Any tips on how to improve..

paul-2008

Hi guys, been into photography for a while now and looking to improve my skills. just looking for tips on how to improve the following photo, all comments accepted. Good and bad :P i realize how bad the blurring in paint looks by the way!
Thanks

humberklog

If even this was just for Buy and Sell it would still be a terrible photo. I feel like punching the left side of the picture, (the dark side of the car).

Punching it in its face.


I'd say you need to throw some light onto the dark side of the car if you want to shoot it at that angle.

Or don't shoot it at that angle and play with the light that's given and walk around the car and see what takes your eye.

paul-2008

humberklog wrote: »

If even this was just for Buy and Sell it would still be a terrible photo. I feel like punching the left side of the picture, (the dark side of the car).

Punching it in its face.


I'd say you need to throw some light onto the dark side of the car if you want to shoot it at that angle.

Or don't shoot it at that angle and play with the light that's given and walk around the car and see what takes your eye.

It wasn't supposed to be a bright and sparkly picture! If it was it would have been under the lights, I have others that were taken under the lights but this was the way the light was meant to be in the photo! Thanks for commenting

humberklog

paul-2008 wrote: »

It wasn't supposed to be a bright and sparkly picture! If it was it would have been under the lights, I have others that were taken under the lights but this was the way the light was meant to be in the photo! Thanks for commenting

Ah righto, I really wasn't sure what you were trying to achieve. Thanks.

melekalikimaka

what are you looking to do here, its hard to comment constructively when theres no context, I'd lean with above comments, or maybe a tripod for starters

paul-2008

melekalikimaka wrote: »

what are you looking to do here, its hard to comment constructively when theres no context, I'd lean with above comments, or maybe a tripod for starters

Yeah its hard to say really, just looking to do something different if that makes sense I suppose! Camera was on a tripod at the time using 10 second exposure and f22

melekalikimaka

paul-2008 wrote: »

Yeah its hard to say really, just looking to do something different if that makes sense I suppose! Camera was on a tripod at the time using 10 second exposure and f22

aye it makes sense, but i dunno if you really achieved it. Are you playing with long shutter? Maybe try a bit of light painting around the car. Also I'd watch the shake on the camera, its a little soft, possibly from pushing the button, maybe use the timer function to reduce the shake

condra

Firstly, let me commend you for searching out constructive criticism.

As for the photo:
Not sure about the almost square crop.
Composition isn't inspiring, having your subject dead centre.
The black smudges over the reg plate are distracting.
Modern consumer cars don't usually make interesting subjects for photos.


There is a certain atmosphere from all that blackness. It could look cool if the car was further away, isolated with (snooted) light.

Are you trying to be a bit darker or mysterious or such? I did a few shots with a jeep a short while back, for St. John Ambulance. I did a few very dark 'unveiling'-y type photos. Now, cars/vehicles are not my specialty by any means, but I thought it went okay;







Is that the kind of look you're trying achieve? Cos if so, then I think you'll need to resort to using a flash unit (or units, if you have a few of them) off camera. Those photos were taken with my camera settings set so that my scene in front of me was essentially completely blacked out (ie; I couldn't see anything at all) but I used the flashguns to light up the parts of the jeep that are visible.

In the first photo, there are three units; one behind the jeep (camera left), one in front of the jeep (camera right) and one inside the jeep to illuminate the interior (otherwise there was no shape to the jeep, as the centre of it was in darkness).

The second photo is essentially the same set up again, flash to the left, flash to the right and a flash inside to give shape to the roof.

Not sure if this post is helpful to you or not, to be honest (As I'm not sure if what I've done is what you're trying to achieve or if you're looking to do something completely different with it).

Fancy throwing up some of the other photos you said you took (under the lights)?

paul-2008

I think i want my picture to light up the left side of the car a bit more but at the same time i dont want to eliminate the shadow of the car as i feel it adds to the picture. No, thats not really what i was going for! Pretty cool pics all the same though! I'll throw up some of the others now in a minute, there really not the best though!

paul-2008

There's three more ones I took the same night, none are great pictures but sure I tried haha

Of those three I think the second/middle one is the best. Had you moved yourself just a bit to get rid of the writing/signs on the right hand side, I think it'd look a lot better, though. It's a good start

ScumLord

I think the headlights and brake lights might be disturbing the balance of the image. Turn them off and add them in post if possible.

The_Gatsby

paul-2008 wrote: »

I think i want my picture to light up the left side of the car a bit more but at the same time i dont want to eliminate the shadow of the car as i feel it adds to the picture.

I'm absolutely no expert on this so correct me if I'm wrong but if you wanted to keep the shadow I think you should have another lights set up on the right hand side of the car as well as having something to lighten up the left side. This would help you keep that shadow (I think?)

Of the other 3, I like the second one. Although the headlights are really distracting. As soon as you look at the photo your eyes are drawn straight to them which isn't really what you want