Taking pictures of cars when it's cloudy

[fmw]

OP, there are two problems with your image. The first is that it is underexposed. Someone above suggested using exposure comp. That is a good approach for a beginner.

The second problem is the angle between you, the car and the sun that causes the overexposed highlights on the car. My approach would have been to shoot the car from the other side to resolve that. It would require perhaps even more exposure since the car would be back lit.

As with most beginner images, the problem is not the equipment. The problem is experience. Go reshoot it from the other side and give it more light.

Thank You for the response. Since the pictures are taken for a listing, i have to take pictures of the car all the way around! So on certain pictures the position is set. I know the problme is not the equipment, it's me that's why i'm trying to learn about it a little bit. What does "underexposed" mean?

Underexposed means there is not enough light on the subject (dim or dark). Read up in your manual about the exposure compensation dial. When you get more comfortable, consider adding a polarization filter to cut down on reflections. Nikon 52mm Circular Polarizer II Filter 2233 B&H Photo Video

You turn the actual ring on the filter and you can visually see the reflections go away. This would be a nice finishing touch to your images but not necessarily needed.

It is important to understand that polarizing filters filter polarized light and the angle at which the light reaches the camera affects its polarization. A polarizer may or may not reduce the reflected highlights depending on the light's polarization. The best approach by far would be to backlight the car.

 

[Ysarex]

I made some adjustments to your photo to illustrate what's being discussed. You photographed a white car. But the camera gave you a blue-grey car instead. I changed the WB to make the car white and I corrected the exposure to make the car white. (I also took out the tilt).

JC's WB tip is a step in the right direction. Auto WB is one of the camera industry's "dirty little secrets" to some extent. None of our cameras can measure the color of the light by analyzing a photo taken because they don't know what color the things in the photo really are. So the pre-sets like cloudy are a better option. You can go a step further and if you're listing the cars I think good color is a plus. Here's a link to your camera's manual: http://download.nikonimglib.com/archive1/MaJxf00s2cYm018vNdJ91esMPv02/D5200VRRM_(En)02.pdf

Page 79 explains how to set a custom WB (Nikon calls it Preset Manual). Go in the shop and get a Styrofoam coffee cup and flatten it out. Use that as the white target to set WB.

Your 2nd problem; the photo is too dark -- white car becomes grey. You camera's metering system is tuned to photograph grey. There's a basic assumption built in that you're pointing the camera at a grey object. The meter in the camera that measures light is measuring the light as it reflects off your subject. The camera doesn't really know if your subject is dark or light but what the engineers who designed it do know is that an "average scene" has an average reflectance rate. All the light objects and all the dark objects all the highlights and all the shadows blend together to average out to grey. If you had a print of your photo and stuck a pencil through the middle and started to spin it the assumption the different areas of light and dark would blend together to become grey. BUT, your car was white. And you pretty well filled the frame with that white car. The camera's metering/exposure system did it's job and made the car grey.

Look at the above illustration. I took it to illustrate how your meter works. There's 3 photos there. First I took the top photo of both a silver (light) and charcoal (dark) car. Then I moved in close and photographed each car's door panel. When the meter saw the entire scene it did a good job. When it saw only the light door panel it darkened it and when it saw only the dark door panel it lightened it. It's a dumb machine.

Look at your photo and you have a scene that is predominately light. When you add together the white car with the overcast sky the camera meter is seeing a brighter than average scene. When a scene becomes brighter and brighter than average the camera pulls it back down and vice versa.

So folks are telling you about EC (exposure compensation) which is designed into the camera to allow you to shift the exposure when the camera is faced with a scene that's too far from average. With a white car a positive EC is indicated.

Joe

You may find this helpful: http://photojoes.net/class_notes/chapter01.html

 

[matekelly]

Joe, thanks for Your detailed answer!

After some editing the picture i came up with some very nice result! The picture is clear, colors are real and the whole thing is bright! I like it this way. I'll read up on the camera it self and also on the link You gave me!

 

[Derrel]

EC is a common abbreviation for exposure compensation; it's usually on the top deck, right hand side, and often has a small button that says +/- (for Plus, and Minus exposure).

Many times, black cats or snowfields, errr Black Ford F-150s and White Lincoln hybrids need exposure adjustments.

ADD light to make it white. Minus lidht to make it darker.

One real, genuine TOOL you could use=e for cars would be a circular polarizing filter,to cut some, but not ALL, of the reflections off of various car parts. Like on the blue Audi above: a little bit of polarizing might have made the front windshield look better. A circular polarizer can be hard to see through, but it's more like sunglasses than a welding visor. But, with the polarizer, you can shoot, then chimp the camera LCD screen to see the effect. Get ablout a $40-$50 circular polarizr (not the older linear polarizer).

Or, hit up a pawn shop, get a used $10 polarizer.

 

[matekelly]

Yes there is a scale on my camera screen what changes as i change shutter speed in manual mode. I'm guessing this is the scale You where talking about!

I'll try and find my polarizer thingy i really do believe i have one. Idk if it's any good or not, but will give it a shot.

 

[matekelly]

Yes there is a scale on my camera screen what changes as i change shutter speed in manual mode. I'm guessing this is the scale You where talking about!

I'll try and find my polarizer thingy i really do believe i have one. Idk if it's any good or not, but will give it a shot.

 

[matekelly]

Yes there is a scale on my camera screen what changes as i change shutter speed in manual mode. I'm guessing this is the scale You where talking about!

I'll try and find my polarizer thingy i really do believe i have one. Idk if it's any good or not, but will give it a shot.