Behind the shot · Oulton Park
Making of 403.
One frame from Friday at Oulton Park, taken from the camera to the finished photo. Every setting on this page is the real one, pulled from the files.
Sector 1 · In camera
Get it right on the day.
This is a pan. Shutter slowed right down, camera swung with the car through the whole pass, and only the car stays sharp. At one fiftieth of a second the barriers and the grass smear into streaks, which is where the speed comes from.
Nothing on this page could fix a soft car. Getting the pan sharp is the job on the day. Everything after this is about feel.
- Camera
- Sony A7 III
- Lens
- Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art
- Shutter
- 1/50 s
- Aperture
- f/16
- ISO
- 125
- Mode
- Manual
- Taken
- Fri 16 Oct · 12:55
Sector 2 · The grade
Warmth in. Greens down.
The camera saw a grey, cold day. The light on the day felt warmer than that, so the white balance goes up a long way. Highlights come down to keep the detail in the clouds, and the greens get pulled towards yellow so the grass stops shouting over the car.
| White balance | |
|---|---|
| Contrast | +23 |
| Highlights | −41 |
| Shadows | +12 |
| Whites | +20 |
| Dehaze | +10 |
| Vibrance | +25 |
| Green hue / sat / lum | −93 / −36 / −30 |
| Colour grade | Blue shadows, warm highlights |
Mask 01 · The car
A radial mask sits over the car only. Whites lifted so the livery is crisp, clarity up so the panels have edges, and a touch cooler so the white body stays white against all that gold.
| Whites | +32 |
|---|---|
| Clarity | +16 |
| Temperature | −8 |
Drag across the car to compare.
Mask 02 · The light
The brightest part of the sky was top left. A second radial mask in the top left corner warms it, lifts the highlights and takes away haze, so the light reads as coming from somewhere.
| Temperature | +42 |
|---|---|
| Highlights | +30 |
| Dehaze | −28 |
| Saturation | +20 |
Mask 03 · The sky
Lightroom's Select Sky picks out the clouds, with a gradient taken out of it so the horizon is left alone. Small moves only: just enough to hold the shape in the clouds.
| Exposure | −0.04 |
|---|---|
| Contrast | −7 |
| Highlights | −9 |
Pulling it back
At this point it was too golden. It looked like a sunset, and it wasn't one. Taking the yellow back out of the sky turns the clouds grey and heavy again, and the warm light on the track now stands out against them. That contrast is the whole photo.
Sector 3 · Finishing
Sun, spray, crop.
The last pass adds the sun breaking through on the left and spray kicking up off the rear wheel, which tie the light and the damp track together.
Then the crop. The full frame works for Instagram. Cut wide, it becomes a banner: the car sits low in the frame with the whole sky above it, the way it felt standing at the barrier.
Before and after
Drag to compare.
Want shots like this of your car?
Tell us the series, the circuit and the date. We'll bring the cameras.