Difficulty with white and silver cars

[dry3210]

Trying to get some shots of scca racing and having trouble with the cars being blown out a bit. It was a rainy/overcast day...

What can I do to help stop the blown out parts?

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Any other C&C is welcome also

 

[Village Idiot]

Do you use a cpol?

 

[XCountryGuy]

Are you attached to the tree line? I tried a crop without the cloudy sky. These shots don't look blown out as much as they are dull, without contrast.

Here's an update for a direction you could try.

 

[XCountryGuy]

BTW - the first time I looked at shot two, I thought a german shepherd was driving. The visor looks like a black snout and the colouring on the helmet looks like an eye. Just thought it was interesting as I did a double take.

 

[dry3210]

Do you use a cpol?

I don't even know what cpol is...

XCountry, I'll try and play with the contrast a bit and see what I can come up with (and no, no attachment to the tree line).

...and that would be an impressive dog.

Thanks for the input

 

[LarryD]

Bright subjects always have more reflected light than their surroundings.. If you want the car to be properly exposed, you should be using spot metering on the car and then work on the darker surroundings in post..

 

[Village Idiot]

Do you use a cpol?

I don't even know what cpol is...

XCountry, I'll try and play with the contrast a bit and see what I can come up with (and no, no attachment to the tree line).

...and that would be an impressive dog.

Thanks for the input

A circular polarizer filter. It will cut down on the reflections on the car and it will help with the sky.

Edit: And if you're not currently doing it, shoot RAW. You can over expose an object just slightly with RAW files and not lose the data for that section of the photo. This allow you to pull the exposure down in post for an acceptable shot.

 

[dry3210]

I was shooting with spot metering.

I have a UV filter currently but I guess I should look into the circular polarizer filter. Thanks for the advice. I didn't shoot these in RAW as it slows the camera down quite a bit. I shoot RAW for about everything but automotive shots

 

[Village Idiot]

I was shooting with spot metering.

I have a UV filter currently but I guess I should look into the circular polarizer filter. Thanks for the advice. I didn't shoot these in RAW as it slows the camera down quite a bit. I shoot RAW for about everything but automotive shots

What camera? RAW should not slow down to actual shooting speed, in regards to FPS, only how many photos you can take at one given time, and unless you're shooting with a 300D, then it shouldn't be a problem.

RAW can give you the flexibility you need for these photos though.

 

[Overread]

I agree with Village Idiot - these don't look that blown out to me exposure wise and if they were RAW shots you could probably duel process* the RAW to remove all the overexposure on the car with little effort.

* in other words process the RAW twice - once for all the regular parts of the shot (letting bright points overexpose) and then again, this time setting all the settings to the same as the first time, but lowering the exposure slider till the overexposed areas are exposed correctly. You then just have to save both results as a TIFF and then layer one over the other and use a layer mask to remove/add the bits you want to get a composite photo that has the exposures correct in all areas for your needs.

** if these shots were taken in RAW even just using the "recovery" slider would probably have solved the overexposure problem without the need to duel process

 

[dry3210]

I was shooting with spot metering.

I have a UV filter currently but I guess I should look into the circular polarizer filter. Thanks for the advice. I didn't shoot these in RAW as it slows the camera down quite a bit. I shoot RAW for about everything but automotive shots

What camera? RAW should not slow down to actual shooting speed, in regards to FPS, only how many photos you can take at one given time, and unless you're shooting with a 300D, then it shouldn't be a problem.

RAW can give you the flexibility you need for these photos though.

It's a Canon t1s. Using a SanDisk Ultra 15MB/s 16GB. I definitely notice it slow down when taking pictures with the RAW on

 

[DerekMellott]

I was shooting with spot metering.

I have a UV filter currently but I guess I should look into the circular polarizer filter. Thanks for the advice. I didn't shoot these in RAW as it slows the camera down quite a bit. I shoot RAW for about everything but automotive shots

What camera? RAW should not slow down to actual shooting speed, in regards to FPS, only how many photos you can take at one given time, and unless you're shooting with a 300D, then it shouldn't be a problem.

RAW can give you the flexibility you need for these photos though.

It's a Canon t1s. Using a SanDisk Ultra 15MB/s 16GB. I definitely notice it slow down when taking pictures with the RAW on

Yes your RAW files are about 15mb or so, so once your buffer is full your camera will be busy until it finishes writing to the SD card.