now I think of it, I did see a site not long ago that had an article on photographing sports cars. The technique involved attaching a rig to the car, taking a slow shutter speed picture (but the rig keeps the position of the vehicle constant) and then painting out any sign of the rig at the post-processing stage.

Unfortunately I didn't bookmark it. Anyone else remember something with a shiny orange car?

Wulf

[wulf]

Wulf, I'd love to see that article if you ever find the link to it. Some web browsers retain the history of the sites you've visited recently (hint-hint). :D
Not much help when you surf as many sites as I do! If I want to keep something, I throw it onto my del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/basswulf/photography/) account but, as car photography is not something I'm greatly into, I passed on that one.

If I stumble across it again, I'll try to remember to post the link back here.

Wulf

[mdwsta4]

well, i can't find that article for the life of me.
but here is a similar contraption. professionals use really big and bulky rigs costing boku bucks. here's a cheaper and simpler version.

http://automotiverigs.com/index.html

in post production you simply photoshop out the rig's arm.

[wulf]

That's exactly the kind of thing I was thinking about. Of course, you also have to be confident enough in it to put your camera up there!

Wulf

[yurik]

I don't know if any of you watch the photoshop guys (http://www.photoshoptv.com/), but they did a tutorial on making a stationary car look like it's moving. Unfortunately you can't download old episodes unless you're willing to shell out a couple of bucks, but the tutorial seemed simple enough (they always make it simple, but to get perfect effect you'll have to be a bit more detailed).

It's just a matter of selectively blurring layer masks..
select just the background of the photo, do a light motion blur, then select the tires and do a radial blur.


I'm not denying that the shot might not have had any post-processing, but I figured since this is the post-processing forum, it might be nice to show how I would do it..