The OFFICIAL Automotive Photography TIPS & TECHNIQUES | Resource Guide

[QUOTE=Shinobi;5103758]These pictures were taken a few years ago with a 3-megapixel Canon Powershot G3. Even with inferior equipment, a nicely composed shot and a little touchup go a long way.



Ok so by having the 6.0 MP SD600 i should be able to take quality pictures. But how much photo shop goes into a picture, for example, section 6 where you took out the light poles in the background. Is that all you touched up on in that picture or are there other things you changed.

Also, i have taken some pictures where the blacks or whites blend togeather eliminating the detail. Such as, you have listed with the details on the tires or with the window blending with the white sky. How do i take care of this kind of problem?

oh and.... the good looking female should be an unwriten rule ..... now every one will have good looking women in there pictures.

Originally Posted by m3racing

is this a good cam?http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1099394810083

really dont want to spend more than that much.. but I want nice pics

I would get the new Canon Digital Rebel XTi (400D) if I were you

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...&modelid=14256

I bought my Canon DSLRs from ebay, usually you can find a really great deal there. Here's the ebay store I bought from:

http://stores.ebay.com/Cameta-Camera

Originally Posted by stephan330ci

But how much photo shop goes into a picture, for example, section 6 where you took out the light poles in the background. Is that all you touched up on in that picture or are there other things you changed.

Also, i have taken some pictures where the blacks or whites blend togeather eliminating the detail. Such as, you have listed with the details on the tires or with the window blending with the white sky. How do i take care of this kind of problem?

I used Photoshop to take out the light poles and also adjusted the Levels. That's it.
The original picture is already good because I use spot metering to the car (the subject).
And also the parking lot wall really helped blocking the bright sunset light. If there was no wall, I definitely need to use flash to correctly expose the car, if not the car will underexposed (dark) compared to the bright background (getting shadows only because I was facing the sun).

Something I haven't managed to do yet, is to edit marked areas.
Well not the area itself, but the "dotted" lines surrounding the marked area...

Like, if I use the magnetic lasso tool around an object, but the line sticks to some other objects in the background. How can I then edit the marked area so it fits around my main object? For instance my car.

Tips from professional photographers.

Top 8 DON'T - As Advised By 'Speed' Magazine
-Don't shoot your car on grass or sand (You wouldn't believe how many times this came up over the article) leave it for the cows.
- Don't allow telegraph poles or trees to be in the background as it will look like they are sticking out of your cars roof.
- Don't leave windows half open.
- Don't shoot dark cars in the middle of the day.
- Don't have shadows cast under or over the car.
- Don't forget to wash your car, dirt really shows up in pictures.
- Don't just take one shot.

I know most of them a gimmies but you'd be surprised how many cars I see on here not following the most obvious ones.

Top 8 DOS - As Advised By 'Speed' Magazine
- Do shoot your car on concrete or asphalt; it looks natural
- Do shoot dark cars in soft ambient late-afternoon light. (Sunset always looks awesome)
- Do examine the paint all the paintwork for clean, simple reflections
- Do point the wheels AWAY from the camera (so everyone can see your wicked expensive rims)
- Do keep the background clean and simple (remember it's about your ride not the scenery)
- Do try to find a low angle that will make your car look phat.
- Do detail everything, such as windows, tires and inner guards.
- Do experiment and practice.

Other photo tips from professional photographers such as Mark Bean, Guy Bowden, Cristian Brunnelli or Tony Rabbitte.

- Shoot dark cars at sunset or sunrise, shoot bright cars in sunshine. Pearl, candy and metallic need sun and lots of it.
- Again NO grass, sand or trees growing out of the roof.
- Gaffer tape is a useful waxing tool on carpet if a vacuum cleaner is not at the ready.
- Black the tires, black the tires, black the tires.
- Check the off-camera objects and make sure your mates yellow R32 isn't reflecting in your beautiful paintwork. Ensure your shots are clean. Top photographers use the reflection of the landscape horizon to emphasize body lines.
- Hit the deck cars look great from a low angle, giving that mean outta-my-way stance. Beware of ants.
- Do try taking shots of your car on the move action shots always look great.
- Again make sure your car is immaculately clean with all those little extras not forgotten.
- When taking interior shots park the whole car in a shaded area.
- Study your subject first. Walk around the car and view it at different view points, to see which angle looks best.
- Don't be afraid to move your car around, this will make your collection more diverse.


more advance: flash photography on cars.

like studio work but doing it outside.

