Picture taking advice?

[Karl Buchka]

Originally Posted by tryingbe

Contrast and color.

Is this an example of a photo that has none of those two?

[340GL]

Originally Posted by rancidponymilk

dont leave the headlights on, it will usually look terrible

Leaving headlights on for night shots seems to be a Turbobricks thing... it looks retarded/is really stupid

[daijoubanai]

Originally Posted by 340GL

Leaving headlights on for night shots seems to be a Turbobricks thing... it looks retarded/is really stupid

One thing you can do is, if you have a tripod and your camera has a timer, set the timer and quick jump in the car. When the shutter goes off flick the lights on for like 1/2 second or less and bam, better night pictures.
I'm going to try and make a quick example of this sometime tonight.

[daijoubanai]

Alright, here we go. I know the pictures arent that good but I did this in like 5 minutes in my driveway. And no my headlights arent blue, thats just the way they look because of the white balance.

All these pictures are unedited except for size. All three were taken at 15 sec., aperature at 7.1 on my canon A80.

First picture is with lights off.


Second picture I left the lights on the whole time.


Third picture I quickly ran and jumped into the car and turned the headlights on really quick, because my camera doesnt have a timer in manual mode.


photoshoped thrid picture, see how much better it looks when the lights dont wash out the whole picture

[pro_star]

Also, cross hatch/star filters = goodness ;)
course, if you have too many points of light it just looks gross, you gotta balance it well. If you have a camera that you can manually set the apature, depending on what you're trying to do, sometimes get that puppy cranked right open (the lower the number, the wider the apature is open) This gives you a more shallow depth of field, so if you have something in the background you just don't like, or you want all the focus on the car, this is the way to go. If you are trying to get MORE background, then you want a greater depth of field, use the more 'closed' apatures. Basically, digis are great, experiment and see what comes out. And a good tripod is worth its weight in gold. If you want to go really crazy, or if you're doing the longer exposure shots, a remote shutter cable is also very handy.

[Hagar17]

Naw shoot in the day - right into the sun! lol

[Mr Yuck]

Originally Posted by Poik

Where were these taken at?

The one of the Sunset was taken at Sunset Bay State Park near Coos Bay, Oregon

The one with the blue water was taken at Freshwater Bay State Park near Port Angeles, Washington.

KEEP YOUR CAMERA LEVEL TO THE GROUND....Avoid the 'temptation' of HDR

Ignore both of these suggestions

HDR is good...about 70% of my shots are HDR or Pseudo-HDR


Tilt the camera, but make sure it's on purpose, keep the horizon level, unless you want to tilt the camera for drama.

[daijoubanai]

Originally Posted by Hagar17

Naw shoot in the day - right into the sun! lol

Shooting into the sun works in this picture because the front of the car is well lit. The hood and the top of the car is a little bright though.

[IMFRCD]

For help w/ composition, cut the picture in thirds, both vertical and horizontal. Put the important stuff where the lines intersect. Go back and review the past photos. When a photo really looks "RIGHT", notice the eye is drawn to those points.

[Chrisco]

Stand on something or crouch to avoid the boring perspective we see all day every day. Putting the car in it's own territory helps. ie: sport car on clean asphalt, 4x4 on rocks/dirt. If you got an old car, go for a vintage look.
Cheap camera tip: Flash helps a lot where lighting is limited, or the sun is behind the car casting shadows where you want to see the shape of the car. Unfortunately you end up with white license plates. I put scotch tape on my flash and drew over it with a sharpie for a little extra lighting that's not as likely to highlight the license plate. When I'm crouching I rest my elbow on my knee to reduce camera shake. Particularly helpful if you're suffering from adrenaline due to recent spirited driving.

I stood on a concrete road block. Not a huge difference in perspective, but enough. My "half flash" helped with the cloudy conditions.

[Mortar]

Use the "Magic Hours" when the sun is coming up or going down. The color and quality of the light is perfect. Background and subject are usually easy to get exposed corectly. The sun and horizon reflected in the doors always looks great. And since the sun is low shadows will be longer and therefore more interesting to the eye.
For cheap night lighting Gas stations ususally have good lighting with all the overhead hard lighting. Although you'll need to color corect in PS. If you can find a gas station with a view you could compose a nice pic. When the lights are on and the sun is going down.

[threephin]

You must simply invest in a 10mm lens and build yourself a rig, then hang out the door like a lunatic:



Alternately, sit yourself down in the gravel with said lens and the sun setting behind the car and spot meter to the black bumper:



PS if there's anyone willing to make a road trip to 44312 for some shots like the two above, send me a pm. If you have a sweet ride and will cover your own travel expenses, I have plenty of locations and about $3k in photo gear plus everything I know about photography (which is a tolerable amount).

[Mesoam]

thank you...sweet jebus that took way to many responses...photography, in general (i don't care if you are taking pictures of a car or a dog turd) is about LIGHTING. Flat general 1 in the afternoon blah lighting leads to, flat general blah pictures. A nice dirty hippie way of thinking about it is utilizing the earths natural beauty.

Originally Posted by Mortar

Use the "Magic Hours" when the sun is coming up or going down. The color and quality of the light is perfect. Background and subject are usually easy to get exposed corectly. The sun and horizon reflected in the doors always looks great. And since the sun is low shadows will be longer and therefore more interesting to the eye.
For cheap night lighting Gas stations ususally have good lighting with all the overhead hard lighting. Although you'll need to color corect in PS. If you can find a gas station with a view you could compose a nice pic. When the lights are on and the sun is going down.

[340GL]

Originally Posted by Mr Yuck

HDR is good...about 70% of my shots are HDR or Pseudo-HDR

wait, is this supposed to be a good thing?

[SteelHorse]

HDR looks awesome, now, is it horrible to open a side door?

[Ursan]

Originally Posted by dbh86

Show off your rims, not your tires. I find that the weird angles of wheels the other way can ruin a picture.

That brings me to a question: How did this trend of people photoing their cars of always showing off the tire tread start? It seems more often than not that someone takes a 3/4 shot of their car that they will turn the front wheels so they face the camera.

I agree with the above statement, I wanna see the wheels, not the rubber. Unless of course the wheels are total crap.

[Lord_Athlon]

Originally Posted by tryingbe

Contrast and color.

Contrast-dodgevsvolvo
Rule of thirds...present
Good exposure.

I dont see the problem with it.

[Ursan]

Many of you take pics & post them to the board. But often many of you forget about the macro function.

Almost all modern digicams have a macro function which allows you to take very closeup photos. Usually from mere inches to 2 feet away.

Almost universally the macro function is depicted with an icon that looks like a flower. Often with the letters "MF" next to it. As seen here:



You'll note in the center of the photo you'll see the MF icon (flower) with two triangles, those are supposed to be mountains suggesting long distance photos.

On my Canon Powershot A720, it's on the toggle button on the back. Other cameras may vary, RTFM.

Failing to do this will make your closeup shots of wiper nut covers look more like bellybutton lint.

Examples: All pics are taken 8-12"

a bulb, is it a 3456 or 3457?


It's a 3457!


What's this?


But of course! It's a USB network adapter!


I don't know about camera phones. I know my LG 8300 doesn't do it, but some others might.

My camera can get rather close. I've taken pics as close as 2" from the lens of a size 000 phillips driver. I use it at work to take pics of damaged laptops for warranty coverage claims.

[JagD]

I've spent quite a while trying to make cars look interesting in photos...it isn't easy at first.

When cars are stationary, there's nothing much of interest to look at in the picture so it's all down to angles, light and composition.

Personally, I normally shoot very low (on my belly) or try and use interesting and different angles to add a little flavor to the shots.

I also tend to use a 50mm Macro lens on the canon 10D to make the shots sharp and give a nice vibrancy to the photos, plus you can get close on the details (it's all in the detail) and play about with the DOF and so forth

Best thing to do is get out there and play



















My other baby

[darag2358]

^^nice shots

[JagD]

Ta matey

[mr. babooie]

i have a cheapo camera, kodak ZD8612 IS, is it possible to take quality pics with this? 8.1mp with Schneider -KREUZNACH VARIOGON 36mm lense

[chirish1234]

[Redwood Chair]

Beltline high,90º out,fill the frame with the car.
Like that...

[Two245Turbos]

Originally Posted by JagD

I've spent quite a while trying to make cars look interesting in photos...it isn't easy at first.

When cars are stationary, there's nothing much of interest to look at in the picture so it's all down to angles, light and composition.

Personally, I normally shoot very low (on my belly) or try and use interesting and different angles to add a little flavor to the shots.

I also tend to use a 50mm Macro lens on the canon 10D to make the shots sharp and give a nice vibrancy to the photos, plus you can get close on the details (it's all in the detail) and play about with the DOF and so forth

Best thing to do is get out there and play

The 10D can still deliver damn nice images despite being Canons first DSLR... I shoot the 1DmkII and 30D as backup with a bag full of "L" lenses for my business.
RonBaltazar.com