[bluespeed117]

With the original photo, I had some issues with the composition. I felt that the car was sitting too low in the frame and had too much wasted space above the car. I cropped it down so you would focus more on the car and not have your eye wander around the frame. I used Lightroom's recovery slider to retain as much detail then messed with exposure to compensate for the dullness the recovery adds to the photo. I added contrast and messed with the fill light and Black clipping settings.

The photo felt a little warm so I cooled it down to suit the color of the car better. To get the texture out of the photo, I added clarity and vibrance to give it more depth. I then went and desaturated the photo so the colors in the back weren't too distracting. I boosted the highlights and lights and crushed the shadows and dark tones. Once i had all that set, I added a slight vignette to the image to focus your eye even more on the car.

As for the hood, I wanted to keep the exposure of the car as balanced as possible. Having the hood darker than the rest of the car just didn't please my eyes so I bumped the exposure of the hood. Im not sure where the tiny amount of grain came from since I only rose the exposure slightly, probably due to the image being JPG rather than RAW. I did the same exposure boost to the seats just to bring out even more depth.

I used the graduated filter tool to mimic a shallow depth of field. I feel I could have done better with it but it gets the job done.

After looking at the photo again, I probably shouldve cropped out the left side of the frame. There is a piece of pillar in the frame that is a little out of place but o well.

Hoped this helps you guys out in editing your photos. Oh and props to the photographer for taking the photo.