Originally Posted by JDMOTO

- Check the off-camera objects and make sure your mates yellow R32 isn't reflecting in your beautiful paintwork.

if it's a Lambo Murcie LP640 reflecting, then it's ok for me

Originally Posted by ///ACS-3

I used Photoshop to take out the light poles and also adjusted the Levels. That's it.
The original picture is already good because I use spot metering to the car (the subject).
And also the parking lot wall really helped blocking the bright sunset light. If there was no wall, I definitely need to use flash to correctly expose the car, if not the car will underexposed (dark) compared to the bright background (getting shadows only because I was facing the sun).

Well then i am eager to learn how to use photoshop much more than i currently can, so which direction do i go to find the nearest photoshop teacher? ok so i actualy only want to know if there is a forum where people will answer questions for me, like a specific photoshop forum that you know about. maybe they can me into shape on this photo editing.

TIA

Originally Posted by ///ACS-3

I used Photoshop to take out the light poles and also adjusted the Levels. That's it.
The original picture is already good because I use spot metering to the car (the subject).
And also the parking lot wall really helped blocking the bright sunset light. If there was no wall, I definitely need to use flash to correctly expose the car, if not the car will underexposed (dark) compared to the bright background (getting shadows only because I was facing the sun).

Rebel xti doesn't have spot metering

Originally Posted by JDMOTO

Tips from professional photographers.

Top 8 DON'T - As Advised By 'Speed' Magazine
-Don't shoot your car on grass or sand (You wouldn't believe how many times this came up over the article) leave it for the cows.
- Don't allow telegraph poles or trees to be in the background as it will look like they are sticking out of your cars roof.
- Don't leave windows half open.
- Don't shoot dark cars in the middle of the day.
- Don't have shadows cast under or over the car.
- Don't forget to wash your car, dirt really shows up in pictures.
- Don't just take one shot.

I know most of them a gimmies but you'd be surprised how many cars I see on here not following the most obvious ones.

Top 8 DOS - As Advised By 'Speed' Magazine
- Do shoot your car on concrete or asphalt; it looks natural
- Do shoot dark cars in soft ambient late-afternoon light. (Sunset always looks awesome)
- Do examine the paint all the paintwork for clean, simple reflections
- Do point the wheels AWAY from the camera (so everyone can see your wicked expensive rims)
- Do keep the background clean and simple (remember it's about your ride not the scenery)
- Do try to find a low angle that will make your car look phat.
- Do detail everything, such as windows, tires and inner guards.
- Do experiment and practice.

Other photo tips from professional photographers such as Mark Bean, Guy Bowden, Cristian Brunnelli or Tony Rabbitte.

- Shoot dark cars at sunset or sunrise, shoot bright cars in sunshine. Pearl, candy and metallic need sun and lots of it.
- Again NO grass, sand or trees growing out of the roof.
- Gaffer tape is a useful waxing tool on carpet if a vacuum cleaner is not at the ready.
- Black the tires, black the tires, black the tires.
- Check the off-camera objects and make sure your mates yellow R32 isn't reflecting in your beautiful paintwork. Ensure your shots are clean. Top photographers use the reflection of the landscape horizon to emphasize body lines.
- Hit the deck cars look great from a low angle, giving that mean outta-my-way stance. Beware of ants.
- Do try taking shots of your car on the move action shots always look great.
- Again make sure your car is immaculately clean with all those little extras not forgotten.
- When taking interior shots park the whole car in a shaded area.
- Study your subject first. Walk around the car and view it at different view points, to see which angle looks best.
- Don't be afraid to move your car around, this will make your collection more diverse.


more advance: flash photography on cars.

like studio work but doing it outside.

