How to create a professional looking car ad (easy)

[PowerPix]

This is a processing project so you can create your own car promos for fun.

Camera: Canon EOS 50D
Lens: Sigma 10-20mm
Exposure: 0.3
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 12 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Three photo HDR
Processed using free software: GIMP and Picnik

I went to a car dealership during evening hours and shot a Mitsubishi Evolution X for my "ad". I've found that evening light is better than shooting in full sun. For some reason it just highlights the car more efficiently. The image is composed of three exposures at -1,1,+1 combined in Photomatix for the final HDR.

Mainly the photo was edited in Picnik.

1. I converted it to a 95% black and white photo to leave just a hint of color.

2. I went down to the "tint" option and selected the color white, set it to a "screen" layer, paintbrush option, and painted only the sky with the screen layer to completely white it out. I repeated this step until I got the desired appearance.

3. Again, used the "tint" option, selected the color white, this time painting a "hardlight" layer on only the car. My brush was set to around 75% opacity to bring out the shadows and highlights better.

4. Added a vignette layer and saved the photo.

Picnik has preset "actions" which are very simple to manipulate. Feel free to play around with them to see what suits your style.

In GIMP:

1. I found a Mitsubishi logo that I liked online. It was already created as a transparency (meaning it doesn't have a background) so all I had to do was copy and paste it onto my photo. Minor resizing of the logo was done for the right proportions.

2. Added the Mitsubishi text. Reduced opacity to around 70%. Eurostyle font.

3. Added the Evolution X text and used linear motion blur to give it a hazed effect. Eurostyle font.


I'll be glad to answer any questions. Enjoy and have fun with it!

[zona5101]

very nice write up!

[PowerPix]

Thank you Zona.