UREGENT-Please any ideas!? How to Photograph a car in a show-time scene? URGENT!!!!!!

[ajdbs]

Hey
I am heading off to a car show VERY VERY soon.
I need to know what the best settings are to take a photo in that sort of environment. I have a Canon S70 (quite an advanced P&S Camera - 7 Megapixels, Av, 7 Megapixels etc, but oldish).
What is generally the best way? Because normally when I've taken photos at this sort of venue I've either had it on Auto everything (with the flash on auto - but almost always going with every shot), or flash-off with ISO400 to counter the wobbles lol. I am not an experienced photographer but I have a once in a lifetime opportunity here and I really want to get a great shot!
Please help me as quick as possible!!!
Any little tweak.
PM me if you wanna chat I have an account on pretty much every IM service there is.
Thanks heaps!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mgw189]

Really tough to give advice on someplace we arent. If it is inside I would say AV mode with the widest aperture setting you can get at the highest ISO you can get without creating noise. Look at your shutter speed then if its lower than say 1/60 you will probably want to use flash.

 

[Michael P. Harker]

If you have a light weight tripod, take it with you so you can shoot available light. Flash at car shows creates a lot of hot spots on the car's shiny surfaces.

Shoot on manual at f/11 or even smaller (f/22) for maximum depth of focus and use a 18-70mm zoom lenses to allow yourself full car framing in tight spots. Usually 1/8th sec at f/11 at ISO 200 works fine for car shows.

Michael P. Harker

 

[Katier]

definatly tripod work and watch your white balance. In doors ( even with a flash ) is likely to have a tungsten or sodium style caste on it ( orange or blue ).

 

[kundalini]

A couple of my thoughts differ from some of the comments above.

First, I think a tripod may be cumbersome if this is a crowded show. Keeping a smaller footprint will likely make your experience more pleasant and the other attendees as well. Solution would be a monopod.

Secondly, having smaller apertures will decrease the amount of light hitting the sensor, requiring longer shutter speeds. Also, I would want to have as little of the background in focus as possible. Try using aperture settings at f/4 or so.

Take some tissue paper with you and if you need to use your built-in flash, place the tissue (a couple of folds) in front of the flash to diffuse and soften the light.

 

[Claff]

Don't bring a tripod. Nobody wants to have to walk around the photo geek.

Set the camera on shutter priority and shoot about 1/250 handheld, no flash. Shoot everything twice cause you won't know which ones you didn't stay perfectly still with till you get home.