Pics of my car in a parking garage for C&C!

[supraman215]

Finally went out and took some pics of my car in the local parking garage. They just finished it up so I wanted to give it a try. I was shooting for 45 mins and right as I was packing up, this guy in a new white 4 door Golf pulled up and told me he was there to take pics too and just as he did, in came the security pulled up right behind him. He drove off and the security stayed. I didn't say anything to them or anything but WTF? I was the only car in the whole garage, it was 10pm at night and this is public property because it's a parking garage for the court house. Well whatever he probablly thought we were kids and honestly I still felt like a 16 year old who was like "oh **** here come the cops." I dunno what I felt that way.

I used my 18-105 at f11 mostly, 1-3sec. I also had my flash there for all but pic 3. Only a little PP was done to adjust exposure.

Even with a guide# of 145 at 1/1 power it seemed to have no impact, or not enough power to overpower the existing lighting. In #2 you can see that the color temp is way off for the flash. How do I fix that? Gels?

I guess this is all about experience but coming home and looking at the pics I could see all kinds of things that were wrong like the lights being completely blown out, and distracting from the subject. I wish I had seen these things on site. C&C please.

#1

#2

#3

 

[tirediron]

Nice parking garage... too bad the car got in the way.




Okay, yes, that's a bit of well-intentioned sarcasm. There's two main issues I see with all of these images. (1) Wayyyy too much DoF. We don't care about the fine craftsmanship in the concrete, we want to see the car. I would suggest shooting with your longest glass and largest aperture (smallest 'f' #) to reduce the DoF and make the car stand out from the background. (2) There's way too much garage and way too little car. Car shots should always be about the car. Tighten up on the car to ensure it's the focal point. This would also eliminate those blown lights - a good crop will take care of this, but it's always better to do as much as you can in-camera.

I would also suggest using a polarizing filter in future to reduce the reflections on the car. That, in conjunction with a couple of reflectors would have taken these images from okay to good.

 

[AlexL]

nice car Always liked the A3s

 

[Robin Usagani]

You are no Supraman. .you are Audiman . Nice car. The garage is too well lit.

 

[supraman215]

tirediron: The highest my lens goes is f5.6 at 105mm. I had another verison of #3 at these settings but I deleted it. Maybe I shouldn't have Atleast it's just a car and a garage I will be going back again. The car was more agreeable and easier to work with than my 3yo daughter.

Thanks for the tips!

alex: do you mean A3S or A3's? I wish I had an A3S

 

[Derrel]

I like the way the car overlaps the parking structure supports in the second photo--that adds a sense of depth. IN the third photo, I like the way you have positioned the camera so that you are looking past the foreground concrete structure on the right hand side of the frame--that too adds a sense of depth to the photo. The height of the camera in the third shot is lower than in the second photo, and I prefer the lower camera vantage point on this car. The burned out lights are distracting from the car, so you'dneed to eliminate them from the compositions, or bring in massive amounts of fill-in lighting to bring the garage up to the level of the lights; I do not think you could bridge the dynamic range between the lights and the shadow values in this location, unless you do a two- or three-shot exposure blending, which would be an option here,with this totally static subject. But those lights--ick...gotta' do something with them,some way, some how.

Overall, you created better results than most people do on these parking garage shots. This type of situation is inherently a bit dull and boring,so making something even halfway interesting out of it is a win.

 

[supraman215]

Better?

#4

#5

 

[supraman215]

Thanks Derrel. I like your idea and I think for my next set I might try to do a couple exposures, one on the car and one on the garage and combine them. I think I may also try to get a little more perspective on the garage next time by putting the car at a bit more of an angle to the supports. Might make it a little more interesting.

 

[Rosshole]

try turning the wheels the opposite direction, and not quite as much.

 

[Robin Usagani]

And tint it!

 

[Emilymarie]

ot but are you really into the Audi's? My DH is president of audishifter.com , check it out

 

[Juice]

Your wheels are pointing the wrong way. From this angle, crank the wheel hard right. For my shots I generally shoot perpendicular to the front wheel, so it is facing me directly. You don't have to stick to that of course, but it's a good place to start.

 

[shaunly]

Here's a quick 5min edit

 

[supraman215]

And tint it!

Oh I wish but I chose new camera equipment instead

try turning the wheels the opposite direction, and not quite as much.

I will try that,

ot but are you really into the Audi's? My DH is president of audishifter.com , check it out

Yeah Audi's are pretty cool. This is my first one and I LOVE IT. DH? I've seen this on some of my wife's Mommy boards, does it mean Designated Husband?

Here's a quick 5min edit

This looks awesome. I was going to google how to get that gritty look thanks!

 

[Robin Usagani]

Here is my edit . I think the garage is too bright