Car photos - edit at will...

jasonkt · Sep 25, 2009

Hey gang. I took some photos of my old altima. I live in Brooklyn and found some industrial roads with few other vehicles which allowed me to take some uncluttered pics...except I still caught a girl on a bike in one of them...

Anyway here are a couple "before" shots, one or two "processing" shots, and I'm looking for both critique and advice on how to approach editing shots of vehicles, especially when working with natural light only.

Most (if not all) pics were taken with -2 exposure.

Of course, as stated above, you are welcome to edit these photos if you wish! Simple or crazy, have fun

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

austriker · Sep 26, 2009

really none of them are that impressive. you need better compositions i think that brings your car. i think some of them have the right idea though! (number 5) i would suggest using a tripod and doing a subtle HDR.. also try using more rule of thirds and wide angle shots.

also all of them are noisy- what was your ISO at? i think a lot of this problem is b/c your originals were so underexposed that when you edited you had to make them noisy so that they would be well exposed. so fix that too (the constant underexposation). also you car needs to be in more light, seems most of your shots there isnt enough light which means a slower shutter which means not as sharp images (this looks to be some of the problem too)

KmH · Sep 26, 2009

jasonkt said:
Most (if not all) pics were taken with -2 exposure.

So, that's why they're so badly underexposed.

I don't get the blurred/whited out license plate either?

If I were to worry about it at all, I think I'd worry more about someone in my hometown getting my plate number than someone in some other part of the world.

inTempus · Oct 2, 2009

KmH said:
If I were to worry about it at all, I think I'd worry more about someone in my hometown getting my plate number than someone in some other part of the world.

I don't get that either. If you're not worried about someone seeing your plates on your car while driving down the freeway, why would you be concerned about posting a picture of your car on the internet?

To the OP: Why were you shooting -2? Do the images look too dark (underexposed) to you?

jasonkt · Oct 5, 2009

- I don't really "worry" about people getting my plates, but I've seen and heard that it's best to blank them out before?? Not sure why, really.

- I did put in some post efforts on some of these, but I wasn't really happy with the results.

- I don't really change the camera's exposure setting much, this was one of the few times I've tried it. There isn't an example here of the first shot I was working on, which I was trying to catch detail in the background through the windows while shooting the interior. Then I figured that leaving it there would help me not blow out highlights on the car later. Unfortunately, that was just wrong, because now I can't brighten them anywhere near enough without getting ugly noise in the shadows. I've tried some masking and such, but still...need better shots to start with.

Thanks for the comments and critique, though, this was my first time shooting a car (or really anything that reflective) and at least I learned a few things :er:

Flash Harry · Oct 6, 2009

jasonkt said:
-

Thanks for the comments and critique, though, this was my first time shooting a car (or really anything that reflective) and at least I learned a few things :er:

hope one was to pick a nicer car:lmao: