how to achieve this sharp effect

[kar1zma]

i am mainly into taking pics of cars and want to learn to enhance
the final images

this is one of the effects that i really like. its mostly for night pics
the pic looks extremely sharp almost like its painted or a cartoon







i have some night pics i have shot recently and i would like to achieve a
similar finish on the pics. if u can help me get started ill follow the guidlines
and post my results

thanks all

 

[Paul]

This is a very nice tut

 

[kar1zma]

thanks a lot
i went thru the tut

ill try it out and post my attempts

 

[IamSam]

Can you post one of the images your trying to enhance? I would like to play with one to see what needs to be done in order to get this.............effect.

Post it to the forum and not as embedded url to an offsite image host.

 

[kar1zma]

ok here it is

 

[IamSam]

Thanks.

 

[kar1zma]

i tried to follow the youtube tut but the car becomes very grainy
the end result is more of a HDR look

i tried the color efex pro filter and the PS method i dont have topaz
but in both cases it looks the same too much grain

 

[ALB68]

Try Camera Raw and the Clarity slider. You might want to kick the Exposure up a bit too.

Here is another pretty cool look I think. This is Topaz Clean set to Sharp Cartooned preset and then a layer mask applied to just apply the effect to the car,

 

[kar1zma]

The topaz filter effect looks good definitly on the right track
the building and background is having the cartoonish/sharp effect
but the car isnt impressive.

iamsam , paul please help

 

[Tom Mann]

I would bet that these pix were done either by compositing the car in after photographing it in a location with very good control of the lighting, or else bringing a boatload of lighting to those locations. I seriously doubt it was done by PP'ing a single shot.

Tom M

 

[ALB68]

Ha..you must not have read the post. The Topaz is only applied to the car, not the building. Moot point though as you don't have Topaz. Hopefully the members requested can help you further. Good luck with it.

The topaz filter effect looks good definitly on the right track
the building and background is having the cartoonish/sharp effect
but the car isnt impressive.

iamsam , paul please help

 

[cyclone2426]

I would bet that these pix were done either by compositing the car in after photographing it in a location with very good control of the lighting, or else bringing a boatload of lighting to those locations. I seriously doubt it was done by PP'ing a single shot.

Tom M

My thoughts as well. There's definitely a lot of controlled lighting with those shots. I would even venture to say that the blue Lexus one kinda looks like it was shot during the day then they dimmed the background to make it appear at night (as well as add glow to the streetlights on the bridge). I still took a shot at this pic just to give it a quick try, didnt come out too bad.

(Click for full size)

 

[chrisdesign]

Very good result Cyclone!

 

[kar1zma]

tom,cyclone

u guys maybe right about the cars being photographed with lots of lighting
but what about the background
the bridge and buildings etc they have the same effect as the car

 

[Seaco]

I would say the original images of the cars are taken in daylight that's why they look so well lit they are then cut out and the night time backgrounds added...

Lee

 

[Tom Mann]

OP: "...but what about the background - the bridge and buildings etc they have the same effect as the car ..."

Not to my eye. To me, the processing of the subject looks completely different from the processing of the background. The subjects are very smooth, with well defined edges, whereas the backgrounds are all the opposite of smooth -- they are almost gritty -- to say nothing about the obvious differences in brightness and saturation.

What aspects do you think are similar?

Tom M

 

[chrisdesign]

After reading the OP's first post again, I guess he would like to achieve a look like this?


click to enlarge.

 

[MikeMc]

I would start in ACR....and I suspect these are HDR images....oversharpening and extra contrast thru Topaz will help I do like where Chris is going..

 

[kar1zma]

OP: "...but what about the background - the bridge and buildings etc they have the same effect as the car ..."

Not to my eye. To me, the processing of the subject looks completely different from the processing of the background. The subjects are very smooth, with well defined edges, whereas the backgrounds are all the opposite of smooth -- they are almost gritty -- to say nothing about the obvious differences in brightness and saturation.

What aspects do you think are similar?

Tom M

to me the whole image has a painted kinda feel where the background and the subject look like a hi res cartoon
with the focus and light being on the cars
this is how i feel they are similar
maybe the others are right about them being shot in the day and then composited into the background
even in that case the cars have been post processed
and then again how do we achieve the look of the background

After reading the OP's first post again, I guess he would like to achieve a look like this?

View attachment 50016
click to enlarge.

thanks for the effort the background defintly has the feel of the blue lexus image
but the car sticks out sorely im afraid
they are blended so nicely in the examples in my first post

I would start in ACR....and I suspect these are HDR images....oversharpening and extra contrast thru Topaz will help I do like where Chris is going..

i had a thought that these could be HDR images but im just a novice and i cant be sure
sharpening the image is causing a grainy effect on the image while the examples are very smooth

on the whole the post processed images are amazing
it would be interesting to learn how to achieve this look

 

[kar1zma]

ive done some editing using ACR and a plugin called VIVEZA

this is my result



i just realised and believe that the problem for the grain effect could be cause
these are shot handheld at 2800ISO