Audi R8 HDR highly stylized black & white image Florida custom car photography

"Essence of the Audi R8"

I photographed this Audi R8 at the Cars & Couture event at Tampa International Jet Center.  There was very limited space to get any shot and from no angle was there any kind of clean background.  The rear three-quarters view I felt was the best composition given the constraints knowing that I would ultimately remove the car from its real surroundings.  The following is the digital editing process I went through in making the final image you see above which I feel shows the essence of the Audi R8.

I initially thought I could keep the existing cement floor background only making the upper half of the image a digital white background.  However, I was not happy with the lack of consistency in how the floor looked from left to right as well as having no good natural cut off point for it.  I never actually removed the floor from the background.  Through several editing steps it became lightened and smoothed out.  The silhouette filter in Silver Efex Pro essentially made it disappear, but critically leaving the natural shadows under the R8.  Although much of the body of the R8 was also lost in appying this filter, I liked that.  The remaining view of the car, basically all the black trim including the unique "blade" air intake and the black wheels, still showed enough for a knowledgeable viewer to know it was an Audi R8.