Ford Truck

dreams of film · Jul 9, 2010

This picture was fun to take. I was across the street from the truck and there was heavy traffic. Please feel free to give me ideas on changes I can make next time.

Ford Truck 1/160s F3.5 0.00EV ISO100 26.9mm using a Soligor 85B filter.

blwndr83 · Jul 9, 2010

Very sweet looking truck!!!!

KmH · Jul 9, 2010

A better background, hopefuly not as busy, a contrasting color, or more out of focus (depth-of-field).
Get the entire subject in the shot
Level the camera
Use fill light when the subject is back lit.
Put a circular polarizing (CPL) filter on your lens.

Skyclad · Jul 9, 2010

KmH said:
A better background, hopefuly not as busy, a contrasting color, or more out of focus (depth-of-field).
Get the entire subject in the shot
Level the camera
Use fill light when the subject is back lit.
Put a circular polarizing (CPL) filter on your lens.

I assume the truck isn't hers (or his) and doesn't know the owner, so let me ask you this KmH; What would you do. Its a lovely truck, no question and makes for a great picture. True, the truck colors kinda blend in with the house and fence a little. Now taking the picture from the other side of the truck isn't an option cause theres no way she could fit it in frame (I don't think).

And you cant take a picture from the front or back cause the composition wouldn't be good at all. So whats to do to improve this picture? Use photoshop to changed the color of the house and fence? Edit out a window or two? I'm curious to know.

True, its not a 100% perfect picture. But those are rare to achieve as is, and less tilt would have been a good option. But those few things aside, I think this is a good picture and was a good photo opportunity.

altair005 · Jul 9, 2010

I wish the angle were smaller.

BuS_RiDeR · Jul 9, 2010

You clipped the back bumper... Beautiful truck... I think a bit of a different composition would improve this...

Skyclad · Jul 9, 2010

BuS_RiDeR said:
You clipped the back bumper... Beautiful truck... I think a bit of a different composition would improve this...

True, but again I ask this (paraphrased);

Skyclad said:
I assume the truck isn't hers (or his) and doesn't know the owner, so let me ask you this; What would you do. Its a lovely truck, no question and makes for a great picture. True, the truck colors kinda blend in with the house and fence a little. Now taking the picture from the other side of the truck isn't an option cause theres no way she could fit it in frame (I don't think).

And you cant take a picture from the front or back cause the composition wouldn't be good at all. So whats to do to improve this picture? Use photoshop to changed the color of the house and fence? Edit out a window or two? I'm curious to know.

True, its not a 100% perfect picture. But those are rare to achieve as is, and less tilt would have been a good option. But those few things aside, I think this is a good picture and was a good photo opportunity.

(I apologize before hand about repeating myself)

BuS_RiDeR · Jul 9, 2010

Skyclad said:
BuS_RiDeR said:

You clipped the back bumper... Beautiful truck... I think a bit of a different composition would improve this...

Click to expand...

True, but again I ask this (paraphrased);

Skyclad said:

I assume the truck isn't hers (or his) and doesn't know the owner, so let me ask you this; What would you do. Its a lovely truck, no question and makes for a great picture. True, the truck colors kinda blend in with the house and fence a little. Now taking the picture from the other side of the truck isn't an option cause theres no way she could fit it in frame (I don't think).

And you cant take a picture from the front or back cause the composition wouldn't be good at all. So whats to do to improve this picture? Use photoshop to changed the color of the house and fence? Edit out a window or two? I'm curious to know.

True, its not a 100% perfect picture. But those are rare to achieve as is, and less tilt would have been a good option. But those few things aside, I think this is a good picture and was a good photo opportunity.

Click to expand...

(I apologize before hand about repeating myself)

Maybe, if possible, use a wider angle lens to allow you to open up the shot a bit?

I am NOT a very good photo editor... I can do the basics but thats it... But if there was a possibility of more contrast between the truck and the background... That might work...

As I said... I like the photo... Just putting in my two cents as to ideas of how it could be improved. They are just my thoughts... So take what you will from my words.

Skyclad · Jul 9, 2010

BuS_RiDeR said:
Maybe, if possible, use a wider angle lens to allow you to open up the shot a bit?

I am NOT a very good photo editor... I can do the basics but thats it... But if there was a possibility of more contrast between the truck and the background... That might work...

As I said... I like the photo... Just putting in my two cents as to ideas of how it could be improved. They are just my thoughts... So take what you will from my words.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not shooting down anyones thoughts or ideas at all. I'm just trying to understand what someone might do in this situation, which is; The truck makes for a great shot, but they don't know the owner, thus are unable to have it moved to a better spot for composition and at the same time, limited to their angle of shot as well as to the camera/equipment on hand.

