It's Spring - Calendar Shots

[ChallengerHK]

Just practicing. I'll start a thread in a couple of months.

[72ls5fla]

forgot about this one...

[ViperMan]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.  We tried SEVERAL set-ups at the boat dock by the lake, but the ground sloped SHARPLY upwards towards a nearby street, and we just couldn't get the cars far enough apart while still keeping both of them level.  It was too bad too, 'cause when we started it was raining, and you could see all the droplets across the lake.  Looked awesome.

[ChallengerHK]

By and large, once someone knows how to use a camera, spending time on the setup, framing and composition is going to be what makes the shot.

[Charles]

forgot about this one...

Absolutely love that picture, what a great looking car! I'm a huge fan of the blue, it looks so good on these cars.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Just some of my 2cents on shooting cars. I absolutely don't claim to be remotely good at it, but I have gotten lucky a few times.

As mentioned before, a circular polarizing filter, if you can affix one will dramatically reduce unwanted glares. From stripes, sun, glass, reflections, etc..it works well at letting you see through the surrounding elements to the car.

Front tires, always. always. always show the rim to the camera.  Unless you are trying to go with certain lines on the ground, nobody wants to look at tire tread. Direct the front wheels to show off the rim to the camera.

Height, I prefer either a high point of view, or a low/tire height point a view.

Surrounding area, I like to keep the vehicle in it's "natural habitat". For our cars, that is road or perhaps concrete..for my Jeep it's dirt, rocks, mud, whatever.

Post processing of pictures (digitally altering them) is the only way to fly. Taking shots directly out of the camera and spreading them will hinder the photo's look. Altering saturation, shadows, highlights, contrast, white balance, etc will help the look in almost every photo you take.

This is less than a minute worth of altering. Also consider if this was shot with a .raw type file, you can basically go in and readjust every aspect of the shot ..


Force flash, every camera has a force flash option. When I shoot with my SLR, I almost always have the flash forced OFF. It allows the lens to do the work to get a cleaner shot. However if you are a spot, even in broad daylight, that casts a shadow that you want to see (grille or wheels are usually what gets hidden), forcing the flash will provide fill light that will help the car/subject look more evenly exposed.




If you are trying to shoot a car in motion and have the ability to adjust the shutter speed on your camera. A shutter speed that shows the car in sharp focus yet too slow to stop the motion of the tires helps show the actual action of the car, it will also blur the background. Cranking up the shutter speed or letting the camera do it will stop the background and tires from turning...making a pretty boring "still" shot




Some helpful reading, though I may not agree with all of it

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=70290

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=536323

[ChallengerHK]

Post processing of pictures (digitally altering them) is the only way to fly. Taking shots directly out of the camera and spreading them will hinder the photo's look. Altering saturation, shadows, highlights, contrast, white balance, etc will help the look in almost every photo you take.

One quick note. If you do any post-processing, make sure to save an unmolested copy of the original first. Sometimes we may need to do other processing that can best be done on the original image.

[tommyg29]

Hey Goodys,
what kind of racer is that? Saw one just like it racing around an autox course set up in the Univ of Florida commuter parking lot on Friday afternoon.

Here are 2 of my 4 mopars in the family:


I took this shot late one afternoon. The light wasnt that good, overcast, and the background was boring, but thats not always a bad thing.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Hey Goodys,
what kind of racer is that? Saw one just like it racing around an autox course set up in the Univ of Florida commuter parking lot on Friday afternoon.

That is a Formula SAE car, we are working hard at our university to start up the project at UNT.   

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_Juw7c70QHMS0RkSzd3QklRck0

[tommyg29]

very cool.
An SAE program to help engineering students display their skills.
Not to change the subject but my youngest son is now in the UF mechanical/aerospace engineering school, and I will definitely be talking with him about this....but, he is not much into cars like his old man. He has an 04 accord, and thinks cars are for simple transportation only. Go figure. 

[72ls5fla]

Absolutely love that picture, what a great looking car! I'm a huge fan of the blue, it looks so good on these cars.

Thanks for the compliment....   it is a fun car to have.  Brings back all my high school memories.  I had the same car, but in white and a 4spd.

[ChallengerHK]

I've been getting a bunch of calendar-related e-mail this week, so I thought I'd say...get out there and take pics of your cars 

[GoodysGotaCuda]

very cool.
An SAE program to help engineering students display their skills.
Not to change the subject but my youngest son is now in the UF mechanical/aerospace engineering school, and I will definitely be talking with him about this....but, he is not much into cars like his old man. He has an 04 accord, and thinks cars are for simple transportation only. Go figure. 

It's an awesome program regardless of which engineering discipline he is a part of, it can all be applied to a car at some point. 

[ViperMan]

I thought I saw in some old "rules" for Calendar postings that you couldn't do any post-processing on the photos...  I remember a pic with "shooting stars" in the background (left the shutter open for a few hours) and people thought he photoshopped it...

Me, I don't want to post-process because I really don't know how.  I also don't have any fancy filters or lenses - I received my new Nikon D3100 literally 2 days before I took those pictures.  It was a HUGE step for me! 

So if those in charge of the calendar want to process before putting into the calendar (that being if we're voted for a slot!) then by all means, knock yourself out.    I'm not going to possibly make things worse by pretending to know more than I do...

[GoodysGotaCuda]

I thought I saw in some old "rules" for Calendar postings that you couldn't do any post-processing on the photos...  I remember a pic with "shooting stars" in the background (left the shutter open for a few hours) and people thought he photoshopped it...

Me, I don't want to post-process because I really don't know how.  I also don't have any fancy filters or lenses - I received my new Nikon D3100 literally 2 days before I took those pictures.  It was a HUGE step for me! 

So if those in charge of the calendar want to process before putting into the calendar (that being if we're voted for a slot!) then by all means, knock yourself out.    I'm not going to possibly make things worse by pretending to know more than I do...

There is a major difference between post processing and "photoshopping" an image. You will also not find any calendar using any images that have not had any sort of digital adjustments made. Anyone with any sort of photography experience will be able to tell you the difference. For instance when you shoot a digital photo the camera does it's best to "optimize" the photo, cut the excess data and convert it to a .jpeg. Where-as my camera takes the "raw" exposure and stores it directly to the card. This allows the user to completely adjust the shot to the conditions. The amount of data stored is substantial, as an example a 14megapixel .jpeg image will be ~10mb per image. Where-as my raw files average 30mb per image. All of the adjustments are done manually versus the camera's idea of a good exposure. This separates the point n' shoots from the more professional grade cameras.

"Photoshopping" is physically altering a shot. Changing backgrounds, adding effects, features, car colors, etc. Drastically different processes that should not and cannot be confused with each other. Some changes can be confused for photoshopping for those that have done nothing but use a point n shoot. Such has the blur of the car wheels, flow of running water, even shooting stars can be done with the proper shutter speeds and filters...all completely "legal" and common methods for shooting photos.

If adjusting sharpness, saturation, vibrance, highlights/shadows, etc are not considered allowed in a "calendar shoot"...then it's flat-out due to someone being uneducated in the subject making the rules.