How To Photograph Your Car Like The Pros

[Ruts]

Before I go on I have to advise this whole article was lifted from ... MOPAR MUSCLE

 

Click the image for a link.

[Ruts]

Of all the things done to put out a car magazine, photography is perhaps the most critical. When it all gets boiled down, we buy car magazines for the pictures—the words are only there to describe what we're looking at. The visual aspect of the magazines is what makes us pick it up, and the photography is what catches our initial interest in a story. And the quality of that photography is one of the things that often separates magazines from one another.

 

While writing words to go with the photos is more art than science, feature photography has an almost mechanical aspect. Like building an engine, certain steps and procedures need to be adhered to while taking pictures for publication. And like professional engine builders, some photographers are better than others. There are also specialized tools for the job—you wouldn't assemble an engine using only a ball peen hammer and an adjustable wrench, and good photography requires the right equipment. But you also wouldn't go out and buy a Sunnen engine boring machine if you were going to rebuild your own engine. You don't need thousands of dollars worth of camera gear to get great shots of your car.

 

 

Gear

Without sounding too snobby or getting into too much detail (or cash outlay!), there are a few basic requirements for good photography. One of the main things that separates professional looking photography from snapshots is the equipment. In a nutshell, cameras can be broken down into three groups: Point and Shoot, Amateur, and Professional series equipment. Point and shoots are the cameras your mom and dad used at birthday parties when you were a kid. The lens is permanently affixed to the camera body, you can't set anything like f-stop or shutter speed, and the flash comes on automatically. To use them, you simply point the camera at your subject and push the button.

 

Next in line is the “amateur†grade of equipment, typically consisting of 35mm Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera bodies with removable lenses and manual control ability for depth of field (f-stop), shutter speed, and a host of other options. Prices for an SLR outfit start around a couple hundred dollars, but can increase sharply depending on how many extra bells and whistles you want (for instance, a camera that shoots five pictures per second will be considerably more than one that shoots one frame per second). Most staffers on car magazines shoot with this grade of photo equipment—we just have a lot of the bells and whistles. Some of us shoot new, cutting edge technology, some guys are still using stuff that wasn't quite cutting edge 20 years ago, but still gets the job done.

 

The next grade in photo equipment is the professional level. This is where the big bucks get spent on gear; 35mm SLR bodies start in the four digit range, and lenses can easily cost what you spent to have your car painted. This is also the domain of medium and large format cameras (like the ones family portraits are taken with). They make great images that can be blown up very large without getting “grainy,†which is ideal for cover shots, but not many of us “pros†have a lot of this gear. Given the choice, we generally spend the bucks on car parts and make do with our less expensive 35mm gear.

[Ruts]

Quick Shooting Guidelines

There are only two things to remember here: the camera has to be held steady, and to make sure the car is in focus from front to back, the camera needs to be set at an aperture (f-stop) of f-8 or higher. The higher, numerically, the f-stop (f-8, f-16, etc.), the more depth of field (sharpness from front to back on an object) you have. A higher (numerically) f-stop means a slower shutter speed, which necessitates a tripod to hold the camera steady. Think of it like rear gear ratios: The higher the gears, numerically, (say 4.56), the slower the final speed (top end mph slows down). The higher the f-stop (f-19), the slower the shutter speed (1/30th of a second). And incidentally, the “ClickClick†you hear when you push your camera's “trigger†is the shutter opening and closing (shutter speed), exposing the film to what you see through the viewer and putting the picture on the film.

 

Finally, don't think you can hand-hold a camera at a slow shutter speed (1/45th of a second or slower) and get crisp photos—a tripod is a must. Even if you don't breath and are rock-steady, your heart beats around 60 times per minute, and a heart beat will vibrate your hands just enough to make the photo a little “soft†on the edges and blur sharp details. Think what the caffeine shakes from a can of cola will do!

 

Most magazines prefer color slides on 100 speed film. This gives us the best image quality, and we can reproduce right off the film, rather than relying on the quality of your local One Hour Photo Emporium's print.

 

The photos in the sidebars below physically show the relationship between camera placement and car, as well as several common mistakes many people make while taking a picture of their car. These tips will make the difference between snapshots and publishable photography. Take lots of pictures, and know that you are going to make lots of mistakes. Like everything else, the only way to get good at photography is to practice.

[Ruts]

Common Obstacles

There are some pretty common mistakes that most everyone makes when they take pictures of their cars. Go through the stacks of negatives we shot when we were first starting out, and you'll see all of them. Here are a couple of the bigger, but easily corrected errors.

 

The single biggest mistake made by people taking a shot of their car is the background. Put your car in front of something that isn't cluttered—a tree line, a crossroads intersection in the country, someplace where the background isn't taking your attention away from the car. Also watch for reflections in the paint. A polarizing filter on the lens will remove reflections from windows and glossy paint. Lens filters are one of the bells and whistles we use.

 

 

Another common problem is shooting the “wrong†side of the car. Notice this car's shadow in the shot. Always position the car so the shadow is on the other side of it, in relationship to where you are standing—you don't want to be able to see its shadow. Set the car so the sun is behind you (you're between the car and the sun) while you're taking the picture. This way, the side of the car you want to photograph is well lit. It's also best to shoot when the sun is low in the sky—before 10 a.m. and after 2 p.m. The low sunlight will light up the side of the car, while the sun high in the sky (late morning and early afternoon) will only light the roof and hood, leaving the sides of the car shaded. Always try to take pictures of your car on clear days with lots of sunlight, avoiding cloudy or overcast days. Your car's paint looks great with the sun dancing off of it, and that shows on the film. Cars shot on overcast days look flat and just don't “pop†out of the picture.

