Car Photos for C&C

[703Methane]

Me and my brother went out to take some pictures of his TL. Now, I've always wanted to shoot cars like I've seen On Hellaflush, andStanceworks.
So here are my First decent pictures that I've taken of my brothers car. Please critique , as for i'm trying to learn as much as I can.

1.

2.

3.

4.

BTW, I'm still working on the sig.

 

[sean7488]

should try angling the car differently sometime, car's facing the same way in every picture. But not bad pictures.

 

[703Methane]

should try angling the car differently sometime, car's facing the same way in every picture. But not bad pictures.

Thanks for the comment.

But yeah I did have it angled in different shots. But they didn't come out well at all. But tomorrow were going out again, so hopefully I can pull some better ones off.
Thanks for the advise.

 

[lyonsroar]

Of the three, #1 is the best...

The key with automotive photography is angles (maybe that's the key with all photography...)

Get up high, get down low, drivers side, passenger side, rear, front, hood up, hood down, doors open, doors closed, windows up, windows down, windows cracked, sunroof open, sunroof closed, sunroof tilted, headlights on, headlights off, foglights on, foglights off...etc...etc...etc...on and on

The key is to make your automotive photos stand out in some way from all the other "my whip" snapshots out there.

I don't know what lens you were using for these, but I've found the 50mm forks VERY well for automotive. It's tack sharp and can render the background OOF at a wide enough aperture to make the car stand out more.

Another thing to try is HDR. HDR goes with cars like butter on toast...

This website really helped me out...
Car Photography Tutorials - AUTOMOTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY MADE EASY

 

[703Methane]

Of the three, #1 is the best...

The key with automotive photography is angles (maybe that's the key with all photography...)

Get up high, get down low, drivers side, passenger side, rear, front, hood up, hood down, doors open, doors closed, windows up, windows down, windows cracked, sunroof open, sunroof closed, sunroof tilted, headlights on, headlights off, foglights on, foglights off...etc...etc...etc...on and on

The key is to make your automotive photos stand out in some way from all the other "my whip" snapshots out there.

I don't know what lens you were using for these, but I've found the 50mm forks VERY well for automotive. It's tack sharp and can render the background OOF at a wide enough aperture to make the car stand out more.

Another thing to try is HDR. HDR goes with cars like butter on toast...

This website really helped me out...
Car Photography Tutorials - AUTOMOTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY MADE EASY

Wow Thanks for the very helpful response Lyon ! I'm going to read this link all night for the pictures im taking tomorrow.
I was using my 24-70 on these. I would've used my 50mm but it broke. So im slowly working on getting a new one.

Thanks once again !

 

[sixdaemonbag]

Shooting cars can be tricky for such a simple subject. These are not bad, but I would like to point out a couple of things that you might want to take into consideration for your next session.

In #1, I'd lose the vignette. It doesn't really help you here. Also, where was your focal point? To me it looks like the reflections down the side are the sharpest part of the shot, and the front corner and wheel are a bit fuzzy.

2/3 are ok, but they're flat. I can see some light in the reflections but it doesn't really make it into your frame here. This is where some HDR hackery could really wake up the image if you wanted to try and reshoot it.

4. Is a cool shot, but I think you lose a lot to the reflections of the fencing. Reflections are a pain, especially with darker cars and something you always have to watch out for. The lens flare right by the nose emblem is a bit out of place too. I'm not sure if its your processing or your exposure was off, but it looks underexposed and yellowed. Again, vignetting in the sky is funky. Keep it natural for a shot like this and I think you'll be happy with it.

Hope that's not too harsh. I think this is a decent set, just needs some polish.

 

[703Methane]

Shooting cars can be tricky for such a simple subject. These are not bad, but I would like to point out a couple of things that you might want to take into consideration for your next session.

In #1, I'd lose the vignette. It doesn't really help you here. Also, where was your focal point? To me it looks like the reflections down the side are the sharpest part of the shot, and the front corner and wheel are a bit fuzzy.

2/3 are ok, but they're flat. I can see some light in the reflections but it doesn't really make it into your frame here. This is where some HDR hackery could really wake up the image if you wanted to try and reshoot it.

