What am I doing wrong. (56.6k death)

This is my first post in here simply because I don't have the money for a nice SLR so I have to make do with my point-and-shoot 5MP camera. Anyhow, I took some pictures of my Stealth that I am trying to get into a calendar. I have posted them below. Please let me know if there is ANYTHING I am doing wrong or can do better? I am going to take a fourth one this weekend.

Thanks,
Clint

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar%201.JPG

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar%202.JPG

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar%203.JPG

Resize the pic so we can see it w/o scrolling?

What do you eman wrong. Seeing it that big, it's hard to tell. For one, best time to shoot cars is dawn or dusk. The lighting creates a nice effect. If you do that, especially with a P&S, don't use aflasha nd get a tripod. Allow for a long exposure to allow light in and go for it.

If you want some real fun, try an HD shot.

Oh right, back sure the background isn't cluttered with junk like unsightly buildings etc. Move to where they're behing a car or tree. Sometimes the smallest thingg can ruin a shot.

I just wanted to post them up without PS messing thrm up. Here they are again. I did remove some dings and a car from the third one.

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Background%201.jpg

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Background%202.jpg

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Background%203.jpg

Sunrise or Sunset lighting is ALWAYS better, overcast days are good to like right after a rain.

The background kinda sucks, the mountains look great but all those buildings takes your eyes off the car.

Better angles would help too...ones you don't see that often, get on the ground, bring a ladder and get up in the air.

Try to find a spot to park the car that's clean...no gravel, leaves, yellow lines, etc.

Turn the parking lights on, it gives the car a bit of life...will mostly only work at in lower lighting situations.

Make sure the rims are facing the camera.

Car looks beautiful though, since she's white she'll look great in a lower lighting situation.

I agree with the Andyg about photographing from different angles. Extreme close ups, lying on your belly, etc.

Also, in some of them, try not having the car as the focal point of the picture - ie. have it off centre, with something else in the frame to balance it out.

Quick shots of my g/f's new vehicle

http://a268.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/54/l_bd022353e545cb18ecdb8e9b2de3ce33.jpg

http://a174.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/51/l_2b945b5b8bcfa10dce0be054398d96fd.jpg

http://a130.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/62/l_dddb0590f9a327a27ea130e011feaee1.jpg

All I did was crop it for panorama type then coverted to grayscale with some heavy contrast and touch of noise/grain. You can ignore the last part. Also try wal-mart or the sorts with lots of parking lot lights at night. Good setting.

I wanted to try certain angles, but they want the entire car. I'll have to try your suggestions this weekend.

Who's they?

Who's they?

The calender people.

Clint...I found a couple article you should check out on PHR

PHR (http://www.popularhotrodding.com/features/0506phr_get_your_car_phr/index.html)
PHR (http://www.popularhotrodding.com/features/0511phr_2005_photo_contest/index.html)

How many pictures did you actually take? When I do shoots I take
about 150 pix and sort until I get it down to about 15 good ones.
The more photo's you take the more natural your photo eye will
develop, experience is key.

Take them at

Sunset/Dusk ~ Lighting is very dramatic and add's alot of character
especially long shadows.

Full Noon ~ when the sun direcly overhead but watch out for over
exposure. (Great for panoramas)

Morning ~ Another great time to do it especially at sunrise. Again
shadows can be used to make great scenery and project certain moods.

Full Moon ~ I'd only recommend it if you have an SLR otherwise you
WILL be kicking yourself in the ass for great shots an angles that
didn't expose at at all.

Rain ~ Only if it's drizzling other wise add the effect on photoshop
because it's not worth risking the camera.

Overcast ~ Great overall lighting and no real over danger to exposure.
Give's out a cerain aura if done right.

Windy ~ Only used in conjeuction with scenery that will indecate
that infact it is windy out such as trees, leaves & low profile grass
shots or even tall grass does the trick too.

For experienced guys (Davo an some others) ~ Thunderstorms like
lightning is a very dramatic effect assuming you can catch it that is.
As long as you have a fast shutter speed and a good camera your
set for that.

Just don't get zapped...

Some Bs one's I shot a while ago ~

http://thecarspace.com/photos/9/7/6/976ee3da6c01.jpg

http://thecarspace.com/photos/2/6/1/2613474da149.jpg

http://thecarspace.com/photos/a/1/a/a1a673dd8b59.jpg

http://thecarspace.com/photos/0/4/3/0430ba0801cf.jpg

http://thecarspace.com/photos/f/d/1/fd141abb62a8.jpg

http://thecarspace.com/photos/b/0/0/b0008667c822.jpg

One last tip!

This is always number one in picking a spot to shoot! KEEP IT SIMPLE!
The less background object you have the more the viewer will focus
on what you want him/her to. Scenery is great but to much will clutter
the photo destroying it's original focus.

regarding cars in photos.
try not to have a particular face of a car facing the sun.
if this is unavoidable (i.e scenary framing) then use some sort of reflector on the other faces.
Having a reflection/glare off one of the windows looks a bit "amatuerish" (please excuse the term).
It also looks like your camera focussed on the wrong part of the car.
If it has it, use the smallest focusing selector frame.
Not sure if you wanted it but I would've closed the aperture a little; it looks like your camera is "focussing to infinity".

