Guide to taking photos, Learning and expert's opinion's Options

[Rusty]

Carry on from this thread GUIDE: How to get your car to calendar


This isn't a smarta$$ thread to people to laugh at, its to help people improve their skills.

taking photo's
Guide to taking photo's
Guide to taking photo's
those sites do explain alot and are worth a good read.

I'm no professional or anything, so this what camera I'm using a Kodak C743 (7.1 mega pixel, 3X optical zoom)

>>(apart from getting a "better" camera what else can help?)

OK when I took these photo's at was about 11am (which apperently you shouldn't do between 10am and 4pm)

so I chose a simple place, tidyed it up abit (You dont want a distracting background that takes the focus any from your celica.)


and now add a clean(ish) Celica, washed yesterday




doing a bit of photoshoping I tidyed up the lawn (not perfect, but does look nicer)



Changing the exposure compensater (or lighting*?)




this is apperntly another no no having the sun in front of your celica, too much glare and shadows.

will put more up

[SwissFerdi]

See? Now that last shot is pretty nice, AND it's a rear shot.

Take that haters!

[808celica]

play with the "levels" feature thing if you're using photoshop. some things you can shoot when the sun is bright, just not a car like you said glare SUCKS!!!! it totally throws off your pic especially when you dont have a fancy camera and lens like Tigawoods I'm not a fan of cutting out plates....i'd rather swirl, blur, or smudge the plate. Dunno why but it is what it is Try to have your pics at the largest size setting, dont be afraid to step back a little cuz you can crop the pic down.

and lastly TAKE ALOT OF PICS!!!!! different settings or what evers......you wont know when you have that "one" shot. the clouds and what not will be perfect in one shot or another.

This post has been edited by 808celica: Oct 17, 2009 - 7:49 PM

[Tigawoods]

tomorrow i will go out and take pictures of my car that i dont think are acceptable

[Rusty]

play with the "levels" feature thing if you're using photoshop. some things you can shoot when the sun is bright, just not a car like you said glare SUCKS!!!! it totally throws off your pic especially when you dont have a fancy camera and lens like Tigawoods I'm not a fan of cutting out plates....i'd rather swirl, blur, or smudge the plate. Dunno why but it is what it is . Try to have your pics at the largest size setting, dont be afraid to step back a little cuz you can crop the pic down.

and lastly TAKE ALOT OF PICS!!!!! different settings or what evers......you wont know when you have that "one" shot. the clouds and what not will be perfect in one shot or another.

thanks for your comments guys

I'm running elements 5.0, your talking about the levels/guages on the right of the screen on quick edit right? I don't know too much about those other than the quick fix ones, but the others (when ever I touch it, it goes green and has purple background ), anyone have a rough guide on how to use those controls?

Yeah I'm not a fan of painting straight white over, it drwas to much attentiona away from not having a plate, I try to get the same colour as the plate so it looks like a black plate, but your idea is also good.

I some times feel that I'm standing to far away from my celica, although sometimes I run out of clear space, so it looks messy,. wont standing too far away my the celica look too small, though some times you might want that effect??


Yeah I have started taking more pictures, changing the exposure for the same shoot annd getting better/worse shoots. different angles heights etc

would getting a tripod help aswell?

[97lestyousay]

Here is one I really liked but it is cropped down, so I don't think it is big enough for the calendar.
I have to fudge most of my shots especially front shots because of the paint mismatch on my bumper.
I shoot from the dark side so it is not so obvious. I know it is a no no, but I would rather lose some detail
than have it show up like a sore thumb.

[Rusty]

still looks good though. maybe a tiny bit brighter. do you remember what time of day, weather (looks quite cloudly in that one) & distance away from celica??

[97lestyousay]

The weather sucked it was overcast with the sun breaking through in all kinds of spots. Occasionally it would rain
then the sun would come out, it was a real biznitch to get proper exposure. I was close, probably within 10 or 15 feet.

Time was about 6 pm appox 3 hrs before sundown

[Rusty]

things wrong
the wheel, but fix in the second
the time was almost midday
shadow from the tree

This post has been edited by Rusty: Oct 17, 2009 - 10:35 PM

[97lestyousay]

That looks much better, try pulling the car back from the trees to get some
seperation between the subject and background. With the background you have
I would even try blurring it with a larger aperture for even more seperation.

