Thread: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in...

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  1. #1 Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    So not banned. Slowpoke's Avatar
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    Let me preface this write-up by saying if you're looking for a quick and easy way to follow a few instructions step-by-step and think you're going to go out there and create some amazing photographs you can think again. Good pictures dont take themselves. It doesn't matter whether you have a $200 point-and-shoot or a $2,000 digital SLR you can still get solid, quality photographs if you follow some basic guidelines and hone your skills and techniques. This is a very basic guide to get you started down the right road but no write-up will take good pictures for you. You have to experiment with lighting, camera settings, technique, and post-processing to improve your pictures. Practice truly does make perfect when it comes to photography. With that said lets get started.

    WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR CAMERA (Settings):
    Check your owner's manual for all of these features as they are good basic settings for most any camera...

    File Size and Quality: This needs to be addressed first and foremost. Make absolutely sure you're shooting at the absolute highest file size and the absolute highest possible quality. If it doesn't offer you many pictures, get a bigger memory card. This is something alot of people miss and without the quality, no matter what else you do, your pictures will not look good.

    Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority. Set the aperture (sometimes refered to as f-stop) to lowest possible numerical value. This creates the in-focus subject and slightly out-of-focus background, or a shallower depth of field (DOF). The camera will automatically adjust shutter speed to properly expose the picture according to the camera's internal light meter from here.

    ISO: Set this to the lowest numerical value possible. Anywhere between 50-200 will work well to begin with.

    White Balance: Auto is always a safe bet, but playing with this never hurts. Experiment if you'd like and see how it effects the end result. Its always good practice that when you first start shooting in any light to try auto, daylight, and cloudy/shade. When the light changes dramatically or you go to a new location play with the white balance again.

    Flash: CUT IT OFF! No camera's built-in flash is adequate enough to evenly and properly light a car no matter the lighting (yes, even if you're using it as a fill-flash in daylight it's still not up to the task). Circumstances where the flash is useful are very few and very far between (I've taken thousands of pictures of cars and I dont think I've ever turned out a picture I was proud of where I used the camera's built-in flash). If its dark enough to need a flash just to light the subject, you need to adjust the exposure accordingly through shooting in fully manual mode, not through a built-in flash.

    Exposure Value (EV): Dont adjust this now, but make yourself familiar with it. Once you get out there and start shooting, review the image and if it looks to light or dark this is what you can adjust without touching anything else to make things easier on you. If the picture is too dark, adjust the EV to the positive side a bit and shoot again. If its too bright adjust the EV lower and shoot again. If you get the other basic settings down, then get your white balance set on the first few shots to see which looks best in the light you're shooting in, this will be the only thing you need to adjust as you continue to shoot at a location to try to get the best quality pictures.



    WHEN TO SHOOT (Lighting):
    Lighting is the most critical element of capturing a good picture. Maybe you didn't catch that the first time so let me repeat myself. Lighting is THE most critical element of capturing a good picture. Its also the one thing we cant really control (without getting strobes, soft boxes, diffusers, and other complicated and expensive photography items). But we can choose what light to shoot in. You never, ever, ever want to shoot in the middle of the day under harsh daylight. For beginners the easiest times to shoot are early in the morning just after sunrise (you get more useable light than before sunset), in a completely shaded area, or preferably on a heavily overcast day when the light is more diffused. The most critical thing is to have the car well lit, so you generally dont want to be shooting at dusk, but without the light being so harsh that it screws with your colors and blows out your highlights.

    Everyone loves to spend all morning cleaning up their car then go out and snap pictures. That harsh afternoon light washed out colors, creates harsh shadows, and freaks your camera's internal light meter out completely. When it's that nice out forget the pictures, grab your keys instead of your camera, and go cruising... perhaps to scout out some locations for taking some pictures later when the lighting is better.

    WHERE TO SHOOT (Location):
    There are places to take picture everywhere. You can find a lot of good locations by driving around the backside of your local Sam's, Home Depot, etc. Just keep your eyes open. You dont want backgrounds that are too busy. Keep things simple. Alot of times if you're just trying to get a good picture of your car find a solid colored brick wall to shoot against. Pay attention to pictures you see in magazines and what backdrops they use.



    HOW TO SHOOT (Composition):
    Now that you have good camera settings, are working in good light, and at a good location it's time to work on your composition. This is where thinking comes into photography. What you're trying to do with your composition is to create a picture that is visually interesting. Photography is about the artist displaying a point of view that the viewers may not normally be accustom to seeing. This makes pictures interesting. First and foremost lets talk about the position of the car within the frame.


