Two truck shots

[mswebb]

Here are two truck shots taken on different days. The truck is on private property and not set-up for a photo shoot. Since I was picking up my son from school I only had my Canon S2IS point and shoot. First shot is on manual second on auto. Both shots have been fairly heavily processed to bump up colours and saturation, give a bit of an antique feel and blur the edges some.

For my tastes they are decent enough but they are a bit amateurish (given that I am new to this). Given the above scenario what could I have done/do to get a bit more polished look out of these.

EDIT: If I get up the nerve to ask the owner for permission to shoot his truck, are there some tried and true compositions that work well? In terms of portable lighting, what should I try to have available? Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks all...

[Ronald S. Jr.]

They look very nice for a point and shoot! Welcome to the forum, mswebb. Glad to have you here. I kind of like the soft glow on the first one, but would prefer it with a b/w or sepia touch, with the house more blurred. Very nicely done, especially "in a pinch".

[savona]

I like this shot, I also like how you used selective focusing. Good shot, but blur the house a tad!

[mswebb]

Thanks guys.

I tried the first shot as both B&W and sepia but found that it lost it's depth. Any suggestions as to a good B&W/Sepia workflow that will keep the tone punched up?

[studio206]

the second one is an excellent shot in my opinion :) nice work and welcome :-)

[Ronald S. Jr.]

Try converting to B&W and then using a 15/150/0 USM. Should punch up the contrast and give it some depth.

[mswebb]

Here are the results based on more blurring of background and USM. I tried blurring just the house but then the shed became too much of a distraction?

[savona]

You know, that looks cool! Looks like a tilt-shift shot or a miniature.

[TheBaron]

Great shots, I love that black and white. The images are very soft and give a fantastic old farm style theme. The second coloured image is my favourite. Lovely work!