Today’s post is a continuation of the virtual photography described in the last post; it would be almost impossible to do in the real world, much less in the matter of a few hours. But in the unlikely even I had access to such a car, and these locations…well, I’m honestly not sure I’d have produced things any differently. Sure, there’d be a studio setup of the type I’ve done in the past with the Cayman R, M2 and Z4; but that’s as much me making use of the resources to hand as anything else. All I suggest when viewing this set is suspend disbelief, and subject and locations aside – if you weren’t told these were simulated: would anything stand out as ‘not real’? Even if so, does it detract from the visual enjoyment at all? MT
Images were ‘shot’ with Gran Turismo Sport on the Playstation 4, and lightly edited in Photoshop with Workflow III.
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Ming Thein | Photographer 
Probably the most beautiful automobile ever built.
I’d like a red one, please.
Polished aluminum so as not to hide that beautiful bodywork, for me.
Looks like a fun project. Some to the motion blur around the longer curves did not look right to me. Most of them look like what you see online of cars or close enough my eyes accepted them as such.
Depends on the way the camera is rotated/translated relative to car motion (and the car motion itself) – it looked realistic to me from images I’ve actually shot on productions in the past, but also not that common or easy to produce because of the translation part, you’d need a moving camera platform, too.
As you told us: leave the sofa; force your self.
Next step to the invisible photographer: shoot without a camera.
Around the world with Ming and his shiny GTO.
I enjoyed your creative artwork very much. Can‘t wait the Sambabus.
…more Windows for reflection. But be careful it drifts in a different way..
Haha thanks! I admit these were produced from the sofa though. As for the Sambabus, I suspect it barrel rolls rather than drifts…
The fifth image with the car in the Alps? The DOF seems a bit shallow for the scene. Also no tire tracks in the snow. But really, who cares. Such a delight to see these.
My next request is a series with a Citroen Traction Avant. 😉
Fifth image: it’s panning blur, not short DOF – perhaps I should increase or decrease ‘shutter speed’ a bit to make it more decisive either way.
Alas, no Citroen available in the game. But maybe I’ll try the VW Sambabus.
The only obvious giveaway is on the snow photos with the lack of tyre prints, but the rest look pretty convincing.
Helicopters 😉
The future of Architecture Photography?
( Climate friendly. And it will work even in Corona times…)
Post your HiRes laser scanner drone to the client, with instructions to release it in front of the building (or block) – it will fly a rising spiral around it – and then send it back to you.
Load the data into your ArchApp; it will with its integrated AI fractal code create a 3D model detailed down to the textures.
[ …and the huge amount of data, you may ask, I said “future”!]
Add some clouds and the sun from a suitable direction – don’t forget to set the latitude, orientation and wished time of year – (and perhaps some street lights) and fine tune until you like the shadows.
Position the virtual camera, choose a focal length, perhaps with T/S, and the resolution and wait a few seconds for the code to create the fine details.
( Less than infinite DOF is, of course, also available.)
Next photo.
[ Just think of the huge market and the saved travelling costs you now have for your leisure time!
🙂 ];
Not sure it’d be any faster because of the data acquisition phase. However, you could certainly get physically otherwise impossible angles. Composition skill doesn’t change though, so perhaps we aren’t obsolete just yet…
> “Composition skill doesn’t change though, so perhaps we aren’t obsolete just yet…”
Exactly! 🙂
That’s why I didn’t include any AI for camera position, etc. … But there will most probably also come an AI-complete Phone Version…
[ 😦 ]
( Apologies for the misplaced reply under “Helicopters”! )
Amazing images…even given i dont much care for flash cars 🙂🌳🌳
🙂
This is absolutely breathtaking.
I’ve never been in computer games, but GTO seems to be a visual overload. I’ve asked my girlfriend and she never saw that those “pictures” are “unreal”.
Stunning work, Ming – and we can see that you really love fast cars 🙂
Thanks for sharing it!
P.S. My favorit is picture Nr. 2
Thanks!
LOL – think of the money you saved on petrol – not to mention speeding fines!
Brilliant, as usual.
Is that final photo in Praha, on Karlov Most? You sure get around – San Fran’s Golden Gate bridge one day, Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy the next! And you can’t even be pinged for breached the global shutdown, because of the COVID pandemic, while you took the photos
Forget that – how about the 60 or so million required for the actual car? 😛
We’v also got the German countryside, the Nurburgring, Piazza San Marco in Venice, Paris, Hokkaido, and yes, Karlov Most – I don’t even want to imagine what a shoot like this would cost to make in transport fees, let alone permits, insurance and the impossibility of doing a panning shot inside Antelope Canyon…