What kind of flash is that? Do you use the omni bounce thing? My built-in flash is basically useless because my lens is too long...

-Don't shoot your car on grass

I can't belive how many photos I've seen on "cars on grass"

Just looks out of place...

I guess that "flash shot" was taken with studio flashes, and reflectors.

Good flashes are expensive!

Two good advices I got from a photographer:
1. Never use the flash indoors, ONLY outdoors.
2. ALWAYS use a tripod, NEVER freehand.

Originally Posted by space

-Don't shoot your car on grass

I can't belive how many photos I've seen on "cars on grass"

Just looks out of place...

I guess that "flash shot" was taken with studio flashes, and reflectors.

Good flashes are expensive!

Two good advices I got from a photographer:
1. Never use the flash indoors, ONLY outdoors.
2. ALWAYS use a tripod, NEVER freehand.

Well, you certainly can use flash indoors... Someone taught me to tilt the flash toward the ceiling so the flash will bounce off the ceiling.

Originally Posted by JDMOTO

- Hit the deck cars look great from a low angle, giving that mean outta-my-way stance. Beware of ants.

seen that before

Originally Posted by B8888KC

Well, you certainly can use flash indoors... Someone taught me to tilt the flash toward the ceiling so the flash will bounce off the ceiling.

That helps, but most built-in flashes doesn't have this option.

Anyway the flash will kill a good mood in a picture.

Example: Your family in front of the fireplace an evening.
Flash on = everybody looks pale, and it looks like it's in the middle of the day.
Flash off = The real colors of how you see things in person appares in the picture.

I allways tries to set the ISO value higher, and use longer exposure times for indoor / dark scenes.

Originally Posted by space

That helps, but most built-in flashes doesn't have this option.

Anyway the flash will kill a good mood in a picture.

Example: Your family in front of the fireplace an evening.
Flash on = everybody looks pale, and it looks like it's in the middle of the day.
Flash off = The real colors of how you see things in person appares in the picture.

I allways tries to set the ISO value higher, and use longer exposure times for indoor / dark scenes.

So do I, since my built in flash is useless lol. I need an external flash!

Originally Posted by B8888KC

What kind of flash is that? Do you use the omni bounce thing? My built-in flash is basically useless because my lens is too long...

those are studio strobes flash that im running. Its a tad bit more powerful then flash heads, lol.


Alright folk, people moving shots is one of the best things you can show, i mean thats what our cars are made more right. So lets get those wheels moving.

We have three types of motion.

1. is called the rig shot. (the hottest shots, most cover mags are taken with)

2. Rolling shot (car to car)

3. Panning shots (motorsport events)

all three create emotion and speed to your pictures.

Nice ones!

Can you give some details on exposure time on these kind of shots?

Originally Posted by space

Nice ones!

Can you give some details on exposure time on these kind of shots?

sure. If you look at the info they are all single exposure shots.

1. rig shot was 13/1 sec (13 seconds)

2. was 1/80 sec.

3. i forget but its in the exif data. I think 1/50

Originally Posted by JDMOTO

those are studio strobes flash that im running. Its a tad bit more powerful then flash heads, lol.


Alright folk, people moving shots is one of the best things you can show, i mean thats what our cars are made more right. So lets get those wheels moving.

We have three types of motion.

1. is called the rig shot. (the hottest shots, most cover mags are taken with)

Who did you take this picture? and I don't mean camera setting, is this a car to car also?

Originally Posted by rsalicrup

Who did you take this picture? and I don't mean camera setting, is this a car to car also?

nope not car to car. hence it was called a car rig motion shot. I dont think 13 sec car to car will make the object that sharp. lol

Originally Posted by rsalicrup

Who did you take this picture? and I don't mean camera setting, is this a car to car also?

Basically the camera is connected to the car with a rig and then you'll push the car in motion, car will most likely be off for less vibrations then because it will be like 13secs of exposure it will look like your going reaaaaaally fast. In the original the rig will be seen so you will have to remove it in post-processing.