Car Photography

[vml5]

Hi everyone, so I just got a Nikon D5300. I used to be big into photography when I was a kid and I finally got back into it. My question is for cars, where you are shooting in environments with heavy amounts of artificial lighting that can sometimes glare and cause a mirror look to the car, should a lens hood be used? Or will it make a difference? Also, what is the difference between the flower shaped hoods and the standard looking hoods?

 

[tirediron]

The primary function of a lens hood is to reduce flare and ghosting, that is odd colours and patterns produced by the sun hitting the front lens element at an undesirable angle. The difference between the petal style and the "regular" ones is it's what the designer has decided is optimum for that lens based on its characteristics.

Your best tool to combat unwanted reflections in automotive photography is control of the light. Your second best tool is a polarizing filter.

 

[Designer]

Yup, get a circular polarizer. Get a good one, meaning; don't cheap out on it.

 

[minicoop1985]

Yes. A GOOD CPL won't screw with your image quality enough to be noticeable at all. A cheap one can be all kinds of trouble. Also, be aware of how the reflections affect the car at different times. This shot (I know I've posted it like 100 times, but it's a good example here) was shot in a spot with all kinds of reflections. The key to it was selecting the right angle where there were very few to no reflections showing up on the car.

G8 lighting experiment 2 by longm1985, on Flickr

 

[vml5]

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated