4 Night Shots Of My Car, Please Need Info & Tips

[rizzie]

Alright working with canon digital rebel xti. took these shots on tv and tried manual but I just cant figure it out. I had the aperatue on auto and i set it to 8" - 10" on a few shots. I want to do it on manual but I cant figure out what im doing wrong. With these pics i had to up the brightness abit but I got the white balance down doin a custom one. Any tips or somethin i can get. heres the shots. any tips on either what settings for manual i should try or anything. much appreciated.

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[andrew99]

I hate to come across as rude, but the headlights are incredibly annoying, I would love to see these shots with the headlights off. They are causing lens flare and are so bright they are very distracting. Other than that, the shots are not bad. Maybe a different background would be more interesting (the houses are nice, but I'm not sure about the iron fence). Also, if you get lower to the ground you could get some interesting perspectives, just to mix it up a bit.

 

[NateS]

This is what happens when people think they're cool by throwing HID bulbs in their standard halogen headlight housings. Maybe you should retrofit projector's into your housings so you aren't blinding every other driver with that insanely bad glare.

 

[MarcusM]

holy cow these are huge.

For 1 thing, you should resize these to a more monitor-friendly viewing size. Not everyone has a monitor that is 1944 x 1296, which is what these are.

Another thing, yea those lights are obnoxious. I always wondered why those things were so bright going down the highway. They're causing lens flare as andrew99 said.

Lastly, what are you trying to "figure out"? It's a shot of a car in some random parking lot at night. Nothing that grabs me about it. The background is cluttered and on some of the shots there is too much negative space IMO.

I guess you need to be specific as to what you think is wrong with the shots and what you're trying to do so people can offer help.

 

[crh428]

You need to read... I am sure someone will come along and recommend a book or two. I was clueless as well till I bought a book and read it. I didn't even understand what an f-stop was before that. I read "Complete Digital Photography" by Ben Long. I think one recommended a lot on here is "Understanding Exposure," but I forget who wrote it.

And turn the headlights off.

 

[MarcusM]

You need to read... I am sure someone will come along and recommend a book or two. I was clueless as well till I bought a book and read it. I didn't even understand what an f-stop was before that. I read "Complete Digital Photography" by Ben Long. I think one recommended a lot on here is "Understanding Exposure," but I forget who wrote it.

And turn the headlights off.

Bryan Peterson. Also you might want to get some books about composition, Rule of Thirds, etc.

 

[rizzie]

thanks everyone, i already picked up a book a few days ago and read it all but still trying to get things down. ill try next time without the lights on but i guess what i was trying to do was take a pic where the hid's will just show blue instead of the glare. and im definatly not taking them out lol, my personal preference and i love them and i lowered the levels on the lights so they dont blind anyone. but thanks for comin through.

 

[skiboarder72]

Love the car though, I have a black 06 tC, I have a bunch of pix up on here

http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118787

 

[redls1bird]

thanks everyone, i already picked up a book a few days ago and read it all but still trying to get things down. ill try next time without the lights on but i guess what i was trying to do was take a pic where the hid's will just show blue instead of the glare. and im definatly not taking them out lol, my personal preference and i love them and i lowered the levels on the lights so they dont blind anyone. but thanks for comin through.

If your unsure about what you read, you may want to take a step back and re-read it. Nice car btw, but the headlights are horrendous. I realize that you were trying to show off the color, but in reality you just showed most car guys that you have an annoying hid kit. (also, that hid kit is illegal, since its in a housing that is dot approved for halogen bulbs, not hid).

Cars are things we drive, and experience through driving. Secondly, they can be beautiful. If your going to photograph a car, and "capture" its essence, you need to do so in a way that reflects the car, and its driving experience, or shows of its beauty. Right now, your photos have neither.

 

[logan9967]

ok, no something that isn't filled with as much anger

compared to your first set of night photos these are a great improvement, you listened and took it away from the orange light and now the pics are clearer and have the cars actual color
you didn't turn the lights off though, i know you want to show the blue and color of the lights, but maybe photoshop is the answer, photographing the light isn't doing anything for the picture, if you add in the light later you can choose how you want the color and how bright you want it and if you want some lens flaring or not, though that might take a little more time.
it's good that your reading keep that up, and also some nicer scenery would really complement the car, try to find a place where there is nothing immediately near to the car, i would say keep the car around 50 feet away from anything behind it (unless it's some sort of clean wall) that should really help out,
good luck and keep improving!

 

[JamesD]

Try setting your camera to AV mode and selecting a small aperture (f/16, for instance). This will cause the vehicle to be in sharper focus from front to rear. Your headlights are rendering white because they're much brighter than anything else in the image and are burning in. You can try having someone in the car, ducking down if you don't want them visible in the image. Partway through the exposure (which at small aperture and low-light should be pretty long), have them turn on or flash the headlights. Remind them to not move too much while they do so, or the vehicle will rock, blurring it. Try different headlight flash durations to get the look you want. Try playing with aperture and ISO settings to balance the lights in the background, depth of field, and the subject. Also, you might try a cooling filter (or cooling the color temperature in camera or in PP), which will make things generally a bit less orange and a bit more blue, possibly giving you the effect you're looking for.

 

[soul.glo]

TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!!!