My first real Car Photography CC PLEASE

[tukaniray]

First I want to say ... Car Photography isn't my thing. I love cars and shooting them is fun, but making any bread off of it. Not for me.

RESPECT to those who shoots for this end of the medium.

With that out of the way.

Tell me how I did.

A friend came to me and asked if I could shoot some shots of his car. I told him that I wasn't much of a shooter when it comes to cars.

He said it's a whole lot better than him taking his camera phone and taking shots .... true true ... but you never know.

But he also pointed out that he has no idea of backgrounds or composition or any other photog-eye aspects.

So I did it ....

It was quick and I did bring along my lights, thinking I could make a neat shot out of it with lights ... but no. That didn't work at all.

So, I took the shots and resorted to PS to be my comfort.

... there are some shots with lighting adding, but mainly the interior.

CC PLEASE ... I want to know how bad I did and why I shouldn't be shooting cars.

Thanks ... now LAY IT ON ME ...

-Ray-

[High_Boost]

I think #2 is great, its my favorite of the set.
I dont care for #3, its is a little weird.. pics of the climate control?

[tukaniray]

Eh ... I was thinking that car peeps like seeing their clean interiors. I think my friend said he painted them custom or bought some custom controllers ... I don't know. I shot it. lol

Thanks Dan. Do you shoot cars? ... I mean Photograph them? lol

-Ray-

[mhuebner]

Shooting a black car in direct sunlight (first image) is tough since you'll never have the range to pick up both the shadows and highlights. The rear fender is really blown out on the reflection and it's kind of distracting to me. Image 2 is much better! A flash or some mild HDR work would bring out the shadows a little bit which might help the image. Image 2 also has a good background. The interior shots are pretty tight and don't have real focus. While they may be technically good, they aren't very exciting. Of those three, I like the steering wheel best. It's a good start.
Mike

[PhotoEA]

#2 is my fav... I like the idea on #3 but maybe shot from the other side focused on the guages. Very nice set

[Redneck]

I would have worked with different exposures on #1 to show the background sky as well. #2 is o.k. but would be better if the background wouldn't change from brick to wood. That's distracting. I think #3 is the best one of the series. Love the shallow DOF and the light, it shows love for the detail.

[tukaniray]

Thanks guys. It's good to know, I am not to far off from the car-photo-shooting-tree.

I won't be doing a lot of automobile photography, but when I do get those, I will use your constructive comments to help guide me.

Thanks again.

Anymore comments, suggestions or beatings, lol ?

-Ray-

[disboifan]

these look pretty good if its your first time imo. for number one the thing that catches my eye is the metro police car. sure its oof but its white and kinda distracts my eye. #2 has a nice exposure also. only thing i would try to do is take away the reflections on the side of the car with a CPL filter. the detail shots are bit overexposed... on my screen at least. maybe close the aperture a bit more or lower the power on the flashes next time or even diffuse the light through a modifier such as an umbrella.

kudos for choosing your first car to shoot being black.

[tukaniray]

Thanks Danh.

When we were shooting, we actually thought the Police car was just fun add on in the shot. I did catch a shot with out the Police Car.

YES THE BLACK CAR WAS A TOUGH ONE!!!

You compensate for the sky, there goes the car. You compensate for the car, there goes the sky.

You light the car, then hear comes the flash reflections ...

IT was tough, and I quickly stopped having fun, and started looking for technical reasons why I couldn't get the shots the way I wanted.

As for lighting the inside, I used my SB800 for these shots. I was trying to go for the strong light source shot, again, because the interior was also black.

Thanks for the comments. Definitely will be saving the info for anyone else that asks for a car photo.

-Ray-