    Now that you understand how to place the vehicle within the frame, its time to position the car where you want it in relation to the backdrop and start snapping. Generally speaking front and rear quarter shots show cars off well. Tire tread isn't interesting so make sure your wheels are straight or turned where the face of the wheel is facing the camera. Lower angles tend to work well also. Try kneeling, squatting, or even laying on the ground to take your shots. If you have a step ladder or can use some of your surroundings to climb on top of to get a higher angle do so. Taking pictures at standing height is boring because thats how we see cars every day. Use your photography to present a more artistic, interesting vantage point.

    The most important thing is to pay attention to everything within the frame. Dont use the display to frame your shot. Looking through the camera properly forces you to pay more attention to everything you see within the frame. Make sure your shadow isn't in the picture. Make sure there are no light poles or trees directly behind the car as it detracts from the car and distracts the eye to them instead of your subject. Watch for things laying on the ground around the car. You dont want any distractions. There is no set rule to composing a proper shot, it's something you're going to have to experiment with and refine on your own. Again, pay attention to other pictures you see and like and use them to get ideas from.

    The most important thing is to truly think about the pictures you're taking with a goal in mind. Dont just start snapping and hope to get a good shot. You need to think about what you want the end result to look like.


    TIPS AND TRICKS:
    Keeping the camera steady is key in making sure your pictures are sharp and in focus. Compose your shot, take a deep breathe in, breathe out slowly and smoothly and press the shutter button. If you just cant get a sharp shot pick up a tripod. You can get them cheap online or at your local camera shop. Most people never think to get one because they think they dont need one or that they are too expensive. If your shots are suffering, $20 or $30 for an affordable, quality tripod with a decent level of adjustment is priceless. No matter how steady of a hand you have it'll never be as steady as a stable tripod.

    Angles and tilting the camera can help to create more interesting images, but everything in moderation. You dont want people needing a chiropractic alignment after looking at your pictures because they had to tilt their head see what you were taking a picture of.

    Filters can do wonders for your photography. Circular polarizers are considered a must when shooting automotive photography in natural light and outside of a studio setting. If you have a dSLR pick up a circular polarizer for it immediately and try adjusting it as you shoot to see how it effects the color of the car and the reflections on the glass. If you're shooting with a point-and-shoot and have a pair of sunglasses with polarized lenses hold one of the lenses over the front of the camera's lens for a similar effect.

    WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR PICTURES (Post-processing):
    Just like how cameras dont take good pictures by themselves, good pictures dont "photoshop" themselves either. Work is involved but putting a little in can get a lot out of your already solid photographs. No decent picture in any reputable magazine got put in there straight out of a camera. There is a reason models are airbrushed and there is a reason photographs are edited and touched up. Photography is just like painting cars. A good, solid photograph straight from the camera is a lot like a quality basecoat on a car. You can definitely see that there is quality there, but you wont really see the true "shine" and "gloss" until the clear coat, or in this case the post-processing, it added. So now that you understand that you'll need to do some work after the pictures have been captured lets get started.

    Editing Program: Adobe Photoshop is king and if you purchase it or have access to it most of your guides online and most users who you can get input from use it as well so it'll make life easier if you have it. If you dont though there are freeware programs available. Programs like "The GIMP" have all the same tools that Photoshop utilizes, you just go about using those tools in a slightly different manner depending on what you're trying to do. If you dont have Photoshop, go to GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program and download the latest version of The GIMP. Now that we have the means to process the pictures lets cover some basic editing processes.

    First and foremost you need to decide whether you want to crop the image at all. You want your composition as close as possible out of the camera but this is where you fine tune it. Remember the rule of thirds and pay attention to your overall composition in this step. If your initial composition is solid you may not have to crop at all.

    Next, you need to resize the image. You dont want to do any exposure or color management until the image has been resized to its final size because if you do this at the full size then downsize it you run into quality loss. Choose the size you want the picture to be and resize it.

    IMPORTANT NOTE: Sharpening is the absolute last thing you need to do when editing photos as you want the photo to be done before sharpening to avoid your adjustments affecting the image causing it to be oversharpened and/or adding noise (visible as grainy looking areas in pictures). You may also want to play with the Brightness/Contrast adjustment as well. Again, less is more here and you only want to add a little if you do because it degrades the overall quality of the image. Once you have all your basic adjustments taken care of, do your sharpening and you're done. If you want to add a border you can do so at this point.

