Classic Car Photography: Making Your Image Pop

 I find that backgrounds are most likely to distract from the subject, so I prefer to remove them.  This is especially true if you are going to take a car photo and place it on another background or use it in a book or an article like this.  See how much more the car shows when the background is removed?

 I write books about cars, and I like to have my readers see what I am writing about.  For example, if a new car model features new stripes like the Shelby GT500 above, I want to write about them and also show my reader what I’m writing about. 

 I remove the background.  But Photoshop makes it difficult to select the car and get a shadow below it.  Without the shadow, the car looks unnatural.  I select the car, then use my Eraser in Photoshop to add a shadow.  Here are the steps.

 If you start in Lightroom:

1.        Select the picture in the Library

2.        Click on Develop

3.        Click Photo>Edit In>Photoshop

a.        Edit with adjustments or copy or Original, your choice

b.        Click Edit

4.        Photoshop Opens with your Image

5.        Make a copy of the Layer

6.        Select the copy and hide the original Layer

7.        Select the Selection tool

8.        On top menu, click Select Subject

a.        This will select the entire car

b.        Botted lines will surround the car

c.        Make sure you have selected only what you want.

9.        Click on Layer Mask

a.        This will remove all the background and replace it with a gray checkerboard look.  This makes the background transparent

10.  Click on the Eraser

a.        Set the Eraser to 500 and Soft Round, Opacity, and Flow at 100%

b.        Brush under the car and the wheels to make the actual background reappear. Make the area you are reappearing to be larger than you imagine your final shadow will be.

c.        Go back to the Selection Tool and reselect the car

d.        Select the Inverse

11.  Go back to the Eraser

12.  Set your Opacity at 100% and Flow to 50%

a.        Fine-tune your Shadow by brushing away what you don’t want.

b.        Hold down the Shift Key and select 2 points to make a straight line.  

13.  Once you’ve got the image to look the way you want it.

14.  Export as a PSD to keep the clear background.  Your new image reveals the car, the shadow, and the background will be clear.  Like this: