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Home > Visual / Audio Mods > Show Off > Helpful Photography Tips

Helpful Photography Tips

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de16


Reg'd: Feb 07, 2007

Chief Mechanic

Can we please sticky this i mean it's another sight but this shit will help everyone take pics =].

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=417604

Check it out very very very helpful =]

[#] Mar 29, 2007 02:30am
Vicious


Reg'd: May 03, 2005

El Chupacabra

Stickied by your's truly




Y s0 S3ri0uS?
[#] Mar 29, 2007 03:19am
de16


Reg'd: Feb 07, 2007

Chief Mechanic

Thanks vicious how the hell do i put faces on here. lol

[#] Mar 29, 2007 03:24am
Vicious


Reg'd: May 03, 2005

El Chupacabra

Type these without the spaces:
8 )
: P
: )
: (
: roll:
: evil:

those are the only ones I know..




Y s0 S3ri0uS?
[#] Mar 29, 2007 03:30am
de16


Reg'd: Feb 07, 2007

Chief Mechanic

oh i found it haha. right above the text box theres "[Emoticon List]" lmfao damn i am sooo blind

[#] Mar 29, 2007 03:31am
Vicious


Reg'd: May 03, 2005

El Chupacabra

osnap I've never noticed that emoticon list! You learn something new every day on this site




Y s0 S3ri0uS?
[#] Mar 29, 2007 03:32am
nick06tc


Reg'd: May 20, 2006

Vehicle Designer

excelent website. Deffinetly has good advice.
I wish it had Aperature, and Exposure times for the pictures.

[#] Mar 29, 2007 09:51am
Vicious


Reg'd: May 03, 2005

El Chupacabra

BTW, if any of you guys have some other tips please feel free to post 'em here as well!




Y s0 S3ri0uS?
[#] Mar 29, 2007 09:54am
Orin


Reg'd: Dec 08, 2005


Vicious wrote:
BTW, if any of you guys have some other tips please feel free to post 'em here as well!


Move your thumb away from the camera lense

[#] Mar 29, 2007 10:03am
Vicious


Reg'd: May 03, 2005

El Chupacabra

It took me a while to figure that one out I always wondered how that peach colored blob kept popping up in my photos




Y s0 S3ri0uS?
[#] Mar 29, 2007 10:13am
MrScion07


Reg'd: Sep 09, 2006

Godlike Advisor

nick06tc i never see u postin on this site lately good to see u back haha


and yes these are some good tips im gunna have to try them because i have had many people tell me i suck!


[#] Mar 29, 2007 10:14am
Orin


Reg'd: Dec 08, 2005


I've learned that adding midgets can make pictures fun.. especially if they are on fire.
[#] Mar 29, 2007 10:22am
wamgada


Reg'd: Sep 15, 2004

Oil Changer

every pic I have on here is a cell phone pic I think.

[#] Mar 29, 2007 10:57am
aDelcoTc


Reg'd: Jan 25, 2007

Scion Guru

yeah, since i'm assuming most people on here use digi-cams or even cell phones to take their pics, there really isn't much adjustment you can make, depeding on the quality (price) of your camera.

my cam (nikon) has preset "scene" selection settins (indoor, close-up, backlight, nighttime, etc...) but you can't really adjust the aperture or shutter speed.

The guy taking pics of the bimmer obviously has a VERY HIGH END camera which makes taking great pictures like that even easier. i'm not saying that guy is wrong or doesn't know what he's talking about, but don't be fooled into thinking that if you follow his suggestions (or whatever they were ) that your cell phone pics will look like his.

all the advice he was giving would serve you great if you are shooting on film and developing the pics yourself....if you just have a digi cam, you just aim, frame and click.

i know a little bit about lighting for photography. I took a B/W photography AND a digital photography/photoshop courses in college.

Worked in the tv/film/video production field for 3 years...and now i work here: www.locationlighting.com

Scion tc: Its essentially a 2 door Camry that spins up the tires quicker.....
[#] Mar 29, 2007 11:13am
rrimportracer


Reg'd: Feb 28, 2006

Godlike Advisor

1. Light Management Part I: First thing you should know is that there are optimal light conditions you should strive for when taking a photo (outside of a studio that is). The best light is early in the morning or late in the evening. Its generally referred to as "magic light". Colors are better, contrast is not as intense and shadows are softer as opposed to the light at high noon. Here is an excellent example of this:

Good Light: Warm colors, with smooth soft shadows


Bad Light: Light way too intense and colors are washed out



2. Light Management Part II: Another ideal condition to take photos is an overcast day, where the light is naturally soft, is not coming from any one direction and there is little to no shadow.

