My first shots thoughts/opinions

[BOOSTED]

Hey RFD photo members,

Im 16 years old and started to get a interested in the photography of cars. So few weeks ago I purchased the following:

-Nikon D90 18-105mm Kit
-Sandisk 16GB Extreme III SD Card
-Lowepro Nova 190AW
-Manfrotto 055XPROB
-Manfrotto 322RC2

On the side:
-Rocketfish HDMI
-Sony HDRCX-100
-Sony 8GB Memory Stick Pro Duo

Today went shooting a clients Lexus IS300 for free (Practice/first time using the camera). He didnt have much time in a rush so I did what I could in 10-15min. I played around with photoshop on all. Please post your pros/cons and what I should improve on.

Thanx!

 

[mom2eight]

I think you did a good job for just starting out, and being so young. I would like to see the background a bit more blurry drawing attention to the car. Also the reflection on the car imo needs to be toned down. A few are cropped a little to much. There are some great car pics on here that im sure you can learn a lot from. Just go to search the forum and you get some tips and great ideas. Best of luck! Keep shooting.

 

[clbd39]

Nice Critique: The lighting is so-so for taking pictures of a near black car at night, good job for not taking any "Mad TYTE JDM Angle" shots and it's great that you're out taking pictures, its easy to learn how to take pictures of a stationary object like a car because you can expand with trial and error as far as learning how to set your aperture, shutter speed, playing with the ISO etc

Now, for the more in depth critique:

It looks like all (through the exif data) your pictures that your iso was at lowest, 800, so you edited them and bumped the contrast to remove the noise from the pics and ended up losing plenty of detail

For night shots on a car, especially a dark one, I would personally use manual mode and set your aperture low and increase your shutter speed and turn off AUTO ISO or atleast have it at 400 max, otherwise they're going to come out grainy, play around with (or research and read about settings, however you learn best) settings to find one you like, you have a tripod so use the longer shutter speeds

The interior shots are pretty good for a first timer, those are hard shots to get right, but they look decent, the location is good but it's all pretty much in focus, and there's lots going on there so my eye is sort of drawn to the entry doors more than the car, they're brighter and about 2/3's of the way up in your frame AND the car is so dark that it's hard to initially bring the eyes to focus on it

The wheels should normally always face the lens, if they wheels are straight, take a head on shot or complete side shot, rarely will straight wheels work at normal eye or crouching level if you're off to the side angle

give the car a lot more frame, don't crop it so tight like a portrait shot use the"rule of thirds" until you understand enough to start breaking the rules and venturing out

don't be afraid to lay on the ground to get a shot (well lower your tripod for night shots) or find someplace to get a higher angle

for daytime it's sometimes fun to put your camera on the tripod, hold it way up (on a timer or remote) and shoot, you can get some neat shots like that if you can't find a place to get up high with, or you can bring a step ladder

keep shooting though you'll get the hang of it

 

[clbd39]

one more thing, watch out for the hot spots, like the light showing a BIG spot on the hood and funky reflections, sometimes reflections can be great when they're helping define the curves of the car, usually they're distracting and PITA's

also if you're going to take more dark car pics at night, you may want to learn how to do some HDR's however, don't buy into the over done cartoonish HDR

I have a dark car myself and it's hard to get the angles and get it done right......

http://s416.photobucket.com/albums/...710/?action=view&current=DSC_0008_09_10sm.jpg

 

[BOOSTED]

Cool, some of the terms you guys said to improve on I dont know a clue about I guess I shall google it. But with lighting how would I improve it on using flash? I personally had a better location but he changed times last minute from day to night which I didnt plan and also he said he couldnt drive a minute without getting the car dirty. Is there a way in photoshop to remove reflections? What main things should I focus in p.s?

Edit: Can someone please explain to me the whole composition thing I finding it hard to understand. Heres is an out of the camera pic perhaps someone can edit this to show me the composition improvements I should work on.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5457/dsc0262r.jpg

 

[Hybrid Designz]

I wouldnt use an on camera flash if you were to use a flash. Just use lower shutter speeds and more light will be in the picture. For me the lexus is too dark in the pics.

Tell your friend i love his car, lol

 

[clbd39]

Cool, some of the terms you guys said to improve on I dont know a clue about I guess I shall google it. But with lighting how would I improve it on using flash? I personally had a better location but he changed times last minute from day to night which I didnt plan and also he said he couldnt drive a minute without getting the car dirty. Is there a way in photoshop to remove reflections? What main things should I focus in p.s?

Edit: Can someone please explain to me the whole composition thing I finding it hard to understand. Heres is an out of the camera pic perhaps someone can edit this to show me the composition improvements I should work on.

Here's a thread that I frequently use to ask questions and understand car photography, Armin is a great guy and his skills and resume certainly show he's a great photographer

Armin’s Quick and Dirty Tips and Tricks to Automotive Photography - NASIOC

his site is Armin Ausejo Photography | Automotive, Wedding, Portrait, Landscape | Seattle, WA

 

[Vicelord John]

I think they look like snap shots.

You cut out pieces of the car. They don't appear to be cut out artistically because they are just slivers, so I would focus on either getting the whole car in frame, or getting artistic angles down. To me it just looks like mistakes. #3 is a good example.

They are also underexposed. You have the tripod, so use it to your advantage. Turn your ISO down to 200 and while I was learning I had to take all my pictures so I felt like I was overexposing a bit. It helped me get the grasp on night shots pretty quickly.

 

[Layspeed]

Nice car! I think the reflections kill it. On a few I can see the swirl marks in the paint! I love cars also but somewhat afraid to take photos of them especially at night :lmao: I'm wondering if a circular polarizing filter would help with the reflections? Keep shooting and you got a a lot of pictures for 10-15min time! :thumbup:

 

[clbd39]

one other thing I just noticed, beware of where you're driving, if you're going to drive the car anywhere bring a towel to clean the car and a towel to clean the tires off, sand on the tires can be very distracting, but i think the contrast boost made the detail go away so it's not that big of a deal, but the contrast boost definitely is

 

[KmH]

one other thing I just noticed, beware of where you're driving, if you're going to drive the car anywhere bring a towel to clean the car and a towel to clean the tires off, sand on the tires can be very distracting, but i think the contrast boost made the detail go away so it's not that big of a deal, but the contrast boost definitely is

You did pretty good considering your experience level and the time frame you had to work with. :thumbup:

Using a towel to wipe of a clients dusty car is a good way to scratch the finish. Not good!

Get a California Car Duster to use instead. The little one is for the interior.

Refections in the car body and windows can be controlled somewhat with a Circular Polarizing filter (C-PL). More so, you have to become familiar with the concept of the 'family of angles' of reflections to properly place lights, car and camera.

Keep your eyes peeled for good, plain, non-descript backgrounds for future shoots. When shooting a car that is sitting on pavement, the classic set up is to wet the surface. It hides cracks and other imperfections in the surface and can give a nice mirror reflection of the car.

Lastly, even in daytime, supplimental light will make your car images 'pop'.