Photography Advice for shooting your Z/Nissan
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Photography Advice for shooting your Z/Nissan
A friend of myne from TTNet and fellow photographer did a very detailed write up on automotive photography today. Now, while its some what Z centric there is some good information in the write up that is applicable to all automotive photography. Here is the write up, perhaps y'all will find it insightfull or usefull.
Chris Pittman - Tikigod on TTNet
Alright, to start this off I was asked in various emails to give a brief synopsis on how to take “good” car pictures. After consideration and deciding hey this might be fun, I decided lets give it a try. I’m in no way saying I take the best or even good ones.
all of my pictures (the ones i deem good) find there way here
[ [ http://www.pbase.com/tikigodzx ] ]
Automotive Photography 101 : A crash course
First let me start off by stating, that NO photography is not my job, I do make a little on the side doing it for fun, which was never expected but welcomed. I have a few “clients” locally and a growing base, thanks to TTnet, and other more local clubs, boards, etc.
I do this for fun and because it’s been a hobby of mine since I was a little kid. I get many of my ideas from studying car magazines, seeing what the trends are and using those ideas combined with my own to create something I like.
I’ll do this write-up as I plan my typical shoot and try to include as much as I can… if there is any questions please hold them till the end…
Step 1 : Choose the subject…
Being this is on a Z site I’ll go ahead and assume everyone is taking pics of their Z. I should go without saying that the car should be CLEAN. Doesn’t have to be immaculate b/c you’d be surprised what you can hide with some creative thinking. But it should be at least somewhat shiny.
Step 2 : Choose the time of day…
From personal experience the best time to shoot most cars is in the “golden hours”. These times typically occur with the sun is low in the sky if not just below the horizon. You’ll have to be quick b/c the light will NOT stick around. If you don’t want to rush --- just try to shoot during the early morning hours 6-10 or late afternoon 4:30-7 (depending on geography these times will vary). These times will yield the best results on average.
I avoid shooting during the middle of the day at all cost, its too difficult to get the look you want without blowing out highlights or just plain screwing up.
NIGHT shoots, yes they can be done, YES they are hard, YES almost every example I’ve seen (no offense intended to anyone) suck. You will need a tripod for these, if you want quality pictures. I’ll go into this more later in the write - up
Step 3: Choose a location *
What I consider one of the most important parts. I for one find it really terrible when someone picks a location in front of a somewhat tall building and then tries to get the entire building plus the car in the shot… you end up with a picture that shows a nice building then if you look at the very bottom this a small object that vaguely resembles a car.
You want your car to be the main focus of attention, and nothing in the pictures should be grabbing the attention of the viewer.
From personal experience I gravitate towards backgrounds that are indistinguishable, a rock wall etc. Now this doesn’t ring true for every shoot but it does help.
For Woody75’s shoot we choose a location in an industrial area, the background wasn’t overpowering and in my opinion and others it fit the car pretty well. For the yellow Evolution shoot, the background was a less traveled mountain road, same will occur for an upcoming shoot, and for a Supra we’ve choose downtown Denver. Everything goes hand in hand but have fun experiment and try new places you didn’t think would work.
You’d be surprised at how much better a picture will look if you don’t always try to get something “cool” in the background.
Step 4 : the actual shoot
The biggest step, you’re actually there, camera armed ready to go, you’ve got a good time of day, a nice location (safety please, I have stories there…).
Pose the car, try to get it from every angle, I assume almost everyone here uses a digital camera, TAKE A LOT OF PICTURES, your not wasting film here. I tend to fill up two 512mb cards on a typical shoot unless it just goes extremely well. Get down low, get elevated, lie on the ground, contort, do whatever you can. I’ve found just about any ¾ view of the Z looks fantastic it accentuates the lines of the car almost perfectly, side shots are great too, hell not too many angles are bad of the Z, But don’t just walk around the car shooting from eye level, don’t be afraid to look dumb and get dirty getting different angles.
Keep an eye on the previews your camera gives you, if it has histogram displays, learn how to use them they are invaluable and will save you a lot of frustration. If it is possible to shoot in RAW then DO IT. If not always and I cannot say this enough always shoot in the highest resolution possible, you never know what you may use these pictures for.
Now, night shoots, get a tripod, or at least a box, handholding leads to blurry pictures. You’ll still want to keep the ISO (film speed) down for digital noise reasons, taking pics at 800 ISO may allow you to handhold the camera but the quality on most consumer level cameras at a higher ISO is terrible. I will rarely take my camera off 100 ISO for a shoot, if I can’t handhold it, the tripod does.
Location gets more important in night shoots, you don’t want too many “other” lights around but you do want enough were the car will actually be visible.
You’ll need to expose the image for a longer time for these, 5-30 seconds (depending on lighting conditions) I’ve done exposures in the 1-2 minute range before.
Again, location is your choice
Step 5 – Post processing
No matter how good your camera is, every image you take needs post processing, even the slightest amount will help. I suggest if you don’t have Photoshop, acquire it somehow. It is not a terribly difficult program to learn.
Most images will require some sort of sharpening, many action scripts can be found on various website around the web.
If you want more advanced stuff, such as blending two exposure levels together (and making these), mixing black and white images with color, etc I can do examples of that later on.
I tried to cover all the basics without getting all into the technical jargon, I personally shoot with a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera so making adjustments is simple for me, I’m sure on most newer digital camera there is some room for manual modes, I know my older point and shoot had a manual mode on it that worked somewhat well.
