Triumph TR4

[dlambert]

I took this one on a recent trip to Put-In-Bay. I like the shot of the car, but I didn't pay too much attention to the stuff in the background when I took the shot. When I got home and looked at the photo, I decided to see if I could "fade" the background a bit -- I blurred it with a DOF tool, and set the background to B&W.

Before:


After - background blurred & set to B&W:


What do you think? Too much? Is the background still distracting?

The technique is fine but the execution of composition is lacking.

[dlambert]

Yeah - that's sort of my problem. I was hoping to salvage the car with a little post-processing. Thanks for the feedback.

[work2well]

I think you pretty well achieved what you set out to -
the background doesn't distract me, and the 1968 TR stands out quite well, though as the other guy said, the composition could have been better.

[constructivecriticism]

If you're willing, I'd say this is a good condidate for a copy-paste. Mask the outline of the car, and simply remove the tire of the truck seen through the windshield. Then simply place the car on a different background alltogether (yet keep in mind the positioning of the source of light, as well as what's reflecting on the paint).

And while we're on the topic of reflections, consider a polarizing filter, which would remove most of the bother-some reflections and get you a picture of the car itself, rather than a compilation of all things surrounding it.

Otherwise, I'd recommend adjusting the green grass reflection on the left-hand side to fit in with the BW setting.

[karwash]

Think you already worked wonders - the Triumph anyway sticks out from all ordinary vehicles on the road.

Constructivecritisim reminded me of something I read about last week somewhere: a technique called "out of bounds". There are quite a few examples on flickr that show what it is, so I won't even try to write it up:

Flickr: Search

Think it offers a nice alternative to remove the background. Have fun!