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Sep 4, 2009

First Attempt At Photographing Cars

I saw a nice car parked right in front of me today. Having not touch my camera for a few days, I thought hmm, there’s a subject and so I sneaked sort of shyly and started to shoot the Porsche.
Here are a few shots I took plus that is not really okay if you want to photograph cars like the pros to produce what you see in car magazines . I learned this later after looking at the pictures at home that photographing cars take quite a bit of skill plus setting up the car in a nice location and post processing. I didn’t have that option and the light from the overcast and hazy sky made everything worst. If I find the time to do PS (or GIMP which I used) to clean up the background and add a more exciting sky, I sure it would look better.
Here are some shots mostly just cropped and perhaps a bit of tweaking.

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/160 sec Aperture: 4.0 Focal Length: 7.2mm

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/500 sec Aperture: 2.8 Focal Length: 4.9mm

When all fail, you can always shoot details of the car instead of the whole car.

ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/200 sec Aperture: 4.0 Focal Length: 35.6mm
I wonder if the owner noticed a slight scratch on one of his rims or that the bolts are rusty?
The stuff I learned online besides setting up the car in the right location free from distractions are:
  1. A polarizing filter (polarizer) is good to have when shooting cars to remove unwanted reflection.
  2. Proper lighting (when shooting the engine or interior) is required i.e. use the flash.
I intend to get the proper filter soon. If you plan on buying filters, I suggest you get decent quality filters. Why put cheap filters in front of expensive multicoated glass and ruin your photos?
Here is a good site with tips for photographing cars.