    Adding a basic border in Photoshop: Select the rectangular marquee tool, mouse over the image, and hit Ctrl+A to "Select All." Right click the image, go to Stroke, and set your pixel width and color.

    Adding a basic border in The GIMP: Go to Script-Fu, Decor, Add Border. Set your pixel values for the height and width of the border, select your color, and select your value (a value of 1 will make a black border solid black whereas a higher value will make it more transparent).

    Now all you need to do is upload and post your pictures. Be aware of your host and if they resize the pictures or not. I'm a big fan of Imageshack as you dont need an account to upload pictures (but you can create one to store the pictures and go back to them later), they offer plenty of bandwidth, and they do not resize the pictures. Photobucket is another popular host but they do resize pictures and it can really kill the quality. No matter the host you choose just make sure they aren't degrading your pictures with any resizing.

    So now you have all the tips and tools at your disposal to turn out some very high quality pictures. Get out there and start sharpening your skills and techniques so you can get the most out of your pictures and be sure to post your progress as you start getting better results. While it may seem like a lot of work putting a little extra time and effort into your shots can yield some truly amazing results. I hope this helps some of you guys and I look forward to seeing your progress. Thanks for reading.



    2004 Cobra
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  2. #2 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    Resident HOMOsapien ZR1Vette09's Avatar
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    Cool info, you write this yourself? Our pictures always turn out terrible, we just have bad luck with cameras. Nothing nice though, this is what we have Kodak EasyShare Z812 IS Digital Camera Review - Kodak - Kodak Digital Camera Reviews - DigitalCamerainfo.com.
    '00 Blazer- Good riddance '06 Grand Prix GT- Dead and Cool '05 Silverado- Sold '96 Jeep Cherokee-DD '97 BMW 328i-Project
    <brandonl2000> how did she become handicapped?
    <brandonl2000> LMAO D!!
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  3. #3 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    Donating Users alkygto's Avatar
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    Hey thanks! Good info. and from a Cobra guy.....

    1997 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
    1969 Pontiac GTO
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  4. #4 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    DUI BABY Bio248's Avatar
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    normally i take better pictures with better cameras. i know all of the good pictures ive taken of my cars was with my parents canon DSLR. however, lighting and backdrop also has a lot to do with it.
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  5. #5 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    DUI BABY Bio248's Avatar
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    im gonna move this into the appearance section and sticky it, BTW.
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  6. #6 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    Donating User Odi's Avatar
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    Great write up! Any rolling shot info u got?
    2001 GT Special Edition - 208k miles, junkyard status. Part out in progress.
    2015 Mazda Mazda3 S Touring - 39000 miles, bone stock.
    Questions regarding LED's, headlights, HID's, taillights and more!? Click here.
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  7. #7 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    Donating Users Warbeaver's Avatar
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    Exposure Value (EV): Dont adjust this now, but make yourself familiar with it. Once you get out there and start shooting, review the image and if it looks to light or dark this is what you can adjust without touching anything else to make things easier on you. If the picture is too dark, adjust the EV to the positive side a bit and shoot again. If its too bright adjust the EV lower and shoot again. If you get the other basic settings down, then get your white balance set on the first few shots to see which looks best in the light you're shooting in, this will be the only thing you need to adjust as you continue to shoot at a location to try to get the best quality pictures.
    yes this is crucial if you are shooting in low light conditions, kinda like the parking garage i shoot in. If you are in manual mode on your camera, you can adjust the shutter speed. This is how long the shutter will stay open to let in the light to capture the image. Basically, the longer the shutter stays open, the more light it captures, making the picture brighter. You kind of have to take some sample shots to see what works best depending on the lighting conditions. When i was in the parking garage i believe the shutter speed was on 1/8th of a second. I had to go up to 1 second or half of a second to get the lighting i wanted. ***Another thing to note is, if you are using longer shutter speeds, you have to hold the camera still because even the slightest movement will make the picture blurry. This is why you need to set the camera on a tripod or a fixed surface. I just had my car parked in a certain way that i could place the camera on the surface of my car and aimed it at my buddies car to take the picture. Improvization is what it takes sometimes.


    I also like what was said about when to take pictures. I cannot stand it when people go out at noon and take pictures of their car out in the sun. It looks like complete crap unless you know what your doing. I hate the way my car looks sometimes with direct sunlight. it has to hit the paint just right to get the picture you want. Best times to take pictures is early morning or an hour or so before sunset. and cars will always look better in places where its sitting in a shadow or in a parking garage with outside light coming in, but not shining directly on the car. It brings out the colors and contrasts better.