Try shooting from lower down.
One good shot is almost at floor level so that the sill is next to horizontal.
Makes the car look more aggressive as pespective makes it look like its rising out of the ground.
Try different ways of getting the same shot. Take a shot close to the car then step away and get the exact frame by using the zoom.
Check out the differences the differences in lens angle makes to the shape of the car in the frame.

Also, practical tip because you don't have an slr
set up tripid and take a photo of the scene before you park the car in position.
This would help you when you come to photoshop in some effects into the background and/or shot that would've otherwise come from a filter.

beyond that, a lot of "errors" is going to be focusing limitations of the camera/lens/ccd and unavoidable image noise.

Finally, take your time.
Wait for the sun to be covered by that one cloud, wait for the birds to fly over in formation so that you can get their reflection on the bonnet.

Thanks for all the tips. I'll have to put them to good use this weekend.

Well, I used your advice and took some more pictures today. Out of these pictures which three would you pick. Also, feel fee to criticize.

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Angle.jpg

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Front%202.jpg

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Front.jpg

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Side%202.jpg

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Side%203.jpg

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Side.jpg

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Top.jpg

#2 #6 #7 I like. Now they need some post processingg. As some contrast etc.

#3 has a car and house that kill it.

#2 #6 #7 I like. Now they need some post processingg. As some contrast etc.

#3 has a car and house that kill it.

Yeah, that's the only reason #3 bothers me. I can remove the car but not the house. What would say I need to do with the brightness/contrast? Does it need to be raised or lowered?

If you want, send me some high res of the pics via my email. Raised, but I'd do curves in photoshop and not simply heightening the conttrast.

If you want, send me some high res of the pics via my email. Raised, but I'd do curves in photoshop and not simply heightening the conttrast.

Thanks!

I just sent you a link to them via E-mail. Those are the ones that I'm considering. I threw in an extra one I took today. There are two that have cars in them and I can get rid of them later.

Thanks a lot,
Clint

Edited:

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7826/calendar3acopyew1.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6223/dscf1234copynm6.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9184/dscf1246copyfu4.jpg

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/930/img4664copyct0.jpg

Edited:



http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6223/dscf1234copynm6.jpg





Now THAT is seriously bad ass. The contrast is perfect, and so is the angle. That pic screams hotness.

On another note, as far as affordable dSLRs are concerned, you might want to seriously look into the Pentax K110D, or the K100D if you'd like image stabalization. They are the cheapest of the dSLRs, and their photoquality gives cameras that are double the cost some serious competition. Non-digital SLRs that are a few years old are dirt cheap now, but as you are probably aware, their running costs are friendly at all in the long run.

I was looking into those, but I figured that (1) I am not a hardcore photographer and (2) would like something compact, so I just ordered a Canon SD850 IS point-&-shoot.

^Should have went Canon S5 IS of the new SX100. It's like a smaller S3 IS. Very nice.

I can show where to get very good used DSLR's if anyone wants to PM. So can Moppie.

Well, I've been messing with these in PS all week long and I can't get them to look the way I want. They all have exposure issues thanks to the lighting placement. I've decided to take some pictures tomorrow or Saturday since it's supposed to be sunny with overcast. Plus I spent half of the day yesterday scoping out some locations without buildings/trees. Hopefully with all the tips I've gathered I can fix all the issues. I am going to try these as well as some new angles.

I'll make a new thread with those as soon as I take them. Thanks for all the help guys.

very small things that I would've done differently.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/9184/dscf1246copyfu4.jpg
here, it would've been better to have framed the car entirely within that paved area. Also, careful not to crop that fence too. Chances are, it might mean taking in some of what's behind the fence but you can photoshop in/out things to clean that up.

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/930/img4664copyct0.jpg
I'm not 100% on that line of red trees. Maybe photoshop out the colour?
Again, the way the car interrupts the background (the line of trees) is a little messy. If it is possible, take the shot so you have the mountains and the trees uninterrupted.

General tip.
Most digital cameras aren't very good at measuring light which explains the tendency to over expose and white-out colours. You will nearly always get better colour in your shots if you take the ev down by 0.3 (or 0.6 because of the level of sun you're getting).


The shot of the wheel is nice.
Fixing the balance brings back the sky nicely but it's all in the details. As mentioned, it would've been great if you could've all the Twin Turbo script in the shot. It would've also been better if the logo on the wheel wasn't was affected by the glare. My instinct would be frame the wheel closer to the left side of the image and take the shot longer along the body to get the side script in.

^Yeah, when I was editing I saw the glare and well, couldn't help it.

I find it hard to believe that in that area there's nowhere to shoot. Loos so beautiful out there.

^Yeah, when I was editing I saw the glare and well, couldn't help it.

I find it hard to believe that in that area there's nowhere to shoot. Loos so beautiful out there.

I found a few Wednesday. I love the view from my driveway but there is just too much clutter in the BG. The new spots shouldn't have much, if any at all.

There's too much background in the ones above this post. I still like the car shot though.

Why I can't see the pic...

I removed them because I picked three to send in. Here are the ones I submitted, careful, they're kind of large.

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Submissions/Submission%201.JPG

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Submissions/Submission%202.JPG

http://www.synapsepc.com/Hosting/Images/Stealth/Calendar/Submissions/Submission%203.JPG