Edit: this is what I mean by blurring with aperature.
The drawback is the depth of the subject is lost and also becomes out of focus.
(oof)



This post has been edited by 97lestyousay: Oct 18, 2009 - 12:42 AM

[Jaws4God]

Great Thread!

I know about having the tires the turned the right way and trying to get lighting right.. but i don't know about apetures, blurs etc... so I hardly ever get "amazing" pictures :-/

This post has been edited by Jaws4God: Oct 17, 2009 - 11:24 PM

[97lestyousay]

I agree. (about the thread) (I have seen some shots of yours that were very good)
I have found, the more I learn about taking pictures, the more I hate mine, and the harder it is.
When I knew nothing I loved my photos.lol

This post has been edited by 97lestyousay: Oct 18, 2009 - 12:44 AM

[Rusty]

so you sort of want the background between mine and your last pic letyousay?


even with these points so far, I've learnt lots, so the harder it will be now. haha

[97lestyousay]

You start getting into arguements on what is acceptable. Personally if the shot above had was sharpened
a little bit and the sky wasn't totally blown out, I would really like it.
I shoot different if the background is very scenic compared to just so so.
If the backgound is boring I will try to blur to the point the car starts losing
too much sharpness then stop.

Some people find scenic stuff in the background a distraction. If I am in
hells canyon, by a big Mtn. or in front of the ocean I am not likely to try
and blur them.

Straight on front rear or side you can cut depth more than an angled shot.
When I am shooting an angled shot I usually put my af (auto Focus) point mid
point between front and rear of visable area on the car.
Other things influence depth as well like distance to subject and magnification.
Here is an online depth of field calculator.
A subject at 10 feet with a 400mm lens has an extremely small depth of field,
compared to the same subject and distance with a 16mm at the same aperature.(f stop)
Play with the numbers and you will seewhat I mean.

Depth of Field Calculator

The 2 shots below are at f9. and f2.8 aside from the shutter speed change to keep exposure level
close to the same they are very similar including the auto focus point which is the low beam rubber bottom.



f9.
f2.8


Full Crop
Even at a distance of 3 ft between the auto focus point and the dragon with a small
magnification the 2.8 is much softer than the f9.

F9.
F2.8

This post has been edited by 97lestyousay: Oct 18, 2009 - 2:02 AM

[Tigawoods]

but take into consideration that everyone doesnt have a camera capable of changing the aperture.


for those with point and shoots check your camera and see of it has

OPTICAL ZOOM or DIGITAL ZOOM

for those with digital...sorry i cant help you
but nowadays cameras are using optical.


to get a decent depth of field with a optical zoom
have you car in a set spot and step back quite a bit to the point where you have to zoom in all the way to get the car to fill up the frame.
the settings (depends onthe camera) should stay the same. If you zoom in, you have a large focal distance (space btwn u and the car) but the same aperture. and the dof will be greater rather than if you are closer to the car with the same aperture level.


honestly i hate explaining things lol i suck at it. ill see if i can borrow a friends point and shoot and give it a try

[808celica]

partial car picture

shooting at 12noon

car in the middle

car more towards one side (cropped picture)

Rule of Thirds technique

[808celica]

5pm-sih, Sun behind in the distance, like 30ft away from the car, and the car is in the middle


But still.......i cheat, UV filter and Polarizing filter, cropped and shopped a little.

This post has been edited by 808celica: Oct 20, 2009 - 5:16 AM

[Tigawoods]

partial car picture

too much open space top right

if you are going to cut off the car. make the car fill up the whole picture. you are cutting it off to focus on an area of it, dont let any space take away from that

[95CelicaST]

For those who want ellaboration from a professional automotive photographer. This is copied out of a thread on Nasioc.

Back in the day…

I started shooting cars professionally as part of Subiesport Magazine since the magazine’s inception back in 2004. I learned a lot along the way, since at the time I was really a complete newbie when it came to photography. That said, I must thank my good friend Josh Mackey (http://www.mackeydesigns.com) and Subiesport Publisher Ryan Douthit for their help and tutelage. Ferg asked me to write something up, so I am honored to pass on some of my automotive photography methods to NASIOC, and I hope that these can help both beginners and experienced photographers alike. By no means do I regard myself as all knowing in automotive photography, but I love to help people take better pictures and learn new techniques right along side me. Without further ado, we’ll first start out with composition.

