Car Show ... HELP

[pfritzd]

Greetings everyone,

Shooting a vintage euopean car show this weekend for my local paper. I am use to shooting dirty RC cars that are moving at a high rate of speed.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Good angles, shots to consider, things I have to/should get ....

Thanks

[Bill Huber]

I am sure not a car shooting expert but things that I have found out about shooting car show.

Watch that you are not in the shot, the chrome is like a mirror and its had no to be some times. So use a big lens and get back so you are just a very little person in the shot.

It is very hard to get good shots of the whole car, in a lot of cases they are right next to each other so I key on the grilles, everyone knows the grilles of the cars they like.

Don't hesitate to ask people to step back out of the way so you can get the car and not people in most cases they will be happy to.

Try different angles, you never know what you will come up with.

Use a polarizer for just about every shot inside or out, it will give you very reach colors.

Use a flash with a softbox or Omni bounce as often as you can, it will sure bring out the detail in the dashes and wheels.

Good luck and I hope to see some of them.

[Kar]

If you are shooting for a paper they usually like crowds and people in the pictures. You should make sure to find out. I have been shooting for several papers for years. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what they may be looking for.

[pfritzd]

Thanks for the tips. I am going to be carrying aound a notebook of "Don't Forget" And "Don't Do"

I am using a D70 and have the follwing that I plan on bringing
SB-800
Tripod
70 - 200mm AF-S VR f/2.8
28-200mm ED f/3.5-5.6g
18-70mm AF-S ED f/3.5-4.5g

Depending on conditions I may turn the flash way down or use the camera's built-in flash.

Contacted the paper to get a better feel for what they need

Thanks again

Pat

[Bill Huber]

Originally Posted by pfritzd

Thanks for the tips. I am going to be carrying aound a notebook of "Don't Forget" And "Don't Do"

I am using a D70 and have the follwing that I plan on bringing
SB-800
Tripod
70 - 200mm AF-S VR f/2.8
28-200mm ED f/3.5-5.6g
18-70mm AF-S ED f/3.5-4.5g

Depending on conditions I may turn the flash way down or use the camera's built-in flash.

Contacted the paper to get a better feel for what they need

Thanks again

Pat

I have never shot for a paper, but I would say KHlava is right, they want people. I just never thought about that.

Do you have a good polarizer, I really think it helps kill a lot of reflections. I turn it like mad when shooting cars.
Without the polarizer this shot would have been really bad.

[pfritzd]

picking up a polarizer tomorrow :)

[Justin]

Patrick - how did it go?

[pfritzd]

Hey Justin,

It wasn't great ... but I had a great time. Took around 200 shots and only about 20 -30 came out (check the General picture section for some examples).

Found out the importance of exposure in varying light settings. Bottom line, I was having problems properly exposing pictures due to the bright sun, chrome reflections, dark colored cars, my inexperience, and the people who would walk in front of me. ;) Like I said earlier ... had a great time and will definitely volunteer to shoot more auto shows ... but next time I'll have a better handle on the spot meter function as well as other techniques to handle the variety of conditions at an outdoor auto show.

P :)

[Justin]

Yeah I'll bet that would be tough, you've got quite a range to encompass from dark to light with some really good glare thrown into the mix. Were you able to get morning or late afternoon for better light or did you suffer through the middle of the day?

I was just recommending this book on another thread, it may help with some of those tough exposures. Check it out at Borders or something... Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure". Best $20 you'll ever spend on an intermediate? level photography book.

J

[Justin]

Here's some of my buddy's work. He's just getting started but I really like his stuff. The motion photography is really cool.

http://www.motoringphotography.com/

[Will Raybourn]

I think the hardest part of car shows is dealing with people...they can ruin a great shot...so, in order to combat some of that as a problem, I like to get in a bit closer (unfortunately, it's hard to get the whole ride in the pic)...
Here's some of mine from the 2004 Rod Run in Boerne, Tx...

http://www.willraybourn.com/pergallery4.htm

[Justin]

Wow, beautiful. Very artistic. I love the close in perspective, gives an almost abstract quality to some of them. Do you remember the time of day and weather on that day? I'm thinking it must have been overcast to get that lighting...

J

[pfritzd]

WOW -- great pics!! Will and your buddy ... great skills

Justin -- the show started at 9am and I got there around 8:30 ... the morning started out great ... but by mid-day (11am - ON) it became harder and harder ... unfortunately I missed out on my early morning opportunities primarily b/c of my inexpereince (not a lot of people, and the sun was not as strong).

It is funny you mention that book ... I was just looking on Amazon for something to help me better understand exposures ... looks like I'll be ordering tooday.

[Justin]

Yeah that's brutal, I tried to shoot the last Zilker kite fest at mid-day and my skillz weren't up to the task :).

I think you'll like that book.