Car Show C&C

BFassassin

Took some shots at the ALMC Car Show yesterday and would like some C&C on them so I can improve. Any suggestions for PP would be appreciated as I have no clue on photoshop.




















Sorry for so many lol
Thanks

Rb

The guy standing in the shot in no.7 really distracts the attention away from the main subject (the car).

BFassassin

Yeah I really should have waited for him to move out of the way.
Thanks

Calina

You need to get lower down I think. You took those photographs from eye level.

I'd advise getting down lower, knees for examples. Bring the camera down and shoot from a different angle rather than shooting down.

workaccount

Is it just my monitor or are the colours not very good? Colours seem abit bland to me. I have the same issue with my photos at the moment aswell and I don't know what it is.

I have the issue with the two lenses I own - Sigma 10 20 and Canon 50mm 1.8. At the moment I'm thinking it may be just that my lenses aren't of the highest quality?

gorilla_image

Hi, I shoot a fair amount of cars (sometimes at car shows) here are a few tips I've picked up in the last 18 months or so. I was also at the ALMC Car Show yesterday. There were acouple of beuties there yesterday I hope pointers help.

1. Invest in a circular polarising filter, this allows you to control the reflections more.
3. Try using a long focal lenght from a distance. This causes less distorion of the shape of car (not always possible at crowded shows). you did this in you shot of the Porshe, that shot would have been brilliant had you been really low.
2. People at car shows are realy hard to avoid. waiting doesn't always solve the problem. a guy could walk out of shot then 3 people walk in. Very frustrating! People aren't looking out for photogs, they drooling over cars. Using an ultra wide lens (eg. Sigma 10-20mm) will allow you to get close and cut people out, this however will cause severe distortion, but you could use that artistically by experimenting with angles.
3. Distracting people and backgrounds can be removed with a low perspective. I've often shot lying on my belly or with the camera right on the ground. (this would have worked well in the porshe shot)
4. Cars are bright, not like people or landscapes, so don't be afraid to set your camera to 'vivid' if you shoot raw you can always undo this in PP.
5. Arrive early- less people, better light.
6. On a bright day like yesterday, you could use a hotshoe mounted speedlight to reduce the harsh contrast, and by using it off-camera you could even shoot into the light with good effect.
7. If you have a decent lens set the aperture very wide, this wll reduce the depth of field and blur the background even more.
8. on less bright days or at indoor shows bring your tripod, you could use a slow shutter speed to blur the people. quite a cool effect.
9. Don't always fill the frame with the car, if you look at advertising shots of cars - very seldom do they fill the frame.
10. look at car advertising shots, magazines and the web and try to reverse engineer the shots you like...

Good luck,

gorilla_image

BFassassin

Thanks very much for the tips gorilla_image.
Going low seems to be the name of the game with car shots then. I did go low in this shot of the R8 and it did give an interesting angle its just a pity there was a guy lying on the wing


I will try and use those tips in future. Going to a local rally this weekend but its a different ball game altogether.

btw have you a link to any of the photos you took on Sunday?

bernard0368

A bit of hdr a single file conversion maybe using dynamic photo hdr would put a bit of oomph on the EVO

silverside

I like #1 #4 and the last one

my tips: get lower down, closer, use wide angle, look for reflections / details, clear the background, use shallower DOF