Good Light: This is my car BTW. Very little editing required, because the light was very good to begin with.



3. Light Management Part III: As much as possible...have the light BEHIND you. You want the colors of your car to come out so you need the light on the car, not against it. If you take a photo with the light in front of you, you'll have to use a flash. Otherwise, you'll get shadows instead.

Good Angle: Here the blue color seems normal



Bad Angle 1: At a different angle, the same color is now lighter and washed out



Bad Angle 2: The blue is muted because you're taking a picture of the car's shadow instead



Do not just park the car and walk around it to take photos. At some point, you will be facing the light and taking a picture of the car's shadow.
WORK WITH THE LIGHT, NOT AGAINST IT.

Another example, a picture of my old E39 M5:




4. Depth of Field. There are two main factors that enable you to control the depth of field in a photograph - the focal length of a lens and the aperture (measured in f-stops/f-numbers). The longer the focal length and the wider the aperture (lower f-numbers), the less depth of field (shallow DOF) you'll end up with. Wide aperture makes the background to blur and drawing the attention to the subject.
Here's an example:




5. Shutter Speed. Use slower shutter speed if you want to capture movement or if you're shooting in a low light environment.
I use a 1/5 second shutter speed for this picture:




6. Composition. A photo with the perfect lighting can look like crap with bad composition. Photography is art, so alot of it is imaginative and subjective, but some key things to remember are:

- Balance. If you have an element on one side, try to duplicate that or complement it on the other side. Here is a good example of that. The car is a little off centered, but you get the idea. The lighting here is excellent:




- Background. Make the effort to find a nice background for your photo.
Its very difficult to manage a background after the fact (unless you're a PS wizard), so its better to find a good location.
Avoid taking photos in common areas like your garage or driveway. Go out and look.
Keep it tidy. Do your best to avoid distracting elements in a shot. If you can't help it, they can be photoshopped out later.
For example, I photoshopped the light pole above the car and the one on the left and ended up with a cleaner picture:

Before:



After:



Also, an ideal background should have some colors that contrast the color of the car.
The green grass in this pic is a perfect contrast to a black car.



Here's another example of my M3:



- Rule of Thirds. By far the most widely used approach to composition is where the frame is divided into nine equally sized boxes using two vertical and two horizontal lines. The strongest four points in the frame are where the intersections of the lines occur, and any subject placed at these points will always have a strong visual appeal.
Here are some examples:






- Angles. As far as what angles of the car are good to take, you should browse through various car pics you can find. If you find an angle that appeals to you, then try to copy it. You can also use various lens types to achieve different effects.


7. Post-Processing. It's easy to take a photo and then manipulate it with Photoshop. Image editing with Photoshop is a whole other thing. Here are just couple basic tips:

- Use Photoshop to edit out distracting elements. That would include things in the background like trash cans, light poles, etc. Also, if you are taking pics on a parking lot, you can remove the parking lines. Edit out things on your car too, like paint chips and scuffs.

- Crop for perfect composition (reframe). To crop more subtly (when shooting), use your zoom lens to move in a little closer to the subject, removing distracting matter from peripheral areas of the photo.

- Use a noise-reduction program (third-party filter) like NoiseNinja to get much smoother surfaces or after shooting with high ISO (ISO 800 or more).

- Use Smart Sharpen filter for better result sharpening the subject. This should be the last step on image post-processing.

- Adjust Contrast or Levels for deeper dark colors and Saturation to bring out bright ones.

- And the most important: DO NOT put too much contrast on a picture.
Remember to AVOID blown-out highlights (whites) and loss of details (blacks).

For example, there's too much contrast in this picture, you can not see the details on the tires at all and also blown highlights - only whites appear on the sky:



Loss of details in blacks:



Whereas, you can clearly see the details of the tires in this pic without losing contrast:



Please feel free to add more tips & techniques with examples.
I will probably add couple more later that I didn't cover like moving shot and low light photography.


myspace.com/asphalt_photos check us out!!!
[#] Mar 29, 2007 01:17pm
rrimportracer


Reg'd: Feb 28, 2006

Godlike Advisor

hmmmm i wonder why the last pics arent working, give me a sec to fix them


myspace.com/asphalt_photos check us out!!!
[#] Mar 29, 2007 01:20pm
aDelcoTc


Reg'd: Jan 25, 2007

Scion Guru

maybe this link should be posted on the clubPHOTOGRAPHY.com site???

