Christmas Postcard - Automotive

[Billhyco]

I was asked to do a christmas postcard for a small family owned car business in town. Not much snow here in NC so they wanted a fall photo with the christmas bow on the hood. They specifically asked for a couple black and whites with a red bow, so the selective coloring was not my choice. However it seems to work in this case, kinda. They wanted to be sure the emphasis was on the car, not the house or background. Anyhow, here are a couple I am sending them to preview and just wanted some C&C from this crowd, also.

Sony @300
Sony 50mm F4.5
1/160
ISO 200-400
&
Tamron 70-300 F5.6
1/160
ISO 100-400



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[gators12707]

Nice cars

I love car photography, and ive done a lot of work with white cars especially. The problem with these cars is that they reflect a lot of light, so the colors tend to get washed out and you lose your shadows. It makes the car look very flat and loose its lines. That's why HDR-ing white cars tends to be very popular.

let me show you a little trick, assuming you have photoshop. when you open your image, go to image->adjustments->highlights/shadows. when the menu opens up, your pic will become very white and washed out, dont worry. change the shadows amount back to 0% and the pic will look the same. now, turn up your highlights % and play around with the radius and width. for example, i took your second image and with about 5% difference came up with this:

before:

after:

If you put the time into it and take this a few steps further, you'll see all the gloss and reflection in the paint come out even more. EDIT - I also increased the sharpness a bit and reposted. Sharpness is also key in white cars

Also, other than that, I would be careful not to overcontrast and oversaturate your images. especially with black and white cars, where saturation doesn't apply so much, so dont want to overwhelm the picture. Especially in the image with the house in the background, the oversaturation makes the grass wayy too vibrant, and the blackness of the cars becomes very dull. It almost looks blue against all the colors. again, with very brief modifications:

before:

after:

One large problem with this particular picture is the sun in the background, as you probably know. It makes it very difficult for the camera to perceive colors, especially black and white, due to chromatic aberrations, fringing, and awkward metering. When you are faced with problems like this, try playing with the angle of your shots.

One last thing, if you want the attention on the car, you dont always have to put it in the center of the picture. Practice with the rule of thirds (if you haven't already, def look it up), and let the car establish it's own presence. Find the attractive aspects of the cars and focus on them, let the background enhance the car.

I'm absolutely not bashing your pics, I love them. I just think if you know what to look out for you can take awesome pictures. It's the little things that make the difference between a snapshot and a photograph. Keep it up buddy! =) I can't wait to see your next set