Car shot, and a question

photographz · May 12, 2008

Here's the pic (2000 Mustang, Electric Green paint):

Here's the question-how do I fix the little blowouts, like under the drivers side headlight? I know I could start with shooting when it's slightly overcast, or the sun has moved lower, but that wasn't an option for this shoot. Is there a way to fix those in photoshop? This car is highly reflective, and it seemed no matter where I tried to shoot from, I had those little sun spots somewhere on the body or rims...The only time I could get really good shots was in the shade, but it seemed like there was always something nearby to cause weird reflections (A sign, a bright blue tarp, posts). The shade shots also made the car's paint look much darker, more like a tropic/amazon green.

bryanj87 · May 12, 2008

Nice shot and nice car. From my experience, when you shoot cars in the sun, you are going to get those highlights. Most professional shots I've seen taken in direct sun have some highlights. You could painstakingly use the clone tool in PS with a small brush size and try to copy some of the headlight area adjacent to the highlights. In the future, other than shooting in different lighting, you might want to try a circular polarizer on your lens. This will let you cut down on some of the reflection from other objects and give you a slight boost in saturation. I always use it when shooting cars.

photographz · May 12, 2008

Thanks! This is def. one of my absolute fav cars (but I'm a bit biased).

I was hoping there was a nice easy way of fixing those, like the red eye removal tool, but I figured there wouldn't be...The weather just didn't want to cooperate-it was actually supposed to be warm with high clouds all morning-instead, the clouds dissipated within a half hour of us starting our shoot (we drove to several locations with two cars, as a test run for a later cruise/shoot with about 5-10 cars). The other car was an 86 Daytona, and was WAY easier to shoot. This car gives me fits every time I try to shoot it, because it's SO reflective. I finally got a longer lens so I can stand back far enough that I'm not in the bumper reflection in each pic now :P

So here's another question-

On hard top cars-windows up or down? I use my car (the green Mustang) as my "test/learning" car, and since it's a convertible, I always shoot it with the top and windows down. It just seems natural to me that way. The other car had t-tops and the owner wanted them out, so we shot it with the windows down:

I would think windows down would eliminate some reflections, but I've never paid attention to which seems more "preferred". Obviously, we will shoot however the owner wants it, but I'm curious what other photographers do/feel on that. My top & windows are never up unless it's a judged car show or in the garage on my car, so I never think of that....

Any other comments or suggestions are also appreciated. I don't get insulted easily, so go ahead and be honest!! I'm at a learning point with this, so honest critiques can only help.

Car shot, and a question

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