It's interesting to see results of voting for last calendar don't you think? There are huge differences between numbers so it seems there are rules how to have popular picture and be in calendar...

- Do not make picture from rear or top view!
No one cares to see you car from behind. Car from behind is boring... and from the top looks weird. Make only pictures of front!
- Play with picture in photoshop.
This is a must. More colors, more contrast! If you have some good idea how tune picture with some idea the better. Remember it must be obvious picture is nor realistic. It must look better than reality.
- No one cares if you have OEM look.
OEM look is not an issue at all! Car must look good. No matter what mods are on...
- No one cares in front of what is your car standing
Finding interesting scene for picture is waste of time. No one cares if you car is behind jet plane or some statue or anything. Cool background is not important at all. It's not wrong just needless.
- Make sure car is covering whole picture.
Small car in the middle of nowhere is not "true blue" (BTW. is there any US slang phrase for the same meaning as OZ English has???). So car should not be past of scenery and should cover whole picture (or at least from 2/3).
- When picture made by professional even better!
Professional photographer is not professional for fun. He/She knows! And knows better than you do...
- Nothing mentioned above works when you do not have friends to vote for you

anything forgotten? What you think?

EDIT:
(thanks to Fastbird)
- Don't shoot in the grass.
Cars belong on pavement, not in the grass.
- DO NOT cut out part of the car.
no comment... no question about this

Honestly I don' think anyone can top your calendar picture from last year.

i find this very helpfull

taking photo's
Guide to taking photo's
Guide to taking photo's

just a couple of sites I found a while ago, the last 2 are very good, would be good to see the photo's which come out after this

dont take pics between 10am-4pm. make sure the sun is behind you or really far in front of you. wash your car before taking pics and dont half ass the job too

**UPDATE**
I strongly disagree with Mals first rule of not taking pictures of the rear of the car. As you can clearly see below in my signature...nothing is wrong with taking a picture of
the rear of your car. The top I would avoid unless done in a creative way.
**

one thing that really annoys me and that alot of people dont take into consideration is how the wheels are turned

Have the rim facing towards the camera. it gives it a more aggressive look.

im really sorry to pick these out but it really really bothered me






id get into more things about some of the pics but id rather not


oh and thank mal for posting this thread

Avoid wacky camera angles. If the car is on a flat surface and it looks like it's on a hill in the photo, it's not as appealing. It may seem like a cool idea at the time, but it actually looks less professional.

I disagree with that...not only are there some beautiful shots of 6GC's from the rear, there are plenty of other cars that look good from behind.

i didnt see the behind part of that.

i have to disagree with that as well.

it brings a bit of variety to the pictures. having all nose shots would be get very annoying

just a quick Q but what would u change about this pic.
any opinion is fine I just thought it was a good pic.

rotate picture by about 30 degrees to the right and crop it so that it looks landscape. I do not get queezy but this image makes me want to turn my computer to compensate for camera angle.

its a good picture but it would not be good for a 6gc calendar.

The reason is :

1)the front of the car is cut off.
2) too much grass covering the car
3) what is the focus of the picture? the exact middle of the picture is the shiny glossy part of the car. Generally the human eye is trained to look away from the glossy or shiny part of a scene. So this makes the picture un-natural to look atl.
4) weird angle

i'm not sure if this thread has an attitude, done to be a smarta$$, or just because you really are trying to help people out. And for that, two thumbs up!
hehe
It works either way you look at it

tiga, i did take rim angle into consideration, i was showing off my sweet tires haha.

I've taken a few shoots this morning sort of comparing between the do's and don'ts will start a thread in the multimedia section for you photography experts to comment and how to improve shoots (hopefully others will read it and get good ideas)

btw: In no way am I upset (haven't actually checked the calandar results) there where some really good photo's this year, I just want feedback and how to improve my skill.

lol and u hit it spot on!

i did heart the tires




for this pic


jdm angles do work (aka tilted view) but it should be used more when the car is closer up and you want to fit ALL of it in the pic. seeing as how tilting it like that (corner to corner) would make it able to fit in the frame

the nose is cut of like stated in a post above. the grass doesnt bother me at all.

i know that everybody doesnt have the greatest camera and for all my suggestions a person with a regular point and shoot can still achieve a good picture.

take a step back. less taller grass. turn off your lights

The fact that you cut off part of the car in the photo sticks out as the biggest problem with the picture.

