These are the original, unedited, unaltered base ambient RAW images composed of four separate images, 3 of 4 which are lit via Sunpak 383 flashes. From these four images, various elements were worked on in Photoshop and worked on individually. Elements range from, driver side doors, bumper/grill, wheels/tires, ground, and sky. Other elements range from curves, contrast, levels, colors, and other post processing. I’ll be breaking down all 4 images separately for better understanding.

Image #1: This image you see is the RAW image, which four flashes were used. Two flashes on the ground to light the wheels/tires and two flashes on stands to light the drivers side doors. The doors and front and rear wheels/tires were used in this image. This was the bottom layer (background) image in Photoshop.

Image #2: This image, the front fender was light with two strobes. Yes four are in the image, but only two were set to go off. The flash on the ground, and the farthest flash on the stand. I was too lazy to remove the other two flashes since it didn’t make any difference if they were in the image or not. Elements used in this image are the headlight, front fender and some shadows on the lower portion of the doors. This was the second layer in Photoshop. Masking was used to bring out elements from the background layer on top to this image.

Image #3: In this image. the front of the car was light with 2 flashes. Flashes were placed left of and right of the camera on stands roughly 5-6 feet high. In this image, elements used were the lit front end, which includes bumper, grill and etc. This was the third layer in Photoshop. Masking was used to bring out elements from the second layer on top to this image.

Image #4: This image is a RAW ambient exposure without flashes in the frame or outside of the frame. This image was slightly under exposed for shadows. Everything in this image, besides the car was used, it will be our background. Masking was used to bring out elements from the third layer on top to this image.

The sky in the original image is completely washed out due to the bright sunset over powering the lens. I decided to just add sunset/flare/glare or whatever you want to call it, to the image. How the flare/glare was created, I just used a XXX px sized brush, that was off white/yellow in color and place it between the buildings. I made a sample in RED to demonstrate where the brush was placed.

Once this was complete, masking was used to bring all the car elements to our background image (ambient exposed image). Once masking was complete, our car is now a float on our background without light stands, without light spill on the ground and with the sunset flare/glare/blah, this wrap the image up to around 70% completion. Then its on to curves, levels, contrast, colors, etc. Then some cloning and a small crop to get rid of some ground.

Original Image & Final Image Comparison.