Car photography is one of the most exciting and rewarding genres of photography. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or already an expert, there are always options to do something more exciting and fun. But you will need a lot of practice before you can master this highly sought after photography skill. In this article, we cover some basic questions like the best gear and lenses for car photography and some more advanced techniques like planning and light painting. We hope you find the tips and tricks of this car photography helpful in your journey towards professional car photography.
Car Photography – Capture at the right time of the day
The first things to do when getting ready for car photography is to decide when to take your shots. Absolutely a bad idea to start in the in the middle of the day. When the sun is in the middle of the sky, the light is at its peak. If you shoot at that moment, you are going to capture some bad automobile photos.
Instead, you should take pictures a few minutes before sunset and a few minutes after sunset. You will be happy to know that the light is much softer at that time. So your pictures will be in a calm and pure environment. There will not be many shadows and book-like in those photos. Also, there will be less reflection due to strong light.
You can try it out in the golden light one hour before sunset or one hour after sunrise. But you have to be careful about the reflections and shadows from direct sunlight. The less light there is , the better.
Car Photography – Avoid reflections from the car’s surface
As a professional car photographer, you should always be aware of what is reflected on the surface of the car. The most fashionable cars have amazing designs on the surface with sophisticated fine lines that define their elegance. To get the best out of your automobile photography, you need to be proficient in the outline and beautiful design capture of each of your vehicles. But shiny cars always reflect light almost like a mirror. So if there are objects like
people and building around the car, these things will be reflected from the glossy surface and displayed in your photos. These will add confusion to your car photography. If there is a lot of confusion around the car you can’t really avoid, you can do these from a lower angle which would be better to look at. To avoid your reflection in the car, you can use a tripod, set a self-timer and walk away from the scene. Also, try to choose a place like an empty field under the sky.
Car Photography – Take shots from inside another car
Another great idea for creative car photography is to take a shot from another moving car. But you have to be very careful while trying this. Make sure both you and your camera are well protected. But capturing a moving car is not an easy task. You need to operate your camera setting and focus your car on a specific location. Follow some tips to capture motion in your frame.
Get help from a driver so you can focus on taking photos.
Choose the speed of the vehicle carefully, both the vehicles should run at the initial speed of 60 km / h, while you are in the lane slightly ahead of the other.
Set your camera in burst mode and shutter speed in the range of 1/100s to 1/150s.
That way, you’ll get a little bit of speed on your photos, as the speed of the shutter can further increase the motion blur which is not expected. Choose an empty or less congested road.
This will reduce the hassle for both you and other when taking photos.
Since everything is going on in this type of photoshoot, you are going to get a lot of bad pictures. But if you use the mode, keep changing the speed of your shutter, you will get some good pictures along the way.
Shoot from inside the car through the front window
Most of the time you will be shooting the outside of the car. But the interior of the car is always in contact with the user. That’s why it’s important for your customer to try a few clicks inside the car. The look of a car makes the first impression in the mind if the viewer. But it is the inside that creates lasting pressure and wins the hearts of the audience. Many modern cars look amazing inside and out. These dazzling interiors make these modern car shots the perfect subject for your professional car photography.
Car Photography – Let the car shine in the nature
If you want to add some difference to the photography in your car, you should take your car with the diversity of nature. A car is meant to be driven on an open and wide road, but you can try to drive your car in a sandy field on the side of a hill, by the river. When taking shots, you should
use a wide angle lens and if you shoot from a low angle it will make your car look victorious against nature. Here you have to find out which cars will look good in which area. For example, if you are riding in a luxury car, you have to go on a curved freeway. There are no specific rules here. You can explore your imagination and see what works for you.
Select the perfect background
A nicely selected background adds to the car theme. When choosing a background, you need to avoid confusion as much as possible. A perfect background does not distract the viewer from the main focus of the image, but rather complements the focus. On the other hand, a bad background is disturbing the audience and is not understood with the color, size and tone of the car. For example, electric lines, garbage disposal and other vehicles can ruin your image.
Capture photos during nighttime
Shooting car shots may seem scary at first glance, but the trick here is to find a quiet and completely dark place where some artificial light can make a difference. You need to be careful when choosing light sources as they can cause unwanted reflections. This will be even better if you use a large, diffused light. The larger the light source, the more light is scattered. Random street lights and full moon lights can also give you great shots.
Once you find the right place to shoot, place your camera on the tripod. Increase the speed of the shutter above 10 seconds and use a low ISO and small aperture like f/9 in the range 100-150. When the shutter opens, you need to use the light color method to draw the car with a handheld light. There are no hard and fast rules here, you need to experiment with different painting efforts to get different results.
Shoot from different angles
If you want to add different flairs to your car photography, you must take pictures from different angles. It will definitely open the door to creativity and bring out different compositions. But there are some classic shots that give good photos all the time. For example, shoot the car the front wheel is placed at an angle so that the style of the hubcaps is visible. This is a very familiar world that you have seen many times in advertisement. Of course, you can find some nice pictures.
Use a narrow depth of field to focus on the main object
When your purpose is to illustrate small details, it is a good idea to use a narrow depth of field. A shallow depth of field helps us to narrow the focus of the image. Using it, you can blur something you don’t want to highlight in your photos, but it will increase the areas you want to focus on. The logo, grille and details that you may want to highlight.
Car Photography – Panning for motion blur
We have already discussed shooting cars from other moving cars. But if you don’t like the idea of shooting from a moving car but want to add some motion blur to your car photography, there is another technique called panning that you can rely on. Panning is a camera technique used to capture motion car, stand on the side of the road and let the car pass you. You need to set your shutter speed low enough to capture the speed. Since the car is moving perpendicular to your lens, you need to follow its direction repeatedly. Rotate your camera horizontally x axis repeatedly and capture the shot. As simple as this is, you will need some practice to master this technique and take some amazing pictures.
A little post-processing can do wonder
Most photography do some post production work on their photos. To handle a large number of photos in batches under certain lighting conditions, Lightroom should be the app of your choice. However, you can use Photoshop for more complex editing. For faster editing, you can use free software such as GIMP which comes with some simple tools. The main post production edit is to adjust the white balance saturation of the curve and the overall exposure of the image. You can also crop your images to avoid unnecessary parts of the photo and adjust the texture of the sky in your photos to completely change the sky.
Take a holistic effort to capture the car’s personality
As a car photographer, you will first need a deep interest and thorough knowledge of the car, you will not be able to capture those fine lines, brand logos and other stylish details that make a car unique. Choosing the perfect background, Which one to choose, the type of lens and everything depends on the personality of the vehicle and how you want to display the final image.
Conclusion
As already discussed, to take a picture of a great car, you must first be a car enthusiast. It is your love of cars that will give you amazing photography that will make the audience fall in love with the machine. We’re shared some useful car you get started with car photography. However, this is not done in any way, you always have the opportunity to explore and use your creative faculty. If you focus on the elegance and usability of the car, you will definitely come up with something out of the ordinary.
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