I recommend a camera 2.1 MP and UP, there really is no need for getting the highest MP camera but if you want MORE power to you lol.
Hopefully you found this intuitive and educational – If there is ANY questions, feel free to email/IM/respond to this thread.
Chris Pittman - Tikigod on TTNet
Alright, to start this off I was asked in various emails to give a brief synopsis on how to take “good” car pictures. After consideration and deciding hey this might be fun, I decided lets give it a try. I’m in no way saying I take the best or even good ones.
all of my pictures (the ones i deem good) find there way here
[ [ http://www.pbase.com/tikigodzx ] ]
Automotive Photography 101 : A crash course
First let me start off by stating, that NO photography is not my job, I do make a little on the side doing it for fun, which was never expected but welcomed. I have a few “clients” locally and a growing base, thanks to TTnet, and other more local clubs, boards, etc.
I do this for fun and because it’s been a hobby of mine since I was a little kid. I get many of my ideas from studying car magazines, seeing what the trends are and using those ideas combined with my own to create something I like.
I’ll do this write-up as I plan my typical shoot and try to include as much as I can… if there is any questions please hold them till the end…
Step 1 : Choose the subject…
Being this is on a Z site I’ll go ahead and assume everyone is taking pics of their Z. I should go without saying that the car should be CLEAN. Doesn’t have to be immaculate b/c you’d be surprised what you can hide with some creative thinking. But it should be at least somewhat shiny.
Step 2 : Choose the time of day…
From personal experience the best time to shoot most cars is in the “golden hours”. These times typically occur with the sun is low in the sky if not just below the horizon. You’ll have to be quick b/c the light will NOT stick around. If you don’t want to rush --- just try to shoot during the early morning hours 6-10 or late afternoon 4:30-7 (depending on geography these times will vary). These times will yield the best results on average.
I avoid shooting during the middle of the day at all cost, its too difficult to get the look you want without blowing out highlights or just plain screwing up.
NIGHT shoots, yes they can be done, YES they are hard, YES almost every example I’ve seen (no offense intended to anyone) suck. You will need a tripod for these, if you want quality pictures. I’ll go into this more later in the write - up
Step 3: Choose a location *
What I consider one of the most important parts. I for one find it really terrible when someone picks a location in front of a somewhat tall building and then tries to get the entire building plus the car in the shot… you end up with a picture that shows a nice building then if you look at the very bottom this a small object that vaguely resembles a car.
You want your car to be the main focus of attention, and nothing in the pictures should be grabbing the attention of the viewer.
From personal experience I gravitate towards backgrounds that are indistinguishable, a rock wall etc. Now this doesn’t ring true for every shoot but it does help.
For Woody75’s shoot we choose a location in an industrial area, the background wasn’t overpowering and in my opinion and others it fit the car pretty well. For the yellow Evolution shoot, the background was a less traveled mountain road, same will occur for an upcoming shoot, and for a Supra we’ve choose downtown Denver. Everything goes hand in hand but have fun experiment and try new places you didn’t think would work.
You’d be surprised at how much better a picture will look if you don’t always try to get something “cool” in the background.
Step 4 : the actual shoot
The biggest step, you’re actually there, camera armed ready to go, you’ve got a good time of day, a nice location (safety please, I have stories there…).
Pose the car, try to get it from every angle, I assume almost everyone here uses a digital camera, TAKE A LOT OF PICTURES, your not wasting film here. I tend to fill up two 512mb cards on a typical shoot unless it just goes extremely well. Get down low, get elevated, lie on the ground, contort, do whatever you can. I’ve found just about any ¾ view of the Z looks fantastic it accentuates the lines of the car almost perfectly, side shots are great too, hell not too many angles are bad of the Z, But don’t just walk around the car shooting from eye level, don’t be afraid to look dumb and get dirty getting different angles.
Keep an eye on the previews your camera gives you, if it has histogram displays, learn how to use them they are invaluable and will save you a lot of frustration. If it is possible to shoot in RAW then DO IT. If not always and I cannot say this enough always shoot in the highest resolution possible, you never know what you may use these pictures for.
Now, night shoots, get a tripod, or at least a box, handholding leads to blurry pictures. You’ll still want to keep the ISO (film speed) down for digital noise reasons, taking pics at 800 ISO may allow you to handhold the camera but the quality on most consumer level cameras at a higher ISO is terrible. I will rarely take my camera off 100 ISO for a shoot, if I can’t handhold it, the tripod does.
Location gets more important in night shoots, you don’t want too many “other” lights around but you do want enough were the car will actually be visible.
You’ll need to expose the image for a longer time for these, 5-30 seconds (depending on lighting conditions) I’ve done exposures in the 1-2 minute range before.
Again, location is your choice
Step 5 – Post processing
No matter how good your camera is, every image you take needs post processing, even the slightest amount will help. I suggest if you don’t have Photoshop, acquire it somehow. It is not a terribly difficult program to learn.
Most images will require some sort of sharpening, many action scripts can be found on various website around the web.
If you want more advanced stuff, such as blending two exposure levels together (and making these), mixing black and white images with color, etc I can do examples of that later on.
I tried to cover all the basics without getting all into the technical jargon, I personally shoot with a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera so making adjustments is simple for me, I’m sure on most newer digital camera there is some room for manual modes, I know my older point and shoot had a manual mode on it that worked somewhat well.
I recommend a camera 2.1 MP and UP, there really is no need for getting the highest MP camera but if you want MORE power to you lol.
Hopefully you found this intuitive and educational – If there is ANY questions, feel free to email/IM/respond to this thread.
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