First attempt at Car Photography

[billross77]

I would appreciate any feedback or tips on how to keep the hotspots down on these. Ill post two. The white one is mine, the orange one is a friends.

challenger-1 by billross77, on Flickr

camaro-1 by billross77, on Flickr

 

[IronMaskDuval]

I would have like them more at the bottom third of the picture. The first one seem a bit overexposed to be, and the vignette causes it to be more apparent.

 

[Msteelio91]

Cool! I'm all for American Muscle

Some CC - Vig is a little much on the first. A shallower DOF would be nice too, that tends to work real well for cars. I like the color work you did with each.

 

[TWright33]

A shallower DOF would be nice too, that tends to work real well for cars.

There isn't much past the vehicles to knock out of focus.

The location just isn't working for me

 

[Designer]

Probably the best way to avoid the hot spots is to shoot at a different time of day.

As to other issues: The ground and background are not optimum. Also, the camera position is a bit too low in #2.

Find a better venue and go out again around 17:00. If the light isn't real good then, wait a half hour or an hour. Go ahead and use your flash for a little fill on the darkest parts of the car. Aim the flash away from the camera to avoid flash reflections and keep the power low.

 

[Msteelio91]

A shallower DOF would be nice too, that tends to work real well for cars.

There isn't much past the vehicles to knock out of focus.

The location just isn't working for me

That's what I was thinking, and why I was suggesting shallow DOF, get the attention off the background a bit.

 

[KmH]

The 'white' one is more gray than white, either because the camera's light meter was fooled by all the white and the photo was under exposed, or from post processing
Control specular highlights with a quality CPL filter.

I too am of the opinion the location is less than flattering to the cars.

Digital exposure is best controlled by a method known as ETTR - Expose-To-The-Right of the image histogram.
Optimizing Exposure
ETTR
Exposing to the right - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tones & Contrast

• Understanding Histograms, Part 1: Tones & Contrast
• Understanding Histograms, Part 2: Luminosity & Color

 

[CdTSnap]

His mags would look better on your car, steel em lol

 

[gconnoyer]

Shoot when the sun is low, or in the last hour or so after it sets.

Dont shoot cars in grass. They dont belong there, so they look out of place.

Shoot from different angles from what you and everyone else see's them every day. Take 5-10 minutes walking around the car, looking at it at different heights, angles, etc...to see what really stands out to you.

Keep at it, and you'll come a LONG way in a short time. You'll look back at your work from just a year ago and wonder what you were thinking.

 

[minicoop1985]

White cars SUCK to photograph. I take pictures of mine in shaded spots and that's about it. I actually like the second. Crop's a bit close, but that's really just my opinion more than fact.