got to shoot a 335 last night.
iForgeries with falken 452 and h&r sport drop
procede V2 with eisenmann race exhaust (section 3 only)
whooped carreraS, e46 M3 (unknown mods) exhaust for sure..












and his brothers M5..



any more advice/tips on better shooting? thanks.

 

Black cars are hard to shoot. If you don't get the lighting right then it looks like a big black blob. You can't see the lines of the cars at all. The best way to it is by making reflections work for you, but at the same time you have to be careful what your reflections are. On this shot



The reflection of the building gets cut off and the door. That is a bit distracting. Also it goes all the way to the front of the car and meets the building. You can't make out where the car ends and the building starts, sort of.

Be aware of your back ground.



There is a tree ground out of the car. This is a personal rule, I like to keep the whole car in the picture.

The face movement in this one kills it.


This one is awesome.


If you are going to shoot a black car the best time to do it is sunrise and/or sunset. If you have to shoot at night I would recommend white or blue lighting specially if the lights are at waist level like some bridges or parking garage.

 

lol. thank you. i will try everything you told me. i do not have a lamp by the way. i was using the light pole at a supermarket parking lot and a long shutter speed with a tripod. i shot in raw, but i couldnt develop the pictures because my friend was so impatient. he just downloaded a nef-->jpg converter and just converted it. lol.

 

yep dark cars are a pain, try shooting dark cars when there is less contrasty light....ie. open shade, overcast day.

Your white balance is off, if you shoot raw you change this afterwords...but a custom white balance can do wonders. Your camera manual should tell you how to set this.

 

Oh yeah forgot to mention the white balance/ISO thing.

 

iso is at 200 which is lowest for my nikon d40. uhm yeah, u guys might be surprised how ugly the pictures came out... BUT i used photomatix and used tone mapping. tried shooting hdr for all the still shots except the m5. i guess i need more practice huh. i was just too* embarrassed to admit i tried hdr photography with these pictures since they did not come out like the other pictures on some of the hdr thread here.

 

Just like what most people already said, watch reflections, white balance, crop, and try to keep the camera level, some shots looks slightly off balance.

 

How about using a tripod and remote triggering device. Some of those are blurry, and the best thing I ever herd was from my photography mentor, "If a picture is worth taking, it's worth taking good, use a DAMN TRIPOD." Best advice I ever got.

 

yeah i was using a tripod.

 

On the pictures of the BMW straight on, with the hood closed and open, the front of the car is definatly not in focus. Were you using manual focus or something?

 

^no, im too noob to use manual focus. the car just had a lot of dust, fingerprints, etc etc. so i kind of darkened it with pshop.

 

if you are using a tripod, manual focus may make things easier. On auto focus, depending on how you camera is set, the focus may track back and forth. Also to aid in manual focus... get an assistant to hold a lit lighter or a mag light in "candle mode" where you want sharpness and focus on the light, its pretty easy to focus on a specular light source.

 

^thanks, will try that next time!

 

Hey what's up eric! Good to see you getting out there taking pix.

Here's my take on your photos:

Color -- looks too intense/dark, white balance seems kind of yellow (I think from the mercury lights).
Solution: use manual white balance settings from your cam. To set it, take a picture of a white sheet of paper while you are at the scene, then set the manual WB based on that picture.

Framing -- needs better positioning, so that the car isn't choped off.
Solution: use the rule of thirds. See here for more details, I think it will help your shot positioning a lot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

It's takes pratice, so just keep taking pictures with the right technique in mind, and it'll be second nature before you know it.

I like the rolling shots a lot, specifically the one without the blurry face. It would be more professional without any face showing. But very artistic nonetheless!

By the way, wash & wax the car before a shoot!

We improve best from examples, so here's one shot under similar lighting condition.
- manual White Balance
- camera set as low as possible
- lens zoomed in for compression
- iso 100 (for less noise)
- F 3.5, 15/1000 shutter
- tri pot

 

i was shooting with lowest iso which is 200 on my d40. good to hear im doing something right. lol.

 

oh and its boring shooting in parking lots!!! i want to know some shooting places!! with no traffic and not far from glendale/la crescenta. and about the white balance. i understand i have to set it to manual and take a picture of a white sheet of paper. then how do i set it? oh and the car isnt mine and it was late at night and too cold, even to just spray it down. but u take sexy shots. i love your pictures!

 

so, my shots are coming out yellow because of the white balance thingee right?

 

most likely if the coloring is off its usually the white balance

 

^thanks!

 

your rig shots look cool but I'd like the other pictures better with better lightning (better backgrounds)