Taking a Car Calendar Pic

[zmanrc]

After seeing what was submitted for some resent calendars (not just MiFbody), I thought I would tell you what I think make a good car photo.
Who am I to tell you how to take a photo? Well, noboby, you should always submit what you feel is your best pic.
However, I've had cars in 5 calendars, I've been the WMCC Photo Archivist for the past 5 years, have run Red Line Photography for 4 years and have taken more than 25,000 car pics in the last 7 years.
Shoot LOTS of pics from lots of different angles. You never know what will look great.
As I said this is what I THINK makes a classic great car pic.

First I will try and make it simple.

1. Watch your background. A shot in your driveway will rarely make a great shot. Old buildings, downtown, parks, school parking lots can make great pics. Everytime I am driving I am looking for cool places to shoot.

2. Lighting. The best light is in very early morning or evening. This light will compliment your car and wheels and keep the glare down. To shoot in bright sunlight you really need a Polerizing Filter to keep the glare down.
Digital cameras love shade. If you can shoot during bright sun but in complete shade, your colors will be great with minimul glare.

3. The classic car pic is shot from 30-60 degrees off the front fender from a low angle.
Park your car, check your light and background, turn your wheels just slightly away from the side you are shooting (to show more wheel), then stand back far enough to get the whole car in your view finder at about 45 degrees off the front fender, get down on one knee and snap away.

4. After you snap your first pic, stand up but in the same spot and snap another one, then take one step to the right and shoot a couple more. Then take a couple steps to the left and do it again. All from low angle and high.
TAKE LOTS OF PICS! The pic I submited for the MiFbody calendar was from a photoshoot I did this summer because I knew there was at least one calendar coming up. I shot over 100 pics of the car that day just to find the one or 2 that I thought were reall good.

Another tip, even during the day, force on your flash which helps light up the car and wheels.

Here are a few of my shots done in that classic car pic way. I would be proud to see any one of these in a calendar.

[zmanrc]

Now here is the pic I submited for another calendar. From the same photoshoot as the one I submitted for the MIFbody calendar. I used all the tricks here. On asphalt but with a park background, in complete shade, 45 degrees off the front fender, taken from a slightly higher angle because I wanted to show a little more of the white interior, turned on the flash to light up the front of the car and I used the polerizing filter to move the light away from the windshield towards the rear of the car.
But even after all that I still put it in photoshop to brighten the contrast just a bit and I removed a rock I didn't like in the background.
In my humble opinion this is a good pic of my car.

Anyone else have any tips???

[WMCC Doug]

That's good stuff, Ray !!!!!!!!!!!!

Now next year's voting will be even tougher than this year. You always do a great job with your photos.

Personally, I'm not usually fond of the real low angle shots of cars as it's not a "natural" angle for the viewer, but some of those still look good. One of the best pieces of advice you gave is to take lots of pics from many different angles. And, straight-on side shots of cars rarely look good either.

OK, everyone, you have your assignments ......... take lots of pics of your rides next spring !!!!!!!

[TSTONE]

turned it into a sticky

awesome info as always Ray - thanx!!!

[ITSSLOW]

Great info Ray!

Personally, I'm not a fan of that picture of your car. It's not low or high enough. IMO, it just looks like you stood there and snapped a quick picture.

[my95z28]

We need an applause smiley for you!!! Great job.

[98ultraz]

another good thing is to use a tri pod that gives you alot of range. I ailso like using the remote control (self timer if you dont have one) than you dont get any camera vibrations.

Also you have to watch how close you are to the vehicle because of reflection of yourself on the car and also whats behind you when you take the pic. Ive seen numerous times of reflections of other people and objects.

[nascarnate326]

Perhaps you could give us tips about our cameras. What megapixel to use, resolution, aspect ratio, setting on the camera..ect.

I just got a new one and it has so many different settings I dont have any idea what they do. Just go to 'auto' and hope for the best.

Alot of good info in here, I have already learned something today

[zmanrc]

Personally, I'm not usually fond of the real low angle shots of cars as it's not a "natural" angle for the viewer, but some of those still look good.

