constructive critisism needed on some photos

[fleishelja]

So I am playing with the post processing, Im trying to go for a bit of the "top gear effect" any tips on making these look better?

before:



after:



before:



after:

[jdm-civic]

when your taking a pic of YOUR car, make sure YOUR xar is the only one in the shot

[jdmdb8itr]

when your taking a pic of YOUR car, make sure YOUR xar is the only one in the shot

x2

i think they look great,imo

[TSiFTW]

The first pic I like.

[scooby_snack]

That's sick, what effects did you use?

[james]

throw some blur on the background buildings, but don't overdo it. also, chop out that truck and the powerlines.

[fleishelja]

Well I shot the images with the intent of doing some variation of hdr to combine the best of each image. then after that I superimposed the car shot at 0 exposure on a new layer and made it about 50% transparency. then I made a new layer in between the background and car layer and made it a black gradient and changed it to saturation and then just erased key areas to add highlights of color. in a nutshell thats what I did. I might try so background blurring, ive never had any good success with it though. any tips on that?

[james]

Well I shot the images with the intent of doing some variation of hdr to combine the best of each image. then after that I superimposed the car shot at 0 exposure on a new layer and made it about 50% transparency. then I made a new layer in between the background and car layer and made it a black gradient and changed it to saturation and then just erased key areas to add highlights of color. in a nutshell thats what I did. I might try so background blurring, ive never had any good success with it though. any tips on that?

sounds like you are making too much work for yourself.

as far as blurring...grab the pen tool and make a nice clean selection of the car or buildings and really just add a tiny bit of blur like 5-10 pixels of lens blur. not the blur tool.
edit: and for serious...fix your horizon!