Photo tips

[pplwu]

Hi Guys,

Seen alot of nice photos of the night shots. Any tips on how to get the best out of night shots on cars?

Thanks!

[swingn]

Buy a very expensive camera

I think they've actually got a photo shoot guide / tips in the latest Motor or Wheels mag.

I'll try & post it up later if you like...

[pplwu]

Yeah I am borrowing a Canon 40D from friends with standard EF-S Lense. Problem is that at night, i don't know how to get a good picture and let the car shines out. Flash makes it look flat but maybe I am just not doing it right.

I thought I will read up a bit, but since people here have some really nice pictures.. I might just ask here and get more out of it. !!

Thanks again

[WhiteGTB]

Hey buddy, with night time shots you need a tripod and experiment with the settings.

I shoot Canon so it is pretty much the same settings. I heard the general rule of thumb is F8 and 8 secs exposure, then start to move it around depending on how the picture turns out.

Personally, I switch it on Tv mode (Time Value) and shot 1sec, 2sec and so on and so on... let the camera work out the aperture itself

If you want to get a bit fancy, play around with ISO, get several flashes, remote trigger.....

There are some really nice night shots floating around and a few very knowledgable ppl regarding photography here too. I am sure others will help you along the way.

You in Sydney? my mate and I will be in Homebush (next Tuesday night) for a shoot, dinner and beer if you are free.

[pplwu]

NICE!!!

Too bad I am in Melbourne but thanks for the advice mate~

I will try some of the tips tonight and see how it goes.

Do you have the flash on?

[Ric]

No. In general, do NOT use the flash at all.

[swingn]

my mate and I will be in Homebush (next Tuesday night) for a shoot, dinner and beer if you are free.

Where's my invite!?

[subnub]

I'm still very much a noob with "proper" photography but I'll share my very limited knowledge on the subject :p Remember that long shutter openings will accentuate any lighting, and AFAIK using the lowest possible ISO number generally means the least graininess, which means a clearer picture, especially noticeable if you blow it up to a large size, and particularly on blues I've noticed, but I might just be imagining it.

Anyway, for the shots it sounds like you're after, as mentioned don't use the flash. Pick somewhere with fairly good lighting, shopping centre carparks are a good start. It sounds obvious but make sure you park so that you have light on the bits of the car that you want to be brightest, generally that'll be on the side(s) of the car facing the camera but it depends on the shot you want. Experiment with it, the car has wheels, if you need to move the car to get the right lighting then just do it! Leave the shutter open for quite a few seconds, I generally use 15 seconds and leave the aperture on auto unless I'm going for a specific depth of field, that might be right or wrong but it seems to give me the results I'm after. FYI, the wider your aperture is (or the lower the aperture number is, eg F1.8 is wider than F14) the shorter you'll generally want to keep your shutter open for - a wider aperture lets in more light.

It really gets fun when you start to try new things What I did the other day (based on ideas from one of tangcla's threads, the man takes a nice photo!) was to leave the car parked somewhere dark, point and focus the camera, then leave the shutter open for a period of time and "paint" the car with light from a torch (one of those 10 million candle power things). It did the job alright but next time I'd like to try a much smaller torch - the one I used cast a very broad beam and was really bright, even on the lower setting. Maybe one of those LED maglite-style torches would be the go. Anyway, I've also tried leaving the car parked somewhere with a fair amount of light, and used the torch to brighten the darker areas. I had reasonable success in both cases - the photos weren't exactly mind-blowing but they proved to me that it was something I could improve on with some more practice... and I get to use my enormous torch

Edit: Oh btw I use a Canon 400D, the 18-55mm lens is generally fine for what I want to do, but spending $150 on the 50mm prime (ie no zoom) F1.8 lens is money well spent. The depth of field when you open it right up is really short, if you don't overdo it you can get some really nice effects from it. The F1.4 is shorter again but much more expensive :p

[WhiteGTB]

my mate and I will be in Homebush (next Tuesday night) for a shoot, dinner and beer if you are free.

Where's my invite!?

haeheah Mat, will post in the gatherings section now for ya

[ton]

hey guys.

i am a professional motorsport photographer and might be able to add a few pointers.

i have always found that taking night photographs of cars is a tad tricky and that mucking around with differnt techniques and practice is the only way to find out the best practice for each individual.

I would suggest that you use use a tripod. The set up of the camera you mentioned appears realativley entry level for the DSL's but its still a good camera and you would be able to achieve good results.

Personally i steer away from using a built in / pop up flash that these cameras have. If you can get your hands on speed flash, ie the ones you attach to the camera body, that helps out an awful lot. So just muck around with the time you leave the lens open and as anotehr members suggested find a well light place. Then mess around with appature, this is fun but can be frustrating.

Also, if you have a laptop take it withyou and upload the photos as you shoot. This way you can see the entire image and where you may like to change your shooting style or settings.

Anyway hope that helps.

cheers

[tangcla]

No. In general, do NOT use the flash at all.

Not necessarily, it depends on what you want to shoot. General rule is do not use the onboard flash, as that's too close to the axis and will give unwanted results like license plate reflections causing major metering issues.

Flash or no flash, it depends on the look you're trying to achieve.

www.tangcla.com/photos/liberty_080614 this was done with light painting a softbox.

www.tangcla.com/photos/beastclub_081011 this was done with two 580EXs, providing hard light on either side.

Neither of the two examples have had Photoshop or major manipulation done - just the basic crop, white balance, brightness etc.

You will DEFINITELY need a tripod.