    If you can get photoshop get it. Its great and you can learn easy by following basic tutorials online. Thats how i taught myself how to use it. It really makes pictures pop if you get good with it.

    About composition, what teachers will tell you is to use the RULE OF THIRDS. basically a photograph is divided into 3 even sections going vertical and horizontal. You never want to place an object directly in center. you place it off center using the rule of thirds. if you look at alot of my pictures, rarely is the car in the very center of the picture. if it is, its a very close up picture going down the length of the car or something.

    if you look at this thread of a GTO photoshoot i did recently you can see how i used the rule of thirds, and used the different shutter speeds on the camera. there were close to the same pics, just the lighting is a little bit different. It took some posititioning of the car to get just the right lighting. There were lots of lights in the garage but we had to situate the car under the right light to get the pics we wanted. I think i noted which pic is my fav, and you can see the camera/lighting settings were just right, it turned out really good. I also had to photoshop EACH picture to adjust brightness/contrast and also edit out all the blue lens flaring from the hid headlights being on. That is done by matching colors and textures using photoshop and basically coloring over everything. Takes some patience and practice.
    http://www.grandprixforums.net/gto-p...oot-36738.html
    Last edited by Warbeaver; 11-02-2010 at 03:00 PM.
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  8. #8 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
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    this helped.. thanks
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  9. #9 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    '02 GTP oneil.GTP's Avatar
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    just got a camera over the holidays, will have to use this..
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  10. #10 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    SE Level Member 98 Grand Prix Gt's Avatar
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    So im guessing then a good example of that would be this?
    http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0041_large.jpg
    Drive Fast....brake rarely...
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  11. #11 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    DUI BABY Bio248's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 98 Grand Prix Gt View Post
    So im guessing then a good example of that would be this?
    http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0041_large.jpg
    its too dark in that photo to be honest.
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  12. #12 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    SE Level Member speedy2's Avatar
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    I'll post some stuff here. I used to own a DSLR. Recently sold it.

    My first digital camera was a Sony DSC-P72. 3.2MP Point and Shoot. I had next to no photography know-how while I owned this camera, but I took some time to figure out what I was doing. Photos I took with it

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...yRearBlank.jpg

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...2/DSC02692.jpg

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...2/DSC00956.jpg

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...2/DSC00958.jpg

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...edy_2/cad1.jpg

    After owning a DSLR I bought a Canon A80 4MP off ebay for $30. just because it was so cheap. lol

    Pics taken with it, not car shots, but you get the idea.

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...2/coaster1.jpg

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...edy_2/pcb4.jpg
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  13. #13 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    GXP Level Member rocafella2032's Avatar
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    I love taking great pictures. All you need is an iPhone 4

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  14. #14 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    GPFs Sexy Ginger. SilvaMan61's Avatar
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    do you guys have any suggestions for a "good" camera?

    i recently let a family member use my camera when they went to the hospital to see my baby cousin being born. well they didnt have the camera when they came home so now im in the market for another.

    i want one that will allow me to play with the f- stop and all that good stuff so that i can turn out some really nice pics. looking mostly for pictures of my car and pics at meets and stuff like that but i am becoming inspired by artistic photography out side of the car- world as well. i really dont want to spend $1000 +.

    so any recomendations?
    SMGPFC Member #9
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  15. #15 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    DUI BABY Bio248's Avatar
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    any 5+ megapixel DSLR will do you just fine for taking shots or your car. then choose some lenses to your discretion.
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  16. #16  
    GXP Level Member Kolton Lock's Avatar
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    I love my nikon D3000.


    10.1 megapixels.
    Prints posters 30 x20 inches.

    Also it should be about $300 now lol


    By the way....

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  17. #17 Re: Want to take better photos of your car? Come on in... 
    I AM PEWPIN! rynoman03's Avatar
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    Wow how did i miss this thread.

    Olympus E-410 DSLR here.
    1999 GTPHP Tuned, Ported SC/TB, 42#'s, SSAC's, ZZP Modded 1.9's/LS6 Springs/Manley's, TransGo Shift Kit, Poly Uppers, KYB GR2's/Springtech's. - 231k and traded it in. - Gone
    2000 GTP: XP, P&P'd Heads, N*\Lq4 MAF, GenV, 42#'s, PRJ Rails\FPR, Racetronix, TEP w/ 3.29 Gears, 300m, 7/8" chain, SSAC's. - Collecting dust in my garage.
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