The Reverend

Ok, this Esso gas station has appeared in a number of magazines. So I think I have the location. But I am a novice photographer. I need your feedback on how to position the car and what angle to take it in.

After looking at these...
1. Drive onto the concrete, but that will limit the angles.
2. Take during the morning, when the sun is on the car, but will that cause shadows and reflections?
3. Should I shot from just above the grass or at the 6' above the ground, ie eye level.
4. I am using a 50mm, 1.4 lens. Should I go 200mm prime? 28mm prime? 100mm 2.8L lens?
5. Should I reverse the car and take more of a side and rear shot?
6. What percent of the picture should be car, how much of the station?

HELP!

FLAstangx3

NO offense, but it looks like a Hot Wheels Diorama.

Someone told me, I should take the photo's from below the eye level of the car. Aiming up at it, to show the car lines better. And that no matter what your backdrop is, the Car should remain the focal point.

UMich97

....also, the best lighting is actually early evening. The rays from the sun are softer at night, so it provides light without the high glare of morning/mid-day. Other than that, I just like playing with a whole bunch of angles and locations....but then again, I use digital and not film, just because it is so much easier and cheaper to take 100's of pix. ...My 2 cents...

Tispco

+1 early evening is the best time to get a good shot

AGBULLIT

Keep the sun on your back so that the shadow is not in the picture. Take the picture in a kneeling position to get a "hero" perspective of the car. Make sure that the car is the largest object in the picture. If you take the pic at the same place frame it so that only the background details appear but leave the roof of the building out.

Glenn

I like the second shot except the shadow should be on the far side of the car

adrenalin

+1. I tried taking various shots of my car and was never happy with them until the last round. I got lower to the ground and took a bunch of shots, while slowly rotating the camera. Then cropped them after to see which ones I liked the best. I learned to take my time in going through the settings on my camera. Take the same picture using different settings (ie: Aperture, Shutter, etc etc)

What my pictures looked like before.....



and now.....

stangster

You need the light to be more diffused. The best way to do this naturally is evening or morning, or a partly cloudy day when the sun is behind a cloud.

Also, try a longer exposure time, this should help with color saturation and detail.

Shoot from a low angle.

DarkFireGT

Pretty much what everyone else said. But also, keep the car on the concrete. Car pictures in the grass don't look right because cars drive on concrete, so it feels less believable. You also end up with a green color cast on the car.

woody24

its all about lighting and where you shoot from. What a difference it makes just from taking a photos while squatting. Everybody takes photos standing up, and thats why they look so bland.

Here's one of my latest photos. The sun was halfway down below the horizon. But one thing to also keep in mind, I did some photoshopping to this. I warmed it up a tad, sharpened the photo, and reduced the noise. If your photos don't look as professional as the ones you see in the magazines, it because they spend hours, getting everything right. Lighting, composition, and post work.

HOSS429

get closer to your car also .. looks like you`ve shot the station with the car as secondary focus

woody24

also, another tip that my teacher always told us, "Get close to your subject. Once you think you're close enough, get closer." But it all depends on what your shooting, and what your going for. But a good rule of thumb is to get close, and crop your subject.

Here's some suggestions for your photo. You're too far away from your car, and the car is too close to the gas station. Either get closer and use a wider angle lens. or bring the car closer to you, but when you shoot, don't show the grass. Or bring the car out further, you get even further away, and use a telephoto lens. Shoot with a low number aperture ex: f/4.5 (this will make what your focusing on really focused, and everything else out of focus.) This will separate the car from the background, making it stand out more, but you still get an idea of the setting that the car is in.

I assume you are using an SLR of some sort? What I do sometimes, is go to flickr.com, look for some really good photos, and study them. You can also sometimes see the exact camera settings that they used. The Shutter speed, aperture, and the exact length that they used from their lens.

Its all trial an error. I took some photography classes in school. used a flim SLR. I was so conservative with it because I didn't want to waste film. But now that I have a DSLR, I have been learning a whole lot more, because I can experiment without having to worry about the number of photos I take.

The Reverend

Lots of good advice, I will try again

Cavero

For one, check your white balance setting on your camera. That looks way too blue. You might have it set to incandescent (maybe also called tungsten or indoors), or floursecent on accident. Also they look a little over exposed (bright). Check the exposure compensation. Don't forget that in bright daylight your LCD is going to look darker than the picture actually turned out. The opposite applies at night. Other things to try:

-fill the frame with your subject (either the car or the scene as a whole)
-if you have a SLR camera then get a polarizing filter, it makes the colors a lot deeper and gets rid of glare from concrete
-use the law of thirds: imagine dividing your frame into 3 equal sections, either vertical horizontal or both, and place key elements of your setting there. Thats where your eye is naturally drawn to. key elements could be the edge of the car, the corner, headlights, etc.
-walk around the car and see what elements of it catch your attention. find a way to focus on or emphasize those details in your photo.
-like they said before, avoid mid-day. Noon sun is pretty harsh and washes out all color from the photo. Some of it has to do with glare.
-Fiddle with aperture settings. A wide aperture (smaller f/stop number) gives a narrower depth of field (only your focal point and things close to it are in focus, the foreground and background are blurred), a smaller aperture (higher f/stop) will do the opposite (everything is in focus). Don't go above f/8 unless you REALLY need depth of field. On normal digital cameras, you start getting into problems with light defraction inside the lens because of the pinhole opening. check out http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50-...on/f-stops.htm
Actually theres a LOT of good stuff on that website. Even experieced photographers should check it out

woody24

I'd be interested in see how your next batch of photos turn out. Make sure to post some photos.

Rebel73

I just think that backdrop is way too busy and overpowers the car...

pretty cool station nonetheless.

USMC0341

I found this website to have a lot of good info...

http://www.cobracountry.com/fototips/

bsmotorsports05

Last time I went out and took pics of the car, I think I snapped about 150 pictures. I tried every different light setting, mood, different times of day, and different angles. I found my best looking shots came from being lower to the ground. I think out of all 130-150 pics, I kept about 5. But, they were a cool set of pics, and I was happy.

I think these two came out "ok" for my beginner skills. I found an empty lot and the brightest white street lamp I could find to give it a nice touch. I was using an old, cheap $130 dollar cool pix camera since I don't have my nice one anymore.

gkaufman

Here is a good example of shooting low and pointing up at the car. I have a few of these each with a different exposure level but this is one of my favorites because the rising sun is illuminating only the side of the car so I think it looks pretty cool. This was on Skyline Drive at sunrise.

GT5088

I am no expert, but I was told to never shoot between 11am and 4pm due to the position of the sun, and what it does to the car in terms of exposure/underexposure. You also have to be aware of hot spots (chrome, glass glare).