Some Thoughts on Automobile Photography

[Noel_Carboni]

I recently had the opportunity to do some car photography. Processing the images reminded me that I'd like to share a few of the techniques - and results - with you folks.



Cars tend to look good against natural surroundings. I've found they look good against suburban surroundings as well - places that have a lot of nature, but some "people influence" as well, as this seems to be a more "proper" setting for the auto. I suppose an SUV might look good on a mountain top, but a car just seems to me to want to be on a road. Local parks can make good backdrops.



A few clouds in the sky can yield some nice reflections in a shiny car. You want the car to be clean - in show condition if at all possible, and I prefer to use the lowest ISO settings to help accentuate the smoothness and cleanness.

Perspective lines in the image are usually good, and having the car parked at an angle to the surroundings can add interest. It's flat here in Florida, but mountains and off-level angles could yield some positive results. Turning the wheels (away from the photographer) usually adds to the dynamics of the shot further. Also I've found shooting up close and from a low angle with a wide angle lens can add "attitude".



Sometimes turning the headlights on can help set your image apart... It's something we see all the time in real life but less so in pictures.



Process your images so that there is as little as possible chromatic aberration in them. I find this really shows up in the lines on a car, and personally I feel CA all but ruins the clean look of an image. I find the CA correction features of Adobe Camera Raw to be about the best for doing the job, though there's some CA correction in the Filter - Distort - Lens Correction feature of Photoshop proper.

A polarizer can help get reflections off windows, but watch out that it doesn't take reflections off the car itself. Shiny is good!



Though I don't solicit this kind of photography actively, I suppose visiting a local car show and showing a portfolio to people with particularly photogenic cars could be a good source of new business. At the very least you'd get to go to a car show.

I welcome your thoughts and would love to see any examples of car photography you've done.

-Noel

[Ed Gerson]

These shots look really nice, the color, contrast, saturation.

First class job Noel. Your work has an honest beauty to it, keep at it. - Ed

[michaelnotar]

remember you are photographing the reflection in the car not the car itself. so if its too bright/dark, you need to control the subject that is being reflected. especially true if photographing in the studio. dont point lights at the car itself, light the wall or diffusion panel that the side of the car or hood etc that is being reflected.

if outside, overcast days are better because they are a natural diffusion panel, but you are stuck with an ugly overcast day. great light, bad scenes. sunrise, sunset or dusk can be the best of both worlds.

pay attention to brewsters angle, it occurs at 135 degrees from where the sun is at, (thats 90 degrees plus another 45), the sky naturally polarizes/darkens at that angle.

my notes aside, noels photos do look good.