Cars! Neon at Night with Joe Pellicone

Words and Images by Joe Pellicone

I thought I might try bringing my Neon At Night Style of photographs to cars, so recently I went to a local car show and took a few shots using my Sony A73 along with my 12-24mm lens mounted on my Platypod Ultra.

As you can see from the behind-the-scenes shot below, car shows are not always ideal places to shoot. However, that’s where the cool cars are, so that's where you shoot them! With a little effort in Photoshop and Lightroom, you can get a result like the final image at the bottom of this post. I have done these many times, but I'm still amazed at how good they can come out.

Shooting

Using my Platypod, some of the work is done for me. It allows me to get that desired low angle and also pick up the parking lot lights to accent the car. Shooting at that lower angle can get rid of some of the people, as well as other cars. Of course, it also gives you a nice dynamic look.

My settings were:
- Aperture Priority at F22 (to get the starburst in the lights)
- ISO 100
- and it's usually a long exposure of over thirty seconds (camera pics shutter)

Processing

A bit of cloning is required in Photoshop to get rid of distractions. I also painted parts of the sky to get rid of people and other cars. I bring the sky low in the photo in order to hide other distractions. A curb was added to separate the parking lot from the sky.  I like to paint the ground in color, as I think it gives more of a fine art look to the photograph.

Of course the stars and a moon were added to apply the #NeonAtNight effect. Don’t forget that saturation and contrast are king!

The Final Image


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All Right Reserved. All Images © Joe Pellicone