How to photograph your car

[Spartan]

Working in film and video, and talking to the DP's, they say the most important thing is lighting...

If you're photographing cars, planes, boats, whatever, the ideal time is dawn or dusk. Best light, best photos.

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[davekro]

Working in film and video, and talking to the DP's, they say the most important thing is lighting...

If you're photographing cars, planes, boats, whatever, the ideal time is dawn or dusk. Best light, best photos.

Interesting. Is there either a short answer as to why or a link to a discussion of this?

 

[m4a1mustang]

They don't call it the "Golden Hour" for nothing!

 

[Tamadrummer88]

Ive been into photography for years, but only got into it recently. In a short period of time, I've learned a lot. The one thing I've learned about shooting cars is that they are the hardest to shoot because there is so many angles that can either make or break your shot. That being said, my modest gear list:

Canon 5D3
50mm 1.8
24-70MM 2.8

Canon T5 (currently for sale)
18-55mm 4.0

Sony A6000 (ordered, waiting for it to arrive, my new street shooting camera)

Just ordered a tripod for my 5D so i can get better stability in my shots. Ill also be taking shots of my car with my Sony A6000 to see how it stacks up to the 5D (The A6000 is one of the best mirrorless cameras out there that can hang with lower level DSLR's.)

 

[Clink]

I have absolutely no clue wtf you are guys are talking about in this thread I'm just here for the pics . :cheers:

 

[Justpassingas]

I have absolutely no clue wtf you are guys are talking about in this thread I'm just here for the pics . :cheers:

LMAO....me too...I'm a novice when it comes to these digital cameras and still lots to learn.....give me my old 35mm Canon AE1...

 

[smdandb2]

Another thing... shoot in RAW if you can. Gives you more flexibility later.

 

[Tamadrummer88]

LMAO....me too...I'm a novice when it comes to these digital cameras and still lots to learn.....give me my old 35mm Canon AE1...

I have some old Canon FD lenses from my old T70 that I can't repair. I'm buying my friend's AE1 to play with.


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[cbrookre]

Interesting. Is there either a short answer as to why or a link to a discussion of this?

Mainly it is because the light is more "soft" and will give you better color saturation, lots of red hues. The mid-day shots are great for fast moving action, but have too much harshness and come off looking more cold by contrast.

 

[Tamadrummer88]

Mainly it is because the light is more "soft" and will give you better color saturation, lots of red hues. The mid-day shots are great for fast moving action, but have too much harshness and come off looking more cold by contrast.

Care to put it in laymans terms? Haha


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[kz]

Care to put it in laymans terms? Haha


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Position of the sun morning / afternoon is much more favorable - it is lower on the horizon so you get light coming towards front/back of your car rather than straight from the top.

It is more diffused due to atmosphere, so it is - as above poster said - "softer" - creates less shadows. Generally you should be trying to avoid high contrast scenes - where part of your picture is deep black that you can hardly see any details in it (or none at all), same thing goes for very bright areas.

 

[Grimace427]

If anybody here has some tips for indoor shooting that would be great. Trying to get some photos of my dogs playing, with no flash all I get is either blur or obvious color balance issues(deep blues). With flash there are too many reflections. I know I can get a diffuser for the flash, but as far as settings go I have no idea where to start.

I'm definitely getting a 50mm 1.8(or better) lens soon, going to haunt ebay tonight for a deal.


Also, tack-sharp shooting yields a lot of opinions with the obvious fast shutter, tripod, remote, all that. What are the other basics for tack-sharp shooting?

 

[Tamadrummer88]

If anybody here has some tips for indoor shooting that would be great. Trying to get some photos of my dogs playing, with no flash all I get is either blur or obvious color balance issues(deep blues). With flash there are too many reflections. I know I can get a diffuser for the flash, but as far as settings go I have no idea where to start.

I'm definitely getting a 50mm 1.8(or better) lens soon, going to haunt ebay tonight for a deal.


Also, tack-sharp shooting yields a lot of opinions with the obvious fast shutter, tripod, remote, all that. What are the other basics for tack-sharp shooting?

Best value is the 50mm 1.4. The 1.2 would be out of the price range for most hobbyists. I've seen a lot of pictures side by side with the 1.4 and 1.2 and there is hardly any noticeable difference (maybe slightly sharper details with higher ISO's) but that's it.

As far as shooting in low light, try bumping up your ISO and tightening up your shutter speed. Worked for me for a bit. Then I got a speedlite and started learning how to shoot and diffuse the light.


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[kz]

If anybody here has some tips for indoor shooting that would be great. Trying to get some photos of my dogs playing, with no flash all I get is either blur or obvious color balance issues(deep blues). With flash there are too many reflections. I know I can get a diffuser for the flash, but as far as settings go I have no idea where to start.

I'm definitely getting a 50mm 1.8(or better) lens soon, going to haunt ebay tonight for a deal.


Also, tack-sharp shooting yields a lot of opinions with the obvious fast shutter, tripod, remote, all that. What are the other basics for tack-sharp shooting?

Indoor shooting of moving subjects - that pretty much as difficult as it gets. You need fast lens, camera with good sensor so you can bump the ISO up and get relatively low noise (all this equals to higher shutter speeds), as good of a lighting as possible, shoot RAW and some post processing skills - you adjust white balance in RAW post-process easily without any losses to the image.
If the lighting doesn't change, one way to make sure you get the white balance right is shoot neutral grey sheet and then adjust against it.

In general, there is one proper exposure for given lighting conditions - it's a combination of ISO, lens aperture setting and shutter speed. If you bump up the ISO, you either have to close the aperture (higher f number) or increase shutter speed. If you increase shutter speed, you need to open the aperture or bump up the ISO. If your lens is wide open (maximum aperture, typically indicated on its front), then all you have left is decrease shutter speed or bump the ISO up.

Hopefully that's not very confusing - most cameras take care of it automatically if they're set to some kind of automatic mode, but understanding the above and using manual mode gives you total control over your picture.

 

[Spartan]

Interesting. Is there either a short answer as to why or a link to a discussion of this?

There's lots of websites that discuss this. I remember reading something about this guy who shot airplanes (luxury jets) for owners to sell and he talked about shooting at dawn or dusk due to lightning conditions (I think the gradients of the sky, softer light at the horizon vs beating down and causing more havoc with the whites/darks), wetting the ground down for reflections, all sorts of stuff. I'll see if I can track down the article later tonight.

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