Point and do WHAT?!

Just because you don’t have the latest and greatest neck-breaking digital SLR doesn’t mean you can’t take good pictures. Even a camera phone can take good pictures, even if they’re not the clearest in the world. First and foremost, composition makes or breaks a picture, and shows the difference between a snapshot and a photo. Some things may seem rather basic, but even I myself forget certain things from time to time.

• Centered is rarely best – It’s easy to take a picture and put everything you want in the center, but unfortunately it doesn’t make for good photography. Generally, you want to follow the Rule of Thirds, which basically means that you want to put your subject at the cross section of two lines that cut your photo into thirds. An easy way visualize this is to imagine a tic-tac-toe board on your screen or viewfinder. Some cameras may even have this as an option to overlay on the screen. Here is an example of the Rule of Thirds in action:



Notice how the car is situated in such a way in the photo that it’s sitting right where an imaginary line would be to cut off the bottom third of the picture, and where a vertical line would intersect with that line, cutting off the far right third of the picture. A much more detailed description of this can be found here: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroo...4jsf04s3rg1ff11

• Angles can be good, but at the same time not so good – Going overboard on crazy angles to get a unique picture is very easy to do, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. Remember that you want the viewer of your photo to truly grasp what you’re trying to capture, but if they have to break their neck or do a headstand to see it, then they’ll probably just look elsewhere. Make no mistake, there’s a time and place for crazy angles, but use them sparingly and make sure that everyone can tell what they’re looking at. Also, keep in mind that a very slight angle can change the feel of a photo. Here are a couple examples to show the difference. While the first photo is level, it undoubtedly can be seen as the “more boring” of the two photos:





• Avoid the cut-off – Just a quick and simple tip. If you’re trying to take a picture of the whole car, make sure you actually take a full picture of the car, and don’t cut off the bumpers, wheels, etc. It makes sense to cut off sections if you just want to single one or two things out, but if you want to get everything, cutting off part of the car is not a good idea.

• Wheels vs. Tire Tread – In this grudge match, the wheel always wins. If you’re taking a picture of a car, especially from ¾ position, angle the wheels so that the face of the wheel is facing the camera, not the tire tread. While some tire tread is really aggressive-looking, 99% of the time the photo will be better showing off the face of the wheel instead of the tire tread, especially if they’re aftermarket wheels. Even stock wheels can look good in a properly taken photo, but we won’t know that unless we actually see them, right? Here’s a couple examples from both the front and the rear of the car:





• The background is not just noise – While the car is going to be the subject of your photo, that doesn’t mean that the background doesn’t matter. Even with proper composition, a good background can substantially help or wreck a photo. Industrial backgrounds are very overused, but it’s understandable to use if you’re in a pinch. Ideally, you want a background that helps add to the theme of a photo or just plain looks good overall. A driveway photo shoot isn’t all that great either unless the driveway is filled with a bunch more nice cars. Just be careful not to choose a background that blends in too much with your car, because then your subject won’t stand out. Here are a couple of my favorite background photos:





• Camera elevation – A key point of any type of photography is to try to capture something that isn’t normally seen by your naked eye. Thus, try your best not to take photos from standard standing height. If you get real low or get real high, you’ll have a much better overall photo. Very rarely will you see me taking a photo from a standing position. I sometimes even bring a stepladder with me to get a higher elevated shot, since being Filipino, I’m not a tall man. And, don’t be afraid to get dirty with a low shot. Here’s a high and a low example:





Photography is Light

Remember that when you’re taking a photo, you’re capturing how light is reflecting off of everything in the photo. Light rules everything with an iron fist, and getting the proper exposure is key to a good photo. After all, if you can’t see anything, what’s the point?

• Avoid backlights – Remember that you generally want your light source behind you, so that it lights up your subject. If you’re taking a photo of a car with the light source behind it, such as the sun or a streetlight, then you’ll more than likely get lens flare (the ugly green or brown series of circles that emanate from the light source in question) and your subject will not receive enough light. If you have a set of strobes though, you’re all set, and you can produce some awesome photos. A quick glance over at any of the photos on Jtuned.com can give you many good examples.