That would just limit you down to PP work in Photoshop or something. Which is fine, but for someone like me, aside from adjusting color/tint/hue/brightness and such, I barely have any editing skills. So that kinda rules that out (set aside that "you should learn & experiment" argument).

I'm not trying to argue with anyone at all in any way. I'm just curious as she is a novice (as I will be once I get my camera), should one let this good photo opportunity pass them by because of such said reasons?

Or would shooting in B&W with less tilt be the ultimate answer for such a novice? As for me, I would disagree as the natural colors of everything give off a nice sepia sort of tone, and B&W would just ruin that.

Again I apologize. I don't mean to turn this into a debate nor am I trying to. I'm just trying to understand what one would do when they have a good photo opportunity such as this on the fly.

vtf · Jul 9, 2010

Simply walk across the street, knock on the door and say, "Sir, Mam", may I take some photos of your truck, I think its awsome. Is there anyway I could get you to pull it into the driveway so I could get a couple of sharp images? Cool, thanks. Ill send copies your way if you wish.
Or knock, knock, will you be at a car show soon so I can take some great shots of your truck?
Sometimes they like showing off.
Just a thought.

burstintoflame81 · Jul 9, 2010

If you absolutely can't move the truck, then use the widest angle you can and a small DOF to blur the background. You can also adjust the backgrounds colors, and background to make it blend less. Maybe desaturate it a bit. The Circular Polarizer would help as well with reflections. You could also stand on a short little step ladder next to it ( or in the bed of another truck ) and shoot down on it, or shoot upwards at it. All this would call for a wide lens though. Or get super far back with the longest zoom you have and try to get a short DOF that way. \Just my two cents.

BuS_RiDeR · Jul 9, 2010

What if.... What if you re-croped it to eliminate a bit of the background... Played with the levels and color enhancement to get the truck to stand out a bit more?

I know its not perfect... But something like...

Skyclad · Jul 9, 2010

vtf said:
Simply walk across the street, knock on the door and say, "Sir, Mam", may I take some photos of your truck, I think its awsome. Is there anyway I could get you to pull it into the driveway so I could get a couple of sharp images? Cool, thanks. Ill send copies your way if you wish.
Or knock, knock, will you be at a car show soon so I can take some great shots of your truck?
Sometimes they like showing off.
Just a thought.

That is a really great idea. I tend to be a bit shy and keep to myself (it was really bad when I was a kid, so its something I havent been able to shake off completely), so this idea never came to my mind. But you are absolutely on spot with that.

burstintoflame81 said:
If you absolutely can't move the truck, then use the widest angle you can and a small DOF to blur the background. You can also adjust the backgrounds colors, and background to make it blend less. Maybe desaturate it a bit. The Circular Polarizer would help as well with reflections. You could also stand on a short little step ladder next to it ( or in the bed of another truck ) and shoot down on it, or shoot upwards at it. All this would call for a wide lens though. Or get super far back with the longest zoom you have and try to get a short DOF that way. \Just my two cents.

Great ideas there. But the bold part would have to be excluded say if she was just walking down the street with nothing more than her camera in hand. All great ideas though.

BuS_RiDeR said:
What if.... What if you re-croped it to eliminate a bit of the background... Played with the levels and color enhancement to get the truck to stand out a bit more?

I know its not perfect... But something like...

That is very nice. And someone with very limited photoshopping skills can easily do. The crop makes the subject more of the focus of attention with eliminating the dark colors of the roof and the color enhancement helps separate the colors of the truck from the house.

Great ideas all of you! Thats what I was wanting to know what to do when such a novice is limited with their skills and what they have on hand at the time of the shoot. :thumbup:

I hope this helps the OP as much as it has helped me.

burstintoflame81 · Jul 9, 2010

Skyclad said:
Great ideas there. But the bold part would have to be excluded say if she was just walking down the street with nothing more than her camera in hand. All great ideas though.

But that doesn't mean that these wouldn't be ways to improve the shot. You can't take a mediocre shot and then say "well I wasn't prepared" well, then don't take the shot, noone cares what the excuses are. I don't mean this as harshly as it may read, just being very practical about it. I am not saying that the OP is making excuses by explaining the situation, they clearly came here asking for help. If you assume that no tips were possible, then that defeats the purpose of coming here to ask for help. ( make sense? ) Personally, I think that if the shot wasn't cutting the bumper off, this shot could probably be saved in Post Processing, but that doesn't mean you should make a habit of having to PP everything to death to get a useable pic.