Mine are un edited and look like poo. Three years ago photoshopping was not allowed.
Thanks to all my friends for voting for me.

have Superspyrnt edit or take them for u..I know he helped a lot of members and they got votes...mine and Jim's are examples.

I had Erik edit one and it looked great but I am trying to keep them a CR2 format
for printing purposes.

I coulda kept it CR2 if you needed, didn't know.

There's nothing wrong with taking a picture of the rear of the car.

Interesting backrground's don't hurt the photo. I wouldn't say they are needless.

Car covering the whole picture looks too big, IMO.

i dont have friends and a good looking car so i didnt get votes



wow that sounds really emo

The shot I sent you didn't have the quality of the others I submitted. There was a lot of noise
which you got rid of mostly, but it just didn't have the detail in high res of the other 2.

I voted for the color one.

what does CR2 mean?

Tiga I think you have both. lol

i have no idea how i have 2nd most votes because before griffgirl redid the polls i was in 15th place?

and i also have no e-friends lollollol

but erik is very good at editting, ps

Its Canon's RAW format.

It is a raw Canon format. Much better for working with but I can't seem to figure out how to save it and
actually have it save everything. Hopefully Michelle will have Erik help with color correcting and final edit before printing.
I would have like to seen more submissions, maybe a smaller format would have been better, and got more people involved.

i voted maybe griffy should've put your photo in the last group on the 2nd poll

jks Michelle

Apparently, I'm in the same boat......

I need to get PS again, b/c a lot of the other submissions look a lot better quality wise than mine.

I'm going to have to disagree with the "front only" shots comment by the OP. At the right angle, a side profile or rear corner profile shot can be MUCH more dynamic than a simple front angle shot.

Whoever said it about turning the wheels, you hit the nail on the head.

Don't cut out part of the car. Get the entire car in the pic.

Cars belong on pavement, not in the grass. Thus, don't shoot in the grass.

And to restress, DO NOT cut out part of the car.

This is all advice given to me by a couple of people I know who shoot for a couple of GM Performance magazines.

Unless you were focusing on a specific part of the car, obviously...and actually, I just realized I did the same thing because the entire front is in view. However, I love this shot, but it breaks the rules of this thread.

the rest can be cut off but itd be better if you could see the whole of the back wheel

first of all this is not about how to make good (professional) picture but about how to get to calendar! I'm not professional so I can not give any advice about this! I always shoot like:

- take 300 pictures (some pics 2x or 3x just because of light, different angles...)
- 50 are blurred so erased (I use automatic not manual setting... because I do not know what to do with manual setting on camera )
- 100 are almost identical... so erased
- 100 I do not like... (boring, nothing special)
- from 50 remaining are about 10 I like
- from those 10 I like are 3-4 that I call perfect (so perfect IMO). I like the car, I like colors, light, I like scene...

but it do not mean it's material for calendar!!! My opinion is not important! Other people must like the picture for calendar... that's the key. And according to results of polls (and anyone can check) there are some obvious hints! What I have done? I just wrote them down...

now... please use only your pictures for NEGATIVE comments! (if you want say something good about any picture I do not mind of course ). I do not want this thread to be like "show picture you do not like in calendar polls". If this happens let's moderators lock this and better erase. I DO NOT WANT TO BLAME ANYONE'S PICTURE HERE!!!

so:


Sad to say this is your personal opinion (and I agree with that) but not advice for "calendar picture". You bet in the calendar will be more than one car with wheels turned like this... so... this is not true "calendar picture rule"


I have the best results between 3pm and 5pm (light still enough but sun is not that aggressive). Never in the morning (sky is too clear).. but again. this is personal opinion how to make nice picture (and you know how to make them ). But still nothing to do with calendar


Thank you Dustin... You have the point!
btw.: I wish I made your calendar poll pictures . They are exactly my cup of tea


You are the man! That's perfect result of this tread... some advice for people how to use camera (me included ). Read here!


Strongly disagree... Personally I have voted for your pic #24 because I like it (and see results... I'm not alone )


Again... I do not say rear of the car is ugly to shoot. It's just not the best chance for calendar pol. And that is the point . However I like the advice about grass or "do not cut the car" one. None of pictures with high scores has grass in the picture or cut out parts of the car

thanks folks!

true what the original posts says but the real truth is bottom line people have their own opinions bad or good. In fact, favoritism plays a big role. If there was a group of friends they would vote for each other compared to a guy who has no friends they wouldn't get any votes. That is just one perspective. Same rules apply in political voting, a fraction of the people vote for their friends relatives acquaintances, etc. Sounds dumb but in human nature gets you votes that way. We are not true judges that have no biases or fair judgement, face it.