Shooting from ground level completely changes the light your camera is taking in which may completely change your pic. I always shoot a couple from ground level as that pic may be the one that turns out just the way you want

[zmanrc]

Personally, I'm not a fan of that picture of your car. It's not low or high enough. IMO, it just looks like you stood there and snapped a quick picture.

That is pretty much what I did but that is the angle I wanted on that pic.
I submitted that pic for a calendar on a different site. I was in their calendar back in '05. Since then I have added the cowl hood and white interior and I wanted a shot that would show those off.

Here are the pics I sent for both calendars. While I love the aggressive stance of the MiFbody pic, the other pic serves the purpose I wanted.
Same photoshoot just different angles.

[zmanrc]

Perhaps you could give us tips about our cameras. What megapixel to use, resolution, aspect ratio, setting on the camera..ect.

One of the best things I can ell you is to set your camera to it's HIGHEST RESOLUTION AND LEAVE IT THERE. You may only get 100 pics on your card instead of 1000 but because you never know which pic is going to be that perfect one, this gives you room to work. So the next time Aunt Martha has her eyes closed but your child has that perfect smile you will have enough resolution to crop it down and still get a great print.
A shot in print needs AT LEAST 10 times the resolution that a web pic does. You can always downsize a pic but you can't really add resolution.

Honestly, 75% of what I shoot I just leave the camera in AUTO.
About 20% are for action shots which I use the SPORT setting to speed up the shutter and stop the action (track shots and burnouts).
The last 5% I try manual settings and special effects which more often than not don't turn out. Todays cameras work great in AUTO.

I currently shoot an Olympus 8080 8MP. That gives my great prints up to about 24x30. However, if you look at the pics above, a couple of those were shot when I was using a good 3.8MP camera which did great up to 11x14. I had a need to sell larger prints so i bought a better camera. Next time I upgrade it will be to an SLR.

If your camera will accept filters, buy a Polerizing Filter. Best $50 you can spend. In the shots below, bright midday sun, the first shot is without the filter, the second is with the filter, the third is the second shot after about 5 minutes in Photoshop.

However I learned from experience. Don't use your polerizing filter during action shots as it lowers your shutter speed but at least 2 settings. In the bottom 3 shots, the first 2 were shot in SPORT mode WITH the filter. That slowed down the shutter speed and ruined the shots. If I had gotten the shot I wanted those would have been garaunteed sales for me. Who DOESN"T want a pic of their car wheels up?
The shots looked fine in the little 2" camera screen.
The bottom shot was set in SPORT with no filter.

And yes, use a tripod or mono-pod whenever you can.

[98ultraz]

I only shoot using my manual settings... I have a Canon XTI .. and i like using the TV mode which allows me to change the the shutter speed... Slower to let more light in (1 in) and can go faster to let less light in (1/3200) this alllows me to be able bring out different aspects....

[92conv]

Great info, Ray!! Thanks!!

[my95z28]

okay, so quick complete nexb question. Isn't the highest level of mp possible best? Cause I was looking at getting a new camera for christmas and selected a camera with 12.1mp almost solely based on that.

[93formulalt1]

okay, so quick complete nexb question. Isn't the highest level of mp possible? Cause I was looking at getting a new camera for christmas and selected a camera with 12.1mp almost solely based on that.

The Megapixel rating of a camera isn't the ONLY thing to take into account when buying a camera. The optical zoom level, add-on accessories (remote shutter releases, external flashes, etc.) can also make a BIG difference in the end result.

The Kodak I sold you is a 5mp unit, the DSLR I bought to replace it is only a 6.3mp, and I am able to get MUCH better pictures with the new camera than I could have gotten with the Kodak. That's not a bad camera, by any means, but you have to keep in mind that certain aspects of the camera are going to hold you back if you over-use them.

Most "Digital Point & Shoot" cameras like that do not accept interchangeable lenses, so to increase the Zoom level in-camera, they incorporate some kind of digital zoom. This is basically the same as zooming in on a computer. It's not increasing the zoom on the lens, it is simply zooming in on a digital image. If you only use the optical zoom, the overall quality of the image is going to be better.

More to come, I have to run to the bank and pick up my sister. . .