First Auto Shots

[LakeMaryKid]

These are the first real pictures with my new XTi. C & C. What to change and so on. These are of my buddies Mustang and my truck.

-Curtis-

 

[tirediron]

While these are nice enough pictures, I have two main issues with them as 'automotive photographs'. The first is lighting; when you see cars shot at night for magazines and adverts, it's with the aid of many thousands of dollars of lighting gear, that, when used correctly looks like no light at all. The second is the composition. The car is the main subject, so close in on it, and don't share the focus. Remember that wide angle lenses have much greater DoF than telephotos; try and avoid composing the image so that you have a sharply focused (and thus distracting) background competeing with the car.

Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.

~John

 

[TamiyaGuy]

I would say they are very nice for first shots. I think your choice of lighing is fairly good for the 'Stang; it gives harsh highlights & shadows, perfect for a muscle car like that. I must say that that light doesn't do much for me on the truck, as I can hardly see where the truck ends and the sky starts. Also, I agree with TiredIron that if you're not going to use some other background to your advantage (e.g. the "rule of thirds" with a spectacular sky, mountains, etc), then you should crop the photos a bit more.

 

[dEARlEADER]

bahaaaa.... I opened this thread to check out the flame wars.... Thought you meant shooting in Auto mode which causes people here to be in a tizzy...

I agree with Tirediron about closing in... you should be happy with your first shots though... good job..

 

[Village Idiot]

They suck. At least your WB is right.

Don't be discouraged. Good auto photography can be difficult.

 

[LakeMaryKid]

They suck. At least your WB is right.

Don't be discouraged. Good auto photography can be difficult.

Care to elaborate on what "sucks"?

Thanks for all the tips. It hasn't stopped raining in two days so i haven't gotten to take any new pictures. I have a decent background im going to use next for my truck. We will see how it comes out.

-Curtis-

 

[vbrandon91]

i like the first one with the mustang..

the last one reminds me of transformers...lol

nice first piks though..

 

[tirediron]

They suck. At least your WB is right.

Don't be discouraged. Good auto photography can be difficult.

Nice, useful comment there, VI - at least have the courtesy to tell him why you don't like them.

 

[Battou]

I'll be back in a little wile. I'll point out some drastic flaws I see.

 

[Battou]

I prefer to use smaller parking lots with a higher concentration of lights or place the vehicle directly under the light. (This requires lights posted in the lot it self) I don't currently have any night automotive shots of mine on line at the moment but I will prep a set this weekend and post them saterday night/sunday morning.

All on top of the previously noted lighting and background issue,

Strey vehicle, this can easily be composed out. Judging by the series I assume you had full directorial controll over the vehicles, all you needed to do here was mover the car it self to the left about three feet. you would have been able to get the same angle under the same light but that truck would be hidden behind the Mustang.

Again a strey object, this one partally obscured. Had the sign not been covered my tree leaves it would have been fine but the tree moots it. Also I was in a bit of a hurry and faild to notice the reflection of the pickup. Make sure that the other vehicles are parked in a location where they won't show up in the paint.

The stop sign and the pickup reflection again as well as some lens flare. This one can be countered in post by croping the additional dead space. Keep in mind wile composing your shots that you want to mimimize croping as it increases any niose and softens images should be a last resort. Move closer as opposed to a crop when ever possible.

This one suffors the most from lighting, to put it bluntly the truck color is not the best to shoot in the dark, furthermore many of the added components can not be seen either due to the afore mentioned color and/or small fine detail. this truck is better shot in the daylight. This image also has the strey objects and dead space, croping would solve those but moving closer during composition would have taken out that shadow and wouuld have been ideal.

Another strey object, Move that other truck and take a couple steps to the left and center the subject truck. Unfortunately this is the exact same angle as the previous shot, this takes interest away threw lack of variety, go with a different angle too.

Well the Mustang is cool, the F-150 is cool but the Ranger is just a simple pickup truck, and it's friggen yellow to boot. you have two dark colored vehicles that are more than your average joes gogetter, and then you put this bright colored average gogetter right between them. The contrast it creates draws attention to it and away from the ineresting subjects of the photo. Get rid of it, it has no part in this photo shoot. The size alignment was a good idea but that was completely negated by the complete lack of interest and attention drawing nature of the yellow truck.

 

[Village Idiot]

Nice, useful comment there, VI - at least have the courtesy to tell him why you don't like them.

Yeah yea...I know...but I type out the same exact "how

Care to elaborate on what "sucks"?

Thanks for all the tips. It hasn't stopped raining in two days so i haven't gotten to take any new pictures. I have a decent background im going to use next for my truck. We will see how it comes out.

-Curtis-

The lighting. There's several posts with explanations in this forum. The short of it is that keep in mind when you're photographing a car, you're not really photographing the car, you're photographing everything around you.

You can see in most all of your mustang pictures shrubs, parking space lines, and buildings. It's the same thing as if you were trying to light these with strobes. You couldn't just point them at the car and fire. Well, you could, but then you would have a car with a nice bright pin point of light from where the strobe came from. You'd have to diffuse it for it to be any useful.

Busy parking lots are not the best place to shoot cars at.

 

[LakeMaryKid]

Thank you all for the tips! Very helpful!
Basically this was the only worthy photo out of that shoot.

My list of things to do next time:
1) Empty Parking lot/less stray objects
2) Closer to the vehicle to allow less cropping
3) Better lit parking lot

Thanks for all the tips guys! Third day in a row it has been raining. Hopefully it will stop tonight so i can go try again.

Also, for this kind of shooting what would be the best mode to use? Tv or Av? I used TV for these shots.

-Curtis-

 

[Village Idiot]

Manual & a tripod.

 

[LakeMaryKid]

Manual & a tripod.

Ok, i used a tripod last time too. I will try manual tonight if i get a chance if this rain ever quits!

-Curtis-

 

[SandShots]

these shots are tough to do at night.
poor light.

try to do the same shots right before it gets dark but theres still a little blues or oranges in the sky. it will fill all that dead space in the background and theres also more light for the car.

i think everything else was covered.