Ferrari

Blue Ferrari California in St. Petersburg Florida white background edit

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Blue Ferrari California in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm lens @ f/2.8 ISO 200 1/125th white background added digitallyDowntown St. Petersburg can be surprisingly good for spotting super cars and other exotics.  For example last night parked right on Beach Drive NE was this blue Ferrari California.  I was actually teaching a DSLR Photography Lesson at the time and used the car as a practice subject.  Even if I was on my own and had all the photographer gear with me I would want, it would have been difficult to produce a shot any better than this due to the neighboring cars and the busy background.  

So in making this quick car photograph I concentrated on the best detail clearly visible, in this case the front wheel and huge ceramic brake rotor and bright yellow brake calliper.  There was still the problem of the street it was parked on being in the foreground (see below image).

The original photograph straight from RAW conversion to JPG in Aperture 3 of the Ferrari CaliforniaAfter doing my usual editing workflow first in Aperture 3, then Color Efex Pro 3, I sent the photograph into Photoshop CS5 and did some selective edits (sharpening, contrast) before simply removing the car and wheel from the image and putting only that on a new layer.  Then I added yet another new layer under the car layer, painted it white, and boom, produced the best image I could of a car in a very non-ideal location.

Ferrari 458 Italia Photographs in Detail

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Ferrari 458 Italia front left fender and wheel arch - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyAt a recent car show in St. Petersburg I had a chance to see and photograph my current favorite car in the world, the Ferrari 458 Italia.  As I described in this other photography tip post on the Ferrari it is very hard to get good full car photographs at a car show.  Therefore, I focused on detail shots more than showing the 458 Italia in full.  

Ferrari 458 Italia designed by Pininfarina logo - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyThe few badges that decorate the 458 Italia are all classy, like the above Pininfarina logo, whose meaning is not obvious unless you are a fan of Italian sports cars and supercars.  

front grill air spoilers bookend the Prancing Pony logo on Ferrari 458 Italia - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyThese flexible spoilers on the front facia of the Ferrari 458 Italia are designed to change shape at speed to improve downforce.  In the middle of the rest of the matte black spoiler resides the Ferrari Prancing Pony logo.  

Ferrari 458 Italia LED headlight - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyOne of the most striking design features of the 458 Italia is its elongated LED headlights.  These are a new design element being featured on all new Ferraris (California, FF) and ad a distinctive look that to me signals a new generation of Ferrari.  They are radical, but I like them even though the remind me of the head of an Alien from the Alien series of movies.  

Ferrari 458 Italia LED taillight - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyThe taillights also contain LEDs but maintain the traditional circular Ferrari design, although they are in a single cluster, while the previous F430 model featured dual clusters.  I prefer the dual design as a single cluster seems a bit small and in the middle of no where looking.

Ferrari 458 Italia rear view - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyThe rear of the 458 Italia is Spartan with just another Prancing Pony logo and the Ferrari nameplate on top of the engine cover.  Not pictured is a triple, centered tailpipe cluster.  For some reason I did not think to photograph those!

Ferrari 458 Italia engine block detail - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyThe engine cover is transparent showing off the massive V8 that looks more like something that would power a spacecraft rather than a mere automobile.  Obviously the engine sounds even better than it looks.

Ferrari 458 Italia Brembo carbon ceramic brakes with red calipers - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyAny supercar nowadays has to come with carbon ceramic brakes and usually brightly color brake calipers.  The 458 Italia is no exception.  The wheels themselves are a kind of generic pentastar looking design that seem conservative in comparison to the styling of the rest of the exterior.

Ferrari 458 Italia 2011 model right side view - St. Petersburg Car PhotographyHere again is the full side view photograph I made by cloning out many distractions.  I may someday have a chance to properly photograph this particular 458 Italia as the owner did express interest at having photographs.  I of course gave him my business card.  Hopefully he will call soon!