Scion tc: Its essentially a 2 door Camry that spins up the tires quicker.....
[#] Mar 29, 2007 01:44pm
rrimportracer


Reg'd: Feb 28, 2006

Godlike Advisor

Top 8 DON'T - As Advised By 'Speed' Magazine
-Don't shoot your car on grass or sand (You wouldn't believe how many times this came up over the article) leave it for the cows.
- Don't allow telegraph poles or trees to be in the background as it will look like they are sticking out of your cars roof.
- Don't leave windows half open.
- Don't shoot dark cars in the middle of the day.
- Don't have shadows cast under or over the car.
- Don't forget to wash your car, dirt really shows up in pictures.
- Don't just take one shot.

I know most of them a gimmies but you'd be surprised how many cars I see on here not following the most obvious ones.

Top 8 DOS - As Advised By 'Speed' Magazine
- Do shoot your car on concrete or asphalt; it looks natural
- Do shoot dark cars in soft ambient late-afternoon light. (Sunset always looks awesome)
- Do examine the paint all the paintwork for clean, simple reflections
- Do point the wheels AWAY from the camera (so everyone can see your wicked expensive rims)
- Do keep the background clean and simple (remember it's about your ride not the scenery)
- Do try to find a low angle that will make your car look phat.
- Do detail everything, such as windows, tires and inner guards.
- Do experiment and practice.

Other photo tips from professional photographers such as Mark Bean, Guy Bowden, Cristian Brunnelli or Tony Rabbitte.

- Shoot dark cars at sunset or sunrise, shoot bright cars in sunshine. Pearl, candy and metallic need sun and lots of it.
- Again NO grass, sand or trees growing out of the roof.
- Gaffer tape is a useful waxing tool on carpet if a vacuum cleaner is not at the ready.
- Black the tires, black the tires, black the tires.
- Check the off-camera objects and make sure your mates yellow R32 isn't reflecting in your beautiful paintwork. Ensure your shots are clean. Top photographers use the reflection of the landscape horizon to emphasize body lines.
- Hit the deck cars look great from a low angle, giving that mean outta-my-way stance. Beware of ants.
- Do try taking shots of your car on the move action shots always look great.
- Again make sure your car is immaculately clean with all those little extras not forgotten.
- When taking interior shots park the whole car in a shaded area.
- Study your subject first. Walk around the car and view it at different view points, to see which angle looks best.
- Don't be afraid to move your car around, this will make your collection more diverse.


myspace.com/asphalt_photos check us out!!!
[#] Mar 29, 2007 01:54pm
Orin


Reg'd: Dec 08, 2005


It's nice to have some info, but all this copying and pasting is pretty lazy.

How about write something YOURSELF

[#] Mar 29, 2007 01:56pm
rrimportracer


Reg'd: Feb 28, 2006

Godlike Advisor

its all in there though, lol

let me ask a question thought, i keep hearing about aperature being better when its on lower f-stops for depth of field, but then i hear other people saying that higher f-stops are better...

which one is it, if i want to take pics that make my car look sharp and the background look sharp also which is better, lower or higher f-stops

another question i have is ISO when its dark, and i dont want noise in my picture LOWER ISO settings are better right???

im no professional photographer but im learning and all on my own


myspace.com/asphalt_photos check us out!!!
[#] Mar 29, 2007 02:40pm
MrScion07


Reg'd: Sep 09, 2006

Godlike Advisor

i have always liked this one just wish i had kept the doors and hatch closed




[#] Mar 29, 2007 02:46pm
MrScion07


Reg'd: Sep 09, 2006

Godlike Advisor

also wish i had turn those stockies the other way haha


[#] Mar 29, 2007 02:46pm
toyojistc06


Reg'd: Mar 22, 2007

Oil Changer

great tips. ive been experimenting latley. in still learning but heres what my latest efforts are:


[IMG]http://i102.photobucket.c...n/kathleenscamerapictures012.jpg[/IMG]
[#] Apr 06, 2007 06:54pm
FloridaGirl


Reg'd: Nov 12, 2006



Nice..too bad I didn't read this before I took my damn HID pics


[#] Apr 06, 2007 09:25pm
gicode0823

Reg'd: Jul 07, 2007

Tech Advisor

is this thread about real camera or digital camera...
all pics lookin great ... im trying to learn "how to use digital camera" lol


member of TEAM SCION EYED
[#] Sep 09, 2007 12:33am
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