How to photograph your car

[Chris6G]

This is a badass shot! That color is awesome for light painting!

Thanks man, it definitely wouldn't have turned out as good with a normal color..Ruby Red would look wonderful with it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sponsored

 

[MagneticA]

Updated a previous photo from a few pages back. Thanks for the suggestions! I guess Photoshop is the new dark room.

 

[GoBlues38]

Lightroom is the new darkroom.

 

[cbrookre]

Updated a previous photo from a few pages back. Thanks for the suggestions! I guess Photoshop is the new dark room.

That looks so much improved. Nice! Much more contrast and better color balance!

 

[DABKO]

At another Mustang website I frequent, the prevailing consensus is that the S550 is not an attractive car. I disagree.

 

[Rickycardo]

I finally have my Mustang to practice on. Offering 3 examples with different effects.
Fun with Unsharp Mask in PhotoShop gives a neat effect.
I have personal issues with soft focused shots. As an astronomer, fuzzy focus means bad pictures.
Finally, trying to get bokeh in my photos without much luck. Any tips?
Thanks

 

[danielc]

Congrats on the car Ricky! Be careful not too sharpen too much =], but try duplicating the image layer before the sharpening, so you have two unsharpened. add an adjustment layer to the top one, and add your sharpening. Then with a soft brush and the adjustment layer selected, you can paint out the background to show the original unsharpened. This will allow the sharpening to only be on the car and may improve your bokeh.

Bokeh, the smooth out of focus area of a photograph, is achieve with a large aperture and increases with a longer focal length, and subject to camera distance plays a role as well. Then there is your sensor size as well. So try open aperture (low F number), longer than 50mm focal length and you may need to change some of those settings if not on a full frame gate. Best to do is try some different settings, then check the metadata on the computer so you can see what the settings are for the image you like best.

My apologies if any of that was already something you know.

 

[GoBlues38]

Bokeh, the smooth out of focus area of a photograph, is achieve with a large aperture and increases with a longer focal length, and subject to camera distance plays a role as well. Then there is your sensor size as well. So try open aperture (low F number), longer than 50mm focal length and you may need to change some of those settings if not on a full frame gate. Best to do is try some different settings, then check the metadata on the computer so you can see what the settings are for the image you like best.

My apologies if any of that was already something you know.

LOL. Explaining aperture as it relates to focal length to "point and shoot" camera users is never easy.

You can totally geek out on them and get all theoretical, which to me is easier since I understand theory. Or do as you did and try and simplify it and risk offending.

Well done.

 

[Chris6G]

I finally have my Mustang to practice on. Offering 3 examples with different effects.
Fun with Unsharp Mask in PhotoShop gives a neat effect.
I have personal issues with soft focused shots. As an astronomer, fuzzy focus means bad pictures.
Finally, trying to get bokeh in my photos without much luck. Any tips?
Thanks

Watch out for Chromatic Aberration...see the pink tints on the wheel and headlight area? You can rid of that pretty easily in Lightroom/Photoshop.

 

[Rickycardo]

Congrats on the car Ricky! Be careful not too sharpen too much =], but try duplicating the image layer before the sharpening, so you have two unsharpened. add an adjustment layer to the top one, and add your sharpening. Then with a soft brush and the adjustment layer selected, you can paint out the background to show the original unsharpened. This will allow the sharpening to only be on the car and may improve your bokeh.

Bokeh, the smooth out of focus area of a photograph, is achieve with a large aperture and increases with a longer focal length, and subject to camera distance plays a role as well. Then there is your sensor size as well. So try open aperture (low F number), longer than 50mm focal length and you may need to change some of those settings if not on a full frame gate. Best to do is try some different settings, then check the metadata on the computer so you can see what the settings are for the image you like best.

My apologies if any of that was already something you know.

Thanks for the advice. I do know it in theory but in practice I'm quite rusty shooting Earthly targets in the daylight. I need to spend an entire day or more just shooting the car in different F numbers. In astrophotography the aperture is fixed. My camera connects directly to the telescope and acts like a light bucket.
Everything was shot with my Canon T3i and 50mm lens at F4.

 

[Rickycardo]

Watch out for Chromatic Aberration...see the pink tints on the wheel and headlight area? You can rid of that pretty easily in Lightroom/Photoshop.

Thanks too. I may have enhanced the aberration by stretching the pics a little too far in PS. I also get a little mis-coloring in my shots due to the camera's inferred filter being removed. I work to correct it all with a custom white balance and PS.

 

[Chris6G]

Thanks too. I may have enhanced the aberration by stretching the pics a little too far in PS. I also get a little mis-coloring in my shots due to the camera's inferred filter being removed. I work to correct it all with a custom white balance and PS.

Just de-saturate the pink areas, it will go totally unnoticed since the areas that get hit with CA are grayscale anyways.

 

[JRodSan]

Nice shots all around! rookie here

Sponsored