Some shots over the past 2 months. (picutre heavey)

CanadianJoker · Sep 14, 2008

Hey guys,

Im posting some shots ive taken with my d80 (18-55mm vr) over the last 2 months or so. im still learning, so help would be appreciated.
i understand that pro's think cars are boring, but its a subject i like to shoot. plus its good to have something to learn with.

car shots.

not sure what happened with the reflection, but i like it.

on to some other pictures ive taken.

i had this on manual focus, this is the best i could do.

well thats it for now, thanks for looking.
btw if you want a some better quality images i have my picasa account. for some reason i cant link the images directly from there, so i have to use photobucket.

http://picasaweb.google.com/joshreading

chrisburke · Sep 14, 2008

people arent going to comment because theres to many pictures in here.. limit your posts to 2 or 3 pictures if you want people to comment

Zabimaru · Sep 14, 2008

you like nissan skylines huh?

I like the penny dropping in the water, is it dropping in a sink?

LateModelSedan · Sep 14, 2008

Zabimaru said:
I like the penny dropping in the water

ditto.

people will comment. give it time.

ANDS! · Sep 14, 2008

i understand that pro's think cars are boring, but its a subject i like to shoot.

Not at all. Theres levels to anything. You're starting out, so you're doing some basic car shots - you'll find as your technique grows, and your gear set increases your car shots start to become more dynamic and just kick ass. Give it time.

The night shot of the car is good. I mightve liked to see more pop on the lights, but thats just me.

The skyline overlooking the bridge is very nice and well done (for where you are at). Slight tilt on the horizon, but who gives a damn at this point.

You're doing what you should be doing - experimenting with your camera and what it can do.

CanadianJoker · Sep 14, 2008

thx for the comments every one.

Zabimaru:
ya i love skylines, i have for a very long time. near the beginning of the year i was finally able to get one.
the red r32 is mine.

and yes, the shots were taken in my kitchen sink. i was bored so i tried some different shots.

ANDS!:
thank you so much. ive posted a few times on other sites and haven't gotten much feed back.

your comments are extremely helpful. they make me want to continue and get better. i just wish there was more people like you around the internet to help new people.

Fiendish Astronaut · Sep 14, 2008

I think these are pretty good. The more you shoot the better you'll get. And I really love that first night-time Nissan shot.

Good stuff.

Iron Flatline · Sep 14, 2008

I believe cars is one of the most difficult things to shoot. If you look at the way cars get shot for product brochures, calendars, and magazines, you realize that they work with pretty sophisticated lighting set-ups. Also, because cars are highly reflective, you need to compensate for that - some areas need more reflection to make them come alive, and others need to be toned down.

Ok, here goes (it's too many pics, but it's Sunday and I'm bored with TV)

The first two are compositionally boring. You're a car guy (or gal), you've seen all the mags, and that angle only works on really great tail lights - which those aren't. Also, very important, the background needs to be really simple, and not distracting. The red car has a minivan behind the rear-view, that's just not sexy. Also, the lighting is too harsh in that shot - too much light on the rear, too dark on the side. My preference would be more balance. A reflector would help you a lot here. The second taillight is cropped too tightly, there's not enough context. I like that odd silhouette that's reflecting in the left lamp, probably a tree, but it looks like a swan rearing up.

The second shot is kind of interesting, the shadows imply there's more going on than we can see, and there's an odd dynamic beteween the two people. The owner is posing for a shot. To me this is shot is about the people, the car is incidental - and by the way, as a mere bystander I find that car ho-hum. I think this would have been better had you been in closer, and caught more of the guy having his picture taken, with only a small part of the car in the shot.

I find people photography more interesting than cars anyway, and that's a topic few people are covering. Bet you could get some interesting images over time...

The next three are too dark. I get the after-burner jet thing you're going for, but you need to get there differently. Get a proper exposure (bring a tripod, low ISO, small aperture, looong exposure) and then darken parts of the image later. These are simply underexposed.

The next one is getting places. I like the way the trees are lit in the background, and the way lights reflect off the car's bodypaint. I also really like the hue of the sky. In this shot the hyper-saturation works. However, I think it's too tightly cropped, probably because you're trying not include the car next to it in the shot composition. Go park it elsewhere in the parking lot, where there's nothing next to it or in the background.

Save the penny drops for cold winter nights. It's summer, get outside.

bevin · Sep 14, 2008

FWIW from a noob... I love the sky and trees in the last car shot. I also love the first splash shot, I think it's awesome.

Sebastian 16 · Sep 14, 2008

how the did you take a picture of a penny dropping in water and manage to make it so clear

CanadianJoker · Sep 15, 2008

Iron Flatline
Thanks for the c&c, I'll be sure to take your comments into consideration in the future.
Just to let you know tho, about the tail lights. In Canada, people who own skylines (the car with the round lights) are a very small group of car enthusiast. Since there is very few cars that have similar tail lights, its become a symbol of the car.
Also to the last car shot, that was the sky that night. No saturation changes to the picture its self. I think the reason it came out like that is because there is a very large casino behind the building in the back round.

Sebastian 16 said:
how the did you take a picture of a penny dropping in water and manage to make it so clear

I set my tripod right in front of my sink. Once I had it aimed at a spot I held the penny at the water lever and manually focused.
I used the onboard flash, at 1/200 shutter speed.
I lifted the penny up above the camera, then droped it at the same time I pressed the shutter. It took about 30 photos for those 2 to come out decent.