zoomzoomthis05 wrote:Srry Dude.. I thought I took a nice.. pic... @ the park during sundown.. thought mine looked nice.. but you are entitled to your opinion.. that's why it is yours...
I don't think the comment was directed specifically at anyone. In general, when taking photo, about 1 in 35 come out really good. This number goes up with less experience. It's not uncommon for me to shoot off 45 to 50 shots to come up with something that says "wow!"
Some tips to keep in mind are: (These are really obvious so forgive me.)
- Keep the sun behind you if at all possible.
- Watch your shadow. Make sure it doesn't cast into the picture. If it does, try backing up and zooming in with a telephoto OR try a different angle till the sun's position changes.
- If using a SLR, try a circular polarizing filter. It can remove the glare reflected on a windshield or body panels.
- Watch for dark corners during low level lighting. (Setting sun) (Example, sun over your left shoulder and the car facing you on a 45. You are shooting the right front corner of the car. The left front corner will be dark because of a shadow.
- Low angle shots make a car look lower. Too low and your perspective is that of road kill.
- Understand the faults on the car. Use the angles to hide them. (No car is perfect!)
- Composition: Does the background compliment the photo or distract? Parks , trees , grass and all great backgrounds for light colored vehicles. Shadowey backgrounds for a black car is a no-no.
- Be creative: I love Dat's photo with the basketball hoop. It's kind of a "I'm a bad boy and this is my house!" Sometimes the background is as much of a statement as the subject of the photo. What are you trying to say? Do you want to look like a brochure pic for Lexus? (Luxury: Bid houses, horses, yachts, Wall Street...)
Performance: Curvey roads, skid marks that accent the curves (I can't remember who had them in a parking lot but it was a great shot.) Perhaps a shot on a road course. You get the idea.
- Use the macros! Portrait (close up) Fine detail such as the Solara badge above. (Very nice) Landscape: Infinate detail of the car and background. (Sometimes you don't want that much detail, a closer setting will slightly blurr the background.)
- SLRs: Cokin makes a whole catalog of easy (and cheap) filters. You can take a not-so-special situation and turn it into something awesome. For example: I took this shot on Miyajima Island near Hiroshima, Japan. The day was overcast with high clouds. The Torii is orange in color but doesn't look very special with a greyish background. Even more so, there are buildings and such in the background that I wanted less attention. So I used a gradiant orange filter and pushed it up until I got something that faked a glowing sunset. It brought out the orange Torii without making it look overwhelming.
Don't get me wrong: By no means do I consider me a good photographer. I play the numbers. Take a ton of them and pick out the lucky ones that look pretty good. The one I submitted for the calendar is not ideal referring to the text above. My front right corner is dark, there is too much glare on the left side of the car and the color is slightly washed out. (I had only 20 minutes of sunlight left and the wheels were coming off the next day. So I took what I could get.)
Perhaps we can start a separate thread on photo tips. Included with this should be some photoshop tips to touch up the pictures. (I'm terrible at that so my pics are almost always as it came from the camera. It's kind of a personal goal of mine anyway to take a good shot untouched.)
I hope this helps at least one person. By no means are the submitted pics bad. (No one is saying that.) I'm proud of everyone's pics. So keep snapping away.
by junest » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:30 pm 
THX - Phreakdout 