4. Is a cool shot, but I think you lose a lot to the reflections of the fencing. Reflections are a pain, especially with darker cars and something you always have to watch out for. The lens flare right by the nose emblem is a bit out of place too. I'm not sure if its your processing or your exposure was off, but it looks underexposed and yellowed. Again, vignetting in the sky is funky. Keep it natural for a shot like this and I think you'll be happy with it.

Hope that's not too harsh. I think this is a decent set, just needs some polish.

Thanks for your comment ,

1. Yes i do agree my focal point is a little off, it does look like its on the side. And the reason for the vignette, was that the sky was just straight white. Kind of bothered me so I felt like it was necessary.

2. I will attempt HDR tomorrow.

4. Yes my PP was pretty horrible i must agree. I hated the original, and just wanted to see what i could get. But it didn't come out bad, I think im going to go back in a fix things up. Yes it is a little yellowed, I tried to make the picture a little warmer. But didn't work
And the reflections killed me in this photo ! I wanted to clone it all out but idk thats A LOT of cloning lol . And again with a vignetting, sky was just too white for me. Idk.

I'm going to work more on these and seee if I can improve these. Thanks for your advice though, I appreciate it.

 

[Juice]

There's a tree growing out of the car in the last one.

If you're going to blank out the plates, you may as well do it in all of them. I think it's dumb since there is nothing private about license plate numbers anyway.

I like the building backdrop in the first two, I'd try a few more angles at that location.

Those TLs look pretty mean from the front, try a head on shot at a really low angle.

 

[703Methane]

There's a tree growing out of the car in the last one.

If you're going to blank out the plates, you may as well do it in all of them. I think it's dumb since there is nothing private about license plate numbers anyway.

I like the building backdrop in the first two, I'd try a few more angles at that location.

Those TLs look pretty mean from the front, try a head on shot at a really low angle.

Lol very true ! I just noticed that I didn't blank them all out lol . But yeah I do like that spot in the first 2, so i'm going to head back up there once he gets off work today.
I'll be posting some more up after i'm done.

Thanks for the comment Juice

 

[o hey tyler]

Get the 50 f/1.4, it won't break on you.

 

[703Methane]

Lol If i had the money at the moment and even now I would love too ! But I don't

 

[nathangeorge]

I agree on the different angles. I really like my 50 @ around 2.0, to get the whole car in focus.

 

[FransD]

number 4 is definitely the best. Nice light, and there is 'movement' in the picture, like you'd expect in a picture of a car , witch seems to be lacking in the other three ones.

 

[703Methane]

I agree on the different angles. I really like my 50 @ around 2.0, to get the whole car in focus.

If only i still had mine.
But yeah like i said earlier , I had different angles with the car but this just look like ****.. =/

number 4 is definitely the best. Nice light, and there is 'movement' in the picture, like you'd expect in a picture of a car , witch seems to be lacking in the other three ones.

Thanks. Now could you describe this ' Movement' you speak of ?

Thanks again

 

[lyonsroar]

I agree on the different angles. I really like my 50 @ around 2.0, to get the whole car in focus.

If only i still had mine.
But yeah like i said earlier , I had different angles with the car but this just look like ****.. =/

number 4 is definitely the best. Nice light, and there is 'movement' in the picture, like you'd expect in a picture of a car , witch seems to be lacking in the other three ones.

Thanks. Now could you describe this ' Movement' you speak of ?

Thanks again

I've probably got a different view on movement than he does but this is how I view movement. Make it look like the car is moving...
Hard to do right? Turn the wheels. Not a whole lot, but just enough. The exhaust smoke might also help in this respect.


Also:

Put the car in its natural environment; the street (alley, parking lot, parking garage, etc.) To me, a two lane road going through the country doesn't screem ACURA!! It screams F150, etc etc. You have a downtown corporate business district where you live? Kinda a little bit upscale? Take the Acura there. I view Acura's as young executive type cars. Thus, it ought to be in front of a nice building with lights, windows, etc. Something modern...

Another idea; take it to the top of a parking garage overlooking a business park, etc. That would give off the vibe of "young corporate" as well...