The Car Photography Thread

mercphoto

Bayer-Z28 wrote:

I would have gone from the other angle itself. From the bridge looking thru the ties down to the car.. Or some thing along those lines..

Or park on the bridge (if possible) at an angle to the centerline... Gte a shot of the car and the road/bridge itself.. Just me tho...

Neat ideas that would work on a different bridge. That is a very major road in Austin so parking on it would cause an accident or result in a ticket. But I think there is a walking lane on it, so your first idea might work with a long lens. Worth a try.

mercphoto

I think this thread ended up working rather well. Lots of advice on how to do the shot "properly", assuming you can control everything. And rebuttals about what to do when something is out of your control and you have to compromise. Such as the orientation of a bridge with respect to the path of the sun, or to the direction of the road, or to relative distances, dealing with traffic, etc.

This shot I had more under my control because the road is very nearly completely desolate. I can (and did) park across it for nearly 20 minutes and could have probably stayed two hours if I wanted to. Time of day was shortly after sunrise. The road crests rather sharply which can be nice. Shoot one direction and you get a small amount of trees in background but mostly sky. Shoot the opposite direction and you get a sea of trees very far away.

This one was shot "the wrong way". By that I mean the sun was behind the car, not behind me, but I think it worked. Looking for feedback on this one, what was good, what needs to change.

At home I know I have a shot from the same time period but 180 degrees around for comparison.

Nikolai

Pros:

• vantage point (although for the convertibles a high one could be a major bonus)
• angle (good, not perfect, I'd move a bit to the left)
• tilt (I'm not crazy about it, but it's OK)
• wheels (yay, you get them turned:-)

Cons

• pavement is dry
• light is w.r.o.n.g.
• windshield is half-transparent, half-reflecting. CP to the resque!

HTH

mercphoto

Nikolai wrote:

Cons

• pavement is dry
• light is w.r.o.n.g.
• windshield is half-transparent, half-reflecting. CP to the resque!

HTH

I need to get a friend to come along with my Tribute and gallons and gallons of water in the car.

I was using a CP but on a shot like this you have a compromise. Do you get rid of the reflections on the windshield or on the side of the car? They are at right angles and you can't clear them both. This shot was a compromise between reflections of the forest off to the right reflecting in the driver's door, which looked bad, and reflections in the windshield. But I probably need to bias it more to the windshield.

Please explain "light is wrong". Do you simply not like the fact it is back-lit? Is there something else?

Nikolai

Bill,

mercphoto wrote:

I need to get a friend to come along with my Tribute and gallons and gallons of water in the car.

I was using a CP but on a shot like this you have a compromise. Do you get rid of the reflections on the windshield or on the side of the car? They are at right angles and you can't clear them both. This shot was a compromise between reflections of the forest off to the right reflecting in the driver's door, which looked bad, and reflections in the windshield. But I probably need to bias it more to the windshield.

Please explain "light is wrong". Do you simply not like the fact it is back-lit? Is there something else?

• You don't need that much of water is you disperse it effectively (manual pump/sprayer?)
• take two shots, one with CP engaged, one with CP disengaged and blend in PS
• Dunno... It's just wrong... All that haze in the b/g

mercphoto

Nikolai wrote:

• You don't need that much of water is you disperse it effectively (manual pump/sprayer?)
• take two shots, one with CP engaged, one with CP disengaged and blend in PS
• Dunno... It's just wrong... All that haze in the b/g

Will try points 1 and 2. Point 3, I guess I see the haze as separating the car from the background but that's a rather subjective call. I'll dig up a photo tonight at home where I was shooting 180 degrees different at that same spot and time.

mercphoto

mercphoto wrote:

I'll dig up a photo tonight at home where I was shooting 180 degrees different at that same spot and time.

But this is close. Same location, same direction, but different car and different time of day. Those background trees look rather different due to the direction of light but is it better?

Notice what I was saying about the reflections of the trees on driver's side on this photo.

Nikolai

mercphoto wrote:

But this is close. Same location, same direction, but different car and different time of day. Those background trees look rather different due to the direction of light but is it better?

Notice what I was saying about the reflections of the trees on driver's side on this photo.

• Light is better
• Tilt is better (not an uphill battle:-)
• Angle is good
• Vantage point is good (it's not a convertible)
• Reflection in the side windows - need dual shot

mercphoto

Nikolai wrote:

• Light is better
• Tilt is better (not an uphill battle:-)
• Angle is good
• Vantage point is good (it's not a convertible)
• Reflection in the side windows - need dual shot

Ok, I think I know what to do now. I'll still post the other direction later tonight though to show what that vantage point's background looks like. Though personally, for some reason, I like the trees.

mercphoto

Same location, same time of day, shot from opposite direction.

speedracer04

i have a question and i hope it does not sound rude but why are all your photos at such a strong angle

mercphoto

speedracer04 wrote:

i have a question and i hope it does not sound rude but why are all your photos at such a strong angle

Its purely a personal preference. I think its more interesting than a level horizon. But if you are going to tilt a photo it needs to be obviously tilted. If the tilt is small then it simply looks as if you were lazy with how you held the camera.

A not-tilted shot:

mercphoto

The green Jeep in the background is a bit of an issue but this is a much more dramatic angular difference between the bridge and the car, which some were suggesting. The only problem with this is that parking lot behind the car that is usually quite crowded. Under this bridge is a very popular boat ramp.

ChrisJ

One tip I've seen is to turn on the parking lights. I think that might really help in the first S2K pic. Adds a little excitement. Nice car, btw!

speedracer04

you should have a look at http://community.automotivephoto.net/forums/ there is alot to learn there

mercphoto

speedracer04 wrote:

you should have a look at http://community.automotivephoto.net/forums/ there is alot to learn there

Thanks.