Photography Tip - selecting and cloning a clean Ferrari 458 Italia

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2011 Ferrari 458 Italia at a car show in St. Petersburg Florida

  • Learn this digital photograph editing technique from Jason in a 1-on-1 lesson, reserve today!

Car shows are great places to see a large number of awesome cars in a small space.  However, that small space and numerous other car fans walking around create a nearly impossible situation for photographing the cars in full.  Detail shots are usually what I focus on, but still I want to have at least a few full car shots as well.  Some of you may know that the Ferrari 458 Italia is my current favorite car in the world.  At a recent St. Petersburg, Florida car show I had a chance to talk with the owners of the above 458 Italia who were very nice people.  I photographed their Ferrari at length.

I could not get a shot like I wanted to while there due to other cars being parked so close to the 458 Italia and of course because of many other people coming to peek at Ferrari's latest mid-engine super car.  So I had to settle for the best angle I could get taking into account the sun's position and just the space I had to shoot in.  Photoshop CS5 helped with the rest.

Too clone out things from complex surroundings, quick select them then clone stamp in safetyIn the above screen shot you can see how I first used the Quick Select Tool (W) to put a protective fence around the objects I wanted to remove (silver car, people, etc).  I do this because the Clone Stamp Tool (S) is very temperamental and very hard to use along a distinct edge like the front fender of the red Ferrari and the silver Ferrari.  Basically, containing the unwanted object in a quick select field allows me to not worry about coloring outside the lines, so to speak.  You can see I selected some grass from the foreground and already started stamping it onto the silver Ferrari.  The sharp edge of the red Ferrari fender will remain perfectly intact.

Likewise for the people above the red Ferrari.  I will clone some of the trees and stamp them on top of the people to complete the illusion that the Ferrari 458 Italia is alone in a field.  To close the quick select areas hit CMD-M (on a Mac).

Using this quick select and cloning method will allow you to cleanly and easily remove objects from complex surroundings.

Abilities Foundation Charity Auction at Tropicana Field

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Nothing draws attention like a Ferrari. There were two prominently placed on Tropicana Field for the Abilities charity event.

Photographing this event brought two firsts for me.  The first, first was to volunteer my photography services to a charity event.  The second was to represent f8 Consortium in an official capacity as a staff photographer.  The Abilities Foundation held its 21st annual silent auction charity event right on the field at Tropicana Field.  f8 Consortium was a sponsor of this event with some members donating framed prints, others photography services, or both.  

A rather clever tray design for carrying food and beverage.

Many local restaurants had tables serving out tiny samples of presumably their best cuisine.  The only thing I ate all night was a brownie sample.  It was not bad, but not good enough to be called gourmet or whichever adjective their marketing people bestowed upon it.  The most impressive thing related to food was the very functional trays handed out that took away the challenge of trying to have to balance a glass upon it.  

I wonder how many of the people who saw this photograph thought to themselves, "PETERson."

There were a number of silent auction items that I would have liked to have myself, including the above autographed photo of one of my favorite football players, Adrian PETERson.  In the background is an autographed Mike Vick helmet that the announcer was really stressing she wanted to be bought before the end of the night since no one bid on it last year.  I checked, the minimum bid of $100 was met.

I like the idea of wearing cowboy boots, but I never would.

As the night went on and I saw that most items did not even have one bid on them, I commented to someone behind a table that it does not look like many of these items were going to move.  He said that a silent auction is just like e-Bay, no one bids until the end when there is a flurry.  

I found myself not being impressed at all with this Rolls Royce, would take a used Porsche 911 Turbo over it any day.

On the technical side of things, the photography, as usual, was in challenging settings.  They did not turn on the lights on the field, and once the sun set and no more natural light permeated through the dome, it was really dark.  Obviously no ceiling to bounce a flash off of and few backdrops of any kind.  In the beginning I was actually using off camera flash to photograph some of the items.  Once the guests starting filing in, I went with my usual event settings of f/5.6 and ISO 800, but still wasn't getting the results I wanted so I went up to f/4.  Maybe some day I will have a chance to photograph an outdoor daylight event!