Noob to Car Photography

Evan55T · May 17, 2015

Hey sorry if this post is ignorant im a car enthusiast who is greatly passionate about cars and im fairly/very new to photography in general. I dont yet have a real photography camera, but i do have an avg one and I was wondering what tips or advice anyone could give me here specifically in taking pictures of cars. Also if there is a place in this forum that is dedicated to car photography or steps/procedures along with necessities I would need to have.

Any advice is appreciated.

Heather Fazelinia · May 17, 2015

Hi Evan,

If you aren't ready to get another camera focus on your composition. For example you can google rule of thirds, leading lines, depth, all of which will work with cars quite well.

Trever1t · May 17, 2015

I have had good luck shooting on fairly cloudy days so the sun's reflections don't blow out the details. Choose a good background.

snowbear · May 18, 2015

Welcome aboard.

Try shooting the details on a car such as the headlamps and wheel hubs; fill the frame with them.

Designer · May 18, 2015

Evan55T said:
Hey sorry if this post is ignorant im a car enthusiast who is greatly passionate about cars and im fairly/very new to photography in general. I dont yet have a real photography camera, but i do have an avg one and I was wondering what tips or advice anyone could give me here specifically in taking pictures of cars. Also if there is a place in this forum that is dedicated to car photography or steps/procedures along with necessities I would need to have.

Any advice is appreciated.

The "search forums" page is found on a pull-down from the "forums" header.

I searched on "cars" but you can try other searches. There have been many threads on photographing automobiles.

Search Results for Query cars Photography Forum

Braineack · May 18, 2015

clean background.
good compression.
good framing/composition.
narrow DOF.

soufiej · May 18, 2015

Evan55T said:
Hey sorry if this post is ignorant im a car enthusiast who is greatly passionate about cars and im fairly/very new to photography in general. I dont yet have a real photography camera, but i do have an avg one and I was wondering what tips or advice anyone could give me here specifically in taking pictures of cars. Also if there is a place in this forum that is dedicated to car photography or steps/procedures along with necessities I would need to have.

Any advice is appreciated.

Don't do the expected shot. OK, once or twice, do the expected shot. But not much more than that. Photos of a car full length from the side, or front or back get lost in the masses of identical shots.

Get down low, get up high. Exaggerate a feature. Get in close. Look for the detail stuff that makes that car "THAT" car. Put it in context and you'll have more people stopping to look at the unexpected take on an all too common '57 Chevy coupe.

NCspotter · May 19, 2015

I'm a big car enthusiast too, and started out with a pocket digital camera. Before I got my DSLR, I mostly tried to browse around on the interwebs and find photos that I liked. From there, I'd try to picture myself in the original photographer's shoes and figure out what he/she did to get the right angle, reflections, etc. Then, when I bought my DSLR, I already had a decent starting point, so I was free to work on the smaller, more precise details of automotive photography. So that's what I'd suggest; try to imitate what others do, so that you have a good foundation for composing your photos, then when you upgrade to a better camera, you'll be able to hone in your skills and work more on the fine details.

Trangela · May 27, 2015

I think it's too hard to begin. I watched an interview with car a photgrapher. It is very complex area. You must learn a lot, and have lots of equipment.

imagemaker46 · May 27, 2015

It's ok to just quit.

Braineack · May 27, 2015

car photography is VERY hard. and takes knowledge, skill, and access more than equipment.

NCspotter · May 27, 2015

Trangela said:
I think it's too hard to begin. I watched an interview with car a photgrapher. It is very complex area. You must learn a lot, and have lots of equipment.

For simply shooting cars in the wild (i.e. a Ferrari driving past on the street), you need more practice than anything else. I outgrew a pocket digital camera so I bought a DSLR with just one lens, and it's worked great so far for the automotive photography that I do (except sometimes I could use a bit more zoom). To say that it's "too hard to begin" is pretty lame...if photographing cars was that difficult, that interview you saw with the automotive photographer would have never happened because he wouldn't have been shooting cars in the first place. You have to start somewhere...after all, many of the better photographers I follow on Flickr began shooting cars with their phones/iPods years ago, and now their work is amazing.