A New Look At Classic Cars; Digital Tools Make For Colorful Abstractions

Tom Frier, February, 2007

Photography has long been a passion and one of my favorite subjects is the classic automobile. My interest is not so much in the mechanical aspects but in their design and form. Since I was introduced to the magical world of digital I have developed a new approach to this subject matter, one that extracts the car from its surroundings and considers it as an object of beauty onto itself. For example, I recently photographed a Mercedes-Benz parked in front of a decaying fence. When I was done with the image the fence was gone and in its place was a bucolic landscape, with shady oaks and a placid lake.

Model-T

Applied the Watercolor filter to give the image a “painting” effect.

The images here are even more abstract, where I completely remove the automobile from its surroundings and concentrate more on the form of the car itself. I use a variety of Photoshop tools to accomplish this, starting with Quick Mask mode to cut the car from its surroundings and then adding colors and swirls with items from Photoshop’s Artistic Filters menu, including Watercolor, Dry Brush, and Solarize. Each automobile evokes a different set of tools and techniques.

Flame Roadster

Applied the Solarize filter to this image.

Saleem

Applied the Watercolor filter to give the image a “painting” effect.

All the images were done with Photoshop CS.