After looking at SLR's for the past 3 months, I've bitten the bullet. The local Best Buy finally had it in stock, and I had to get it.

What's obvious from the unresized pics is that I need to invest in a tripod. What's also obvious is that I need to get a new lens. Looking into Bogen/Manfrotto tripod and the EF-50mm f/2.5 macro lens from B&H. Goddamn, I'm spending way too much these days.

Anyways, just installed the OEM spoiler today, and my car finally looks balanced. That's it for the "pretty" mods. I can now look forward to new exhaust, ... then some performance stuff... I can hear the mod bug toilet flush my cash ...

Here's the test shots! Again, I'm still refining my skills, as I want to be able to tell what shutter speed and apeture will work best depending on lighting conditions without taking a lot of shots with different settings. Also, I know the composition and background isn't the best, wasn't concentrating on it, but I've seen some scenery that would be great as backdrops. The macro lens should also give me some nice bokeh next time I post. Hopefully I can work on my skills and at least come close to what Leemik and other SLR gurus shoot.

Before:






After:




























I was shooting some of those shots above today at the local laundromat (sp?) and I see this guy watching me, as his house is right next door... low and behold, he's a 240Z enthusiast. Pretty cool car. He took it out later, and it took off like a bat. Impressive accelaration. Would be cool for a daily driver and project car.

 

Nice Z's

 

cleanest Z I ever seen

 

Nice and clean. Perfect, dont change a thing

 

wow, a lotta very nice pics. Keep up the good work and beautiful car.

ChiShi

 

pretty nice pictures! Was the first picture taking with the XTi? I have a XTi also and i am too beginning to realize how limited the kit lens is. If you can please post your EXIF info.

 

very nice

 

First pic is with the famous Fuji F11 with cokin filters.

Just bought another lens just moments ago from B&H. Did some research. Looks like the 50mm prime f/1.8 is a "must have." What's great about it is the price... only $70 from B&H. BTW, if you're new to SLRs like me, go ahead and get a tripod. I got the Manfrotto/Bogen 718B. Also got some Hoya filters. I'll keep this thread updated so you can check back next week. I'll have more pics testing out the new equipment by then.

I should have been more patient and gotten the "body only" from on-line sources, but I wouldn't have known how limited the kit lens is, or why it's limited. I guess you learn the hard way

Can't wait to try that 50mm lens and get some "bokeh" shots thrown in.

BTW, thanks for the comments guys. Really though, I don't consider my baby "clean." Body kit, spoiler, including all badges and a license plate cover cannot be considered clean.

 

thats crazy how even a subtly change like the OEM spoiler can really complete a look like that. Nice Z man

 

Maybe Im the only one here but on a few of those pics, it looks like the body kit was not color matched very well at all. I think your car looks pretty good besides that.

 

Clean Z...like the look!

 

The OEM spoiler definitely sets the car off. Nice work!

 

Nice pics man.. i bet you can get some decent bokeh with the kit lens too.. just zoom it out to 55mm and set the f-stop to as low as it can go and shoot some closeups..

--mike

 

yeah...Mike is right. This was taken with the kit lens.

 

nice and cleeeeeeeeean! love it!

 

Beautiful pics.

 

You can easily see a difference in image quality with the dSLR, much sharper and more color depth. Once you learn how to move beyond the green box, your photos will have more 'pop' to them. Most of those shots were at a very small aperture, so everything is in focus.

I tend to shoot in aperture mode and manually under/overexpose instead of shooting manual. If you're shooting shots from the front or side (straight on), you can shoot wide open and get a decent blur of the out of focus areas. If shooting a front-quarter or rear quarter shot, an aperture around f/5.6 works nicely to keep most of the car in focus and to also give some background blur.

There's a lot to learn on what settings to use depending on what lens is being used, available lighting, color of the vehicle, etc. You'll pick this up with more practice and analyzing your photos. I've been shooting automotive for 8 years and I'll still learn a few things every now and then.

The 50 f/1.8 II is a great lens for the dollar. It will you give you some of the compression effect you get from telephoto lenses on the 1.6x crop body. I prefer using longer focal lengths when shooting cars since my style of photography focuses on the car and not the background.

If you're using Firefox or IE and don't have an EXIF plug in, google for opanda exif and install it. It'll make it easier to see what settings others are using in their photos so you can learn how others are shooting.

 

Been reading about photography off and on for the past couple months. I just want nice bokeh with the whole car in view. Getting bokeh is easy with an object physically close to the lens.

Fuji F11 @ ISO 1600, macro mode... with my finger stitched up. Yes, it hurt during the cleaning, inoculation, and stitching process. Bokeh!


But yeah, I want big portions of the car with bokeh, sorta like what you see in many great looking portraits. Also, yeah, didn't know that a short focal length distorts the pic, sorta like if you're super close to someones face, it gets distorted. There was pics of a car that demonstrated this. So that's why I shot in 50mm+ focal length. I will try both ends of the apeture range again, which I did, but had negligible differences. I may be doing something wrong.

Again guys, thanks for the comments.

 

You're actually using the term bokeh slightly incorrect. Bokeh is how the out of focus area looks (circles/pentagons/etc). A good lens will create a smooth blur for the oof area. A poor lens will create a blotchy blur with visible edges (best I can describe it).

Here's an example of nice bokeh from the 70-200 f/2.8L IS (first picture I snapped when I got my camera to test it out... just a squirrel outside my window):
http://asianguywithacamera.com/temp/_U1T0001a.jpg

In the upper portion of the image, you'll see a black shaded area. This is from a shadow of a truck. There is a smooth transition from the shaded area to the macadam. A low end lens would create sharper lines and the transition wouldn't be as smooth.

Here's a link for more technical detail and more images to illustrate (50mm f/1.4 vs f/1.8): http://photo.net/equipment/canon/ef50/

 

very clean Z and nice shots!