I know the basics of photochopping, came here to improve, I read the tut section but trying to do it for myself the results are poor. what I really need is for someone else to do the same image as me, so I can see what theyre doing and understand it.

I read full brush tutorial http://www.autemo.com/forums/?t=6375
about applying light and reflections.

This is the source image.



I want to give it a shiny paint job,this was my try.



I tried to add solid white reflections but it just looked like white blobs. there should probably be clouds on the bonnet like the window. I cloned gravel into side. I tried to paint whats reflecting in the chrome bumper on the side of the car but that didnt work.

I would like to see how a pro would do it, so I can learn. Perhaps someone could help?

Man forgot about the shiny paintjob!! leave this one i think is great!! so far here you go well, if you want a shiny paint just add brigther tones of red and play with white colour! but like i said leave it this way!

I agree with EduSport... u should forget bout shiny paintjob... and i think that in begining for brushing is easier to use some car like lada riva, mk1 rabbit,yugo 45...
btw try to use pen tool instead of lasso tool

Thanks for replying

I mainly hang out on classic car restoration boards where people want to see their cars with shiny or satin paint jobs, different colours etc. Most of the images I have to use are of classic cars & either rusty or in primer so Id like to stick with modifying those.

However I would hope you can ignore that & just help me improve as an artist. I know Im going to stick out like a sore thumb, but there are no classic car photoshop forums & this looks like the best car forum, I figure the techniques are the same.

Ive hit a wall where I just dont feel I can go any further without some assistance/instruction from others.

Onto the car, I use the pen tool to cut out then make selection, sometimes path to stroke, sometimes just paint with mouse, add white then blur.
I feel it could be better but dont know what more specifically I can do.

seems like we have same problem

Having followed that tutorial that I linked to, heres what I think I understood.
you have different levels of light/reflection, building up to the solid white on top.
my white on top just looks like blobs, I always end up blurring it to hide how rubbish it looks.

I followed the tutorial in a literal way, but in reality im not quite getting it right.
It would be great to see it done propperly on the same car so I can see where Im going wrong.

i followed same tutorial, and the first brush wasn't that good..but than time by time u become better and better first try to brush some parts of the car

What kind of brush do you use? its the hard one or the blur one?, The tutorial for brush it might look from an interior bacground, you should change the bg with another car, and try to fit the reflex from the other car, and there it will be look a little more real! Hope you understand something!!

Hard default brush I think, sometimes I`ll soften it up or gaussian blur or smudge.
Had another try, yes I want a seam down the bonnet.
I gotta sleep but I will have a try changing for a simpler bg so I can understand the light better, thanks.

it seems it's all about how you interpret the tutorial...

Here's what I got.

Also, Try this tutorial