• High ISO / high-speed film is no substitute for a tripod – A tripod solves almost all of your focus and noise issues, whether you’re using a digital or film camera. If you don’t have a tripod, get one! It will be one of the best investments you can make. Sure, you can turn the ISO up or use high-speed film to increase your light sensitivity, but only at the expense of more noise and graininess in your photo. If you’re really getting serious about things, make sure you don’t go cheap on your tripod. You’ll want one that will properly hold the weight of your camera and lens, and is adjustable enough for your tastes.

• Avoid midday sun – If you can help it, try not to shoot in the middle of a bright sunny day. It will mess up your colors and create rather harsh reflections, especially from the windows. The best times to shoot by far are right before sunrise and right at or just after sunset. Cloudy days can be good as well, but you need to be mindful of your contrast and saturation. An overcast day can almost be ideal for even lighting, but just about any shot pointed upward toward the sky is going to have a very overexposed, ugly background.

Use your equipment properly

You don’t need an $8000 Canon EOS 1D Mark III or a $5000 Nikon D2Xs to take good photos, but SLR cameras definitely have more of an advantage with their interchangeable lenses. However, that isn’t to say that you still can’t get good results out of a point-and-shoot. All you need is the know-how to use what equipment you have properly.

• Tripod Tripod Tripod – ‘Nuff said. If you don’t have one, get one.

• Adjust your aperture for good times – Ever wonder how photos have one thing singled out, and the rest blurry? That’s because the aperture is adjusted to shoot wide open, creating a blurred effect away from the focus point. Shooting “wide open” means that you lower your aperture down to the lowest possible f-stop. Many lenses have a lowest f-stop of f/3.5, but other lenses can go down to f/1.8 or even f/1.2. On the contrary side, using a higher f-stop will keep everything in focus, but at the expense of letting in less light, which again leads to a tripod being a must. Experiment and see what kind of results you can get. Switching your camera to aperture priority mode will help you play around with things. Also, remember that if you zoom in (in other words, use telephoto) for a photo and use a lower f-stop, you’ll get even more blurriness in the background. I use my telephoto lens with a low f-stop very often to make a car pop out from the background. Here are a couple examples:





• One filter to rule them all – Special effect filters can be fun, but there’s only really one filter that you need: the Circular Polarizer. The circular polarizer is key to getting rid of nasty reflections, especially those given off from windshields and other glass. It’ll also help when taking interior trim shots. I never leave home without my circular polarizer, and it should ALWAYS be in your camera bag. The only excuse not to have one is if you have a point and shoot camera that doesn’t support one.

• Turn off that flash – There are certain ways to use a flash effectively on a car, but you usually need more than one, and it definitely won’t be the one attached to your camera. Thus, keep it turned off, and refer to the tripod rule above one more time.

• Post-processing for the win, or the lose – Of course to get your photos up on the web, they’ll need to be transferred to a computer in some fashion. Most people just upload them and call it a day, but if you take the time to post-process your photos, you can make yours easily stand out more than the next person. Often times you’ll take a photo that looks absolutely perfect right out of the camera, but even doing little things like a little sharpening or a little boost in saturation or contrast can turn your photo into something more. Just don’t go overboard with it! It’s very easy to go overboard with contrast and saturation especially. Too much contrast will remove definition and details from dark areas, and too much saturation can make a photo look very artificial. Use your best judgment and discretion, as you’ll know very quickly if something’s starting to look too extreme.

Phew, that just about sums it up…

I honestly can’t believe I wrote this much, but I do sincerely it hopes it helps improve everyone’s photos. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to shoot me a PM (I go by “Verdugo” here on NASIOC) or send me an e-mail at armin [at] arminausejo.com. Thanks for reading, and happy shooting!

Armin H. Ausejo
Style Editor, Subiesport Magazine
Vice President of Marketing, World One Performance
http://www.arminausejo.com
http://www.myspace.com/arrrmin
http://www.worldoneperformance.com

This post has been edited by 95CelicaST: Oct 20, 2009 - 8:59 AM

[tomazws]

This pic would be much better if the wheels are turned to the right.

This post has been edited by tomazws: Oct 20, 2009 - 12:42 PM