Photo Corners headlinesarchivemikepasini.com
A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
Friday Slide Show: Alfa Romeo 4C Spider
9 August 2024
We happened upon this beautiful car as we were skirting the eastern slope of Twin Peaks where it descends into Noe Valley. We slammed on the brakes and came to a stop in two or three steps. We were on foot.
But for a moment, we imagined we were enveloped in this cozy black cockpit, the straight four-cylinder engine purring under the petting of our right foot.
The 4C made its debut in 2013 but the spider version was introduced in 2015. In North America, the 4C's run ended in 2018 due to U.S. emissions regulations, which still allowed models manufactured before Sept. 2017 to be sold until the 2020 model year.
Emissions aside (and there were none at the moment), we were more interested in snapping a 360-degree portrait of this thrilling design.
Our main concern was what the red paint would look like.
We were a little amused to learn it included some of the technology present in our 1976 Alfetta like a dual wishbone front suspension and disc brakes all around, to say nothing of that straight four cylinder power plant, which predate even our 1967 Giulia. The similarities probably end there, though.
Our main concern was what the red paint would look like in our photos. Red hues are a problem for digital sensors, although the problem has been mitigated somewhat as time has gone on. Time hasn't gone on for our cameras, though, so it's still an issue for us.
Fortunately, we left all our hue-challenged cameras at home. We only had our iPhone 15 Pro Max with us. And it seemed to handle this red pretty well, with one exception.
The sky was overcast, which is ideal for this kind of shoot, but we notice a blueish tint to the red from certain angles. See if you can detect which in the slide show. We tried to edit it in Lightroom by selecting the subject and modifying the color treatment of the Shadows and Midtones.
But before we spent a rewarding half hour working on these shots in Lightroom, we looked up the price of used 4C. Oh, a mere $50K, more or less.
Imagine, someone leaving $50K at the curb.
