Grille, Gold 1953 Buick Special
Coming back from dropping a family member off at his home, I noticed a gold-painted 1953 Buick Special at an auto-body shop along the highway. I took the opportunity to get out of the car (in a safe place, of course) and capture this tight framing of the distinctive grille of this vintage car. But then I noticed that some details did not fit the 1953 model, notably the Headlight surround which looks to be from a 1954 model as does the lack of a medallion on the leading edge face of the hood. Nominally this appears to be a 1953 but clearly some customization has crept in rather than a more conventional restoration. Anyway, I like the result. It is also somewhat similar in composition to my earlier image: www.flickr.com/photos/jwvraets/42937207851/in/photolist-2... - JW
Date Taken: 2022-08-10
(c) Copyright 2022 JW Vraets
Tech Details:
Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D800 fitted with an AF Nikkor 70-210mm 1:4.0-5.6 lense set to 170mm, ISO100, Daylight WB, Matrix metering, Aperture Priority Mode, f/8.0, 1/160 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to be 9000px wide, crop to approximately a 16x9 format to get rid of the licence plate and also to get a more symmetrical image, use the Graduated Neutral Density/GND to darken the top half of the frame and get a better match the tonality of the lower portion of the frame, enable both Tone Mapping at default levels, enable Tone Mapping at default levels, use the Vignetting correction tool to add (NOT remove) corner vignettes, slightly boost Contrast and Chromaticity in L-A-B mode, slightly boost Vibrance, slightly boost Black Level, sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Curves tool to darken the bottom 700% of the tone curve and get the gold paint to a suitable brightness, slightly increase overall contrast, sharpen, save, scale image to 6700 px wide, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3500 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.
Grille, Gold 1953 Buick Special
Coming back from dropping a family member off at his home, I noticed a gold-painted 1953 Buick Special at an auto-body shop along the highway. I took the opportunity to get out of the car (in a safe place, of course) and capture this tight framing of the distinctive grille of this vintage car. But then I noticed that some details did not fit the 1953 model, notably the Headlight surround which looks to be from a 1954 model as does the lack of a medallion on the leading edge face of the hood. Nominally this appears to be a 1953 but clearly some customization has crept in rather than a more conventional restoration. Anyway, I like the result. It is also somewhat similar in composition to my earlier image: www.flickr.com/photos/jwvraets/42937207851/in/photolist-2... - JW
Date Taken: 2022-08-10
(c) Copyright 2022 JW Vraets
Tech Details:
Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D800 fitted with an AF Nikkor 70-210mm 1:4.0-5.6 lense set to 170mm, ISO100, Daylight WB, Matrix metering, Aperture Priority Mode, f/8.0, 1/160 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to be 9000px wide, crop to approximately a 16x9 format to get rid of the licence plate and also to get a more symmetrical image, use the Graduated Neutral Density/GND to darken the top half of the frame and get a better match the tonality of the lower portion of the frame, enable both Tone Mapping at default levels, enable Tone Mapping at default levels, use the Vignetting correction tool to add (NOT remove) corner vignettes, slightly boost Contrast and Chromaticity in L-A-B mode, slightly boost Vibrance, slightly boost Black Level, sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Curves tool to darken the bottom 700% of the tone curve and get the gold paint to a suitable brightness, slightly increase overall contrast, sharpen, save, scale image to 6700 px wide, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3500 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.