The story -- I just bought my new car and a new camera in hopes that I could take pictures almost as good as you guys. My camera is one of those "idiot proof" point and shoot digitals. I noticed almost all of my pictures didn't look as good as yours even when I was taking them at the same angle. The best picture in my group was one from a long distance. I realized what was going on.

My camera has a zoom feature. When you turn it on it's at its widest setting. This is what I was doing to take my pictures. When I use the zoom, the perspective changes dramatically.

I attached a collage of pictures that shows the effect of default (wide) setting vs using various zoom settings. I tried to take each picture at the exact same angle and having the car fill up the same amount of space in the LCD screen (viewfinder).

Big difference, huh? I begin to like the images towards the end of the zoom range, which is probably about 90mm in 35mm SLR speak. They appear more natural to me.

Now, I have to remember to use the zoom when I'm at car shows taking pictures of everyone else's rides.

edit: The downside is having to stand further back.

 

Don't see anything "wrong" with the pictures... Gotta love the Vista Blue! Sharp car

 

I like the top left pic the best.

 

Thanks I'm kinda partial to Vista Blue, too!

Interesting - that was the picture I kept getting when I really wanted the one in the lower right...

 

The point and shoot cameras take some trial and error to get the best results. For years I used a SLR film camera now a point and shoot digital and I`m learning all over. I read a little bit of the manual now and again to learn new things it can do. Don`t try to read and comprehend it all at once. Your looking good so far.

 

Different focal lengths will give you different results (as you can see). Sometimes it's personal preference and other times you use a distinct lens (focal length) for a specific project. I tend to use my 200mm constantly to give a shallow depth of field. The wide angles are used to add distortion and give a different perspective. To each his own, but I use both.

 

Vince your pictures look great! Nice ride I tend not to follow any rules just shoot what looks good to you!

Jed





Check out the Auto Focus Thread > Car's & Coffee

Jed

 

Don't mean to threadjack, but if I may.

Jed. You take some great pictures and what attracts me the most is how vibrant the colors always seem to be.

Mind if I ask you for some details on your setup? Do you enhance the pictures at all?

Thanks!

 

what is the name brand on your camera and what model is it?

 

Hi guys thanks for the compliments! I usually shoot with this stuff below:
(click on the picture for more detail)









That's the gear below is the workflow:

I start out using ACDsee Pro it's fast and it prep's images for Photoshop if I need to go there. Sometimes I have to edit over 500 pictures





Then if I need to I move on to Photoshop. Most of my detailed image editing is done here, (like moving eyes, heads you know fixing reality)

I usually go to routes when it comes to image editing. One adjust image to how I saw it in real life or take an artistic approach and drop all the rules.

I just purchased a new 8Core Mac so I might try Aperture 1.5 and Adobe Lightoom in 08.

Check out this site below...

http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/m...ng.asp?ref=vat



Hope that helps!

Jed

 

Vince how about you??

 

The curves on this are quite good as they are

 

Thanks Jed!

You really went out of your way with the description, that's very appreciated!

I also agree with the above on the curves. Very nice indeed.

 

My pleasure I'm a trainer at heart so it all comes natural

Jed

 

I have a lot of admiration for folks who can "photoshop" their pictures and make them look spectacular.

My camera is a Canon SD870 IS.

 

That's a great 8 meg camera. Good pictures are the combination Time, Place and Lighting. A "big" camera isn't always needed, true Digital SLR's have more versatility. But you know I shot some of the most memorable pictures with a point and shoot (Canon A10 & SD300). Plus those cameas shoot video try that on a Digital SLR! In the end get the shot but more important enjoy the moment.

Side note: Give ACDsee Pro a try its a very forgiving program, fast picture refresh rate on a basic PC/Mac. You'll be surprised how fast you master the tools. People will be asking you why your pictures look so good!

ACDsee Pro 2 (New version out)

Jed