I wanna say it was nice that Griffy didn't put names down b/c I only knew a few of the peoples cars I was only going by cars and pictures not by names.

We also gotta remember that majority of people voting are not camera professionals if they see something different or something bright and flashy it will attract there eye and there vote but when someone who knows photography might see the same picture and say its all wrong.

Yeah, i think the friends part has the most to do with it. Some great pictures missed out to some not so great ones, but unfortunately, that's life.

i could not agree with this statement more.
im judging the pictures at my standards. not car quality, but picture quality. there could be a TT 3SGTE with 1000hp in the pictures but there is a bright red train right next to it. stuff like that wont fly with me.

To be honest...I voted for the cars, not the picture quality. Sure I skipped over some of the crappier shots (sorry guys), but mostly I didn't notice any huge differences in picture quality that made me choose differently.

Tiga, I voted for your self-proclaimed crappy car as well.

And malpaso, I also disagree with the OEM statement...unless by that, you mean a factory stock car. But I plan on building my car (at least the exterior) with OEM parts.

hey u can have a stock car but it is an amazing picture.
id vote for that
my car is stock on the exterior

That's a shame.

Well, isn't that what this is, a 6GC calendar and not a best picture calendar? I mean, I took note of the picture quality and of course, the best ones jumped out at me...but overall, I leaned more towards the car.

But rest assured, I did vote for great pictures (obviously) and I'm only one vote out of many.

Except it will be a 6GC calendar no matter what. The quality of the calendar depends on the quality of the photographs.

im no photographer, nor do i have a fancy camera and i didn't even look in the thread for 6gc calender photos or vote.. oh well.

IMO i think those rules suck malpaso, no offense to you personally.

to me, an amazing shot would be the opposite of all the rules, something different. the front of the same 6gc's, taking up 2/3 of the photo and photoshopped to pop off the page = boring and unrealistic to me.

I personally prefer whats different, cut off pieces of the car to highlight an amazing curve, or focus the image on something in particular, and natural, un photoshopped beauty, imo the background matters, etc.

all you photographers that wish to tell me otherwise go ahead, i still don't care, this is just imo, personal preference in what i think is cool.

the last two posts are true too some are looking for picture quality - bad part about that is you put the nice picture in the calendar instead of the more calendar worthy cars. I thought the calendar is about celicas not picture quality.

It should be based on the car and if gets selected the person should be notified to better the quality of the picture. I know it sucks that some great cars don't have great pictures but I think the bottom line of the calendar goal is to represent with the best celicas, not the best pictures although it still needs to have good quality.

Priority
1. Good Car
then
2. Good Quality

^ This man understands my point.

And I disagree with that point. The calendar could be filled with Veyrons and Maranellos but if they're taken with camera phones the entire calendar is sh!t.

The calendar IS about the cars, but you also want a QUALITY calendar. I think everyone can agree the perfect picture is a high quality car in a high quality photo. If there's an outstanding photograph with a crap car, I'm not going to vote for it. Likewise, if there's an outstanding car in a crap photo, I'm not going to vote for that either. I'm not sure how you have a photographic calendar and place the quality of photos behind the quality of the cars. People see the photo first, the car second.

Also - the goal isn't to represent the best Celicas. The goal of the calendar is provide high quality representation of the Celica. This isn't a greatest hits collection by month.

BTW: Not trying to start trouble with anybody. This is just a dicussion.

Someone voted for 27 for which there was no image.lol

Yea but we can't sit here and make rules like you have to vote for the best photos, yes it should be done that way but people are going to vote the way they want..it maybe because someones a friend it maybe bc they love the car. All I'm saying is we can't force things on people there going to vote the way they want.

The best thing we can do is share what stood out and why we vote for what we did that way when a member is looking to take a calendar shot they can go back and see what people normally vote/look for.

The friends thing idk I would think more people dislike me on here then like me that being said I guess my car and the photo Erik took manage to get me votes so thank you.

In the big picture I think its nice that we are doing a calendar every year and the Griff takes the time to put it together its a nice perk of this site imo.