Automotive Photography

[theraven]

So... Tonight I am going to be doing a photo shoot for a friend of his and his wife's car's. There are a few of my previous shots below, these are taken at night as will the ones tonight. I am looking for ways to improve (please bear in mind that these pictures were taken with a bridge camera, I now have an SLR). I will be lighting with torches, so no professional lighting involved and will be using a tripod. Any help is very much appreciated!

1

DSCF1222 by ravenphotography2012, on Flickr

2

DSCF9164 by ravenphotography2012, on Flickr

3

DSCF1233 by ravenphotography2012, on Flickr

4

DSCF9476 by ravenphotography2012, on Flickr

5

DSCF9485 by ravenphotography2012, on Flickr

 

[theraven]

Anyone?

 

[tirediron]

Patience little grasshopper... some of us on the other side of the world are just getting through our first pot of coffee at this time! Given that you don't have any additional lighting, they're not bad. A few general thoughts which may help improve your final product:

Shoot with a longer focal length and larger aperture (while maintaining sufficient DoF for the subject) to more effectively isolate the subject from the background.

Choose better backgrounds. #2 is very cluttered with the house, other car, etc all clearly visible. In #4, the two guys image left, add nothing to the product.

Use a polarizing filter to help control reflections. You want some reflection, but, to use #4 as an example, you don't want too many. The reflections on the door and front quarter-panel are providing a lot of visual distraction.

Pay careful attention to light sources. In #5, you've got the car under a (I assume) a streetlamp, which is causing an ugly blown patch on the windshield and hood.

Good luck.

 

[theraven]

Patience little grasshopper... some of us on the other side of the world are just getting through our first pot of coffee at this time! Given that you don't have any additional lighting, they're not bad. A few general thoughts which may help improve your final product:

Shoot with a longer focal length and larger aperture (while maintaining sufficient DoF for the subject) to more effectively isolate the subject from the background.

Choose better backgrounds. #2 is very cluttered with the house, other car, etc all clearly visible. In #4, the two guys image left, add nothing to the product.

Use a polarizing filter to help control reflections. You want some reflection, but, to use #4 as an example, you don't want too many. The reflections on the door and front quarter-panel are providing a lot of visual distraction.

Pay careful attention to light sources. In #5, you've got the car under a (I assume) a streetlamp, which is causing an ugly blown patch on the windshield and hood.

Good luck.

Apologies, never considered the time difference! It is 4pm here in the UK!

Thank you very much for your advice, with the bridge camera I used for these I didn't have a lot of control with the settings, however with my SLR this will be much easier.

In regards to location, lights and reflections, we are going to a closed industrial estate that has some dark areas which I should be able to light myself with the torches.

Do you recommend a longer shutter speed to paint more effectively?

I do appreciate the help!

 

[Frequency]

I liked the first image very much

 

[theraven]

I liked the first image very much

Thank you! I really cheated with that and used a huge white floodlight that was on the side of a building and used it as my lighting!

 

[12sndsgood]

Tirediron hit on a lot of good points, watch your backgrounds, watch your angles. i try a lot of times to get low. #1 for me is kinda boring, it just looks like you were standing there and happened to take a photo. A lot of times with cars i'm back and shooting with around 150mm or more. without lights, use your tripod (i almost always use tripod with cars) use a lot longer shutterspeeds. maybe work with getting some interesting sky in the background. never worked with torches so not sure what to really tell you on that aspect.

 

[runnah]

God I wish we could get the RS stateside. That MkI is nice but why is there no red trim?

Try using multiple exposures to lighten up some of the darker areas. Also try some other angle. The 3/4 is great but is very common. Try focusing on unique parts of the car that really have an artistic quality to them. The grill on the Viva for example or the louvers on the RS..