 

 

Okay, it's not a pretty engine bay, but it illustrates lighting. Another common problem with car photography is harsh shadows in the engine bay and interior. The engine shadowing is caused by the hood being raised and blocking half the sunlight to the engine but strongly lighting the other half, while the interior is just the sunlight streaming through the windows. There's an easy fix.

 

 

There are two ways to fix bad lighting on engines and interiors—wait for clouds to cover the sun, or move the car to a shaded area, such as under a tree or awning. This will slow your shutter speed, so a flash or a tripod is required. Many pros prefer to use a slow shutter speed as opposed to a flash, because a flash can make harsh highlights on chrome and other brightwork. Also notice that the photographer is shooting down into the engine bay, rather than standing on the ground in front of the car. This shows more of the engine and looks better in the final photo.

 

 

Look at the difference between this engine shot and the previous one with the poor lighting. By raising the camera a couple of feet higher, you are able to see more of the engine, and the angle of the photo is looking down into the engine bay, rather than “skipping across the top†of the motor.

 

 

Engine and interior shots come out best when shot with a lens somewhere between 28-35mm. Any longer (higher than 35mm) and it's hard to get close enough, physically, to the car and get a good angle. Any smaller (below 28mm) and the image starts to distort, or “fish eyeâ€â€”everything looks like it's in a fish bowl.

 

 

Also pay attention to little details. Here, the steering wheel isn't level and straight across. Other common detractors are keys in the ignition and things hanging from knobs and the rearview mirror.

[Ruts]

Angle of Attack

The thing that separates snapshots from quality photography is the angle the picture is taken from and the physical distance between the camera and the car. The following photos show those differences.

 

Here, equipment is key, but only two pieces are truly needed: a tripod and a zoom (or telephoto) lens. The tripod holds the camera steady at set heights and angles, the zoom lens “flattens†out the car. Another handy piece to have is a remote cable release, which is a remote control to trip the shutter in the camera. This keeps your hands off the camera, so it doesn't shake while making the shot. It's not necessary to purchase a cable release; you can accomplish the same thing by setting your camera's self timer, but it eats up time.

 

This is the typical method most people use to take snapshot photos.

 

 

The biggest thing here is that the photographer is standing up taking the shot at eye-level. This angle looks down on the car, so you see the top of the hood and roof. It's not very dramatic.

 

 

Also, the lens being used is a standard 35mm, being shot from about eight feet away from the car. This makes the perspective of the car somewhat distorted, making the rear of the car seem much farther away.

 

 

This is a little better. Using a zoom or telephoto lens “flattens†the car out, so it doesn't look like you need a golf cart to get from one end to the other. Get the camera as far away from the car as you can, but still keep the image in the view finder as big as possible.

 

 

By getting the camera closer to the ground, the shot becomes a little more dramatic. Also note that the front wheels are turned so you can see the wheel face, instead of turning away from the camera and showing its tread. This is also a garbagey background, but it's the best we could find around the office at that time of the day (the sun behind us).

 

 

Here, we've lowered the camera further still with the tripod. It's getting a little awkward to shoot the car from this angle, but it's making the shot more dramatic.

 

 

Notice, however, that the building in the background is now very noticable and takes your attention off the car. Also notice that the car now has a phone pole growing out of it from the background. This is a very common problem, and happens with trees, road sign posts and other objects even in the best of photo locations. But it can be fixed.

 

 

Here's the fix for making the background less distracting—lower the camera even further, and get an ant's-eye view of the machine.

 

 

Tilting the camera to one side also gives the photo a much more dramatic feeling. The tip here is to always angle the nose of the car up, because it looks like it's diving into the ground otherwise. Notice the front wheels, too: they're turned away from the camera, hiding the face of the wheel.

 

 

The tripod we use has a couple of bells and whistles: the camera mount pivots on three axis (up/down, side/side, tilt left/right), and the center pole comes out and can hang under the tripod, putting the camera right on the ground. Taking pictures like this is uncomfortable, but it makes the cars look larger than life. It also hides trees, etc. behind the car. Notice the phone pole circled behind the roof on the top shot of the car.

 

 

By moving the camera and tripod just a little bit to the side, the post is hidden.

 

 

This shot fully demonstrates the lower camera for drama and background clean up: There were three palm trees behind the car that looked as if they were growing out of it, and the only way to make them disappear was to put the camera on the ground. The f-stop for this shot was manually set at f-13 or f-16, and the camera determined the shutter speed.

[Ruts]

Bracketing

The final thing pros do is “bracket†their pictures. This means taking the picture at the shutter speed and f-stop the camera indicates for the proper exposure, and then moving either the f-stop or the shutter speed (not both) one setting lower and one setting higher than the camera's settings indicate for the exposure. Sometimes the lower or higher exposure than the one indicated is more desirable, because you can see some details better, or the color of the car is better.

 

If the f-stop is the critical element in the photo (getting the car in focus from end-to-end), bracket by adjusting the shutter speed. If the speed is important (trying to freeze a race car), adjust the f-stop.

 

This photo was taken 1/2 of a setting lower than the camera called for, meaning the film was exposed a little shorter amount of time. Notice that the car and pavement are very light, and that the details throughout the photo are lost. It's not bad, but it can be better.

 

 

This photo was taken at the exposure the camera's readings called for. The exposure is pretty good: the details on the car are stronger, but the background is still a little light, or “washed out.â€

 

 

This was taken 1/2 of a setting higher than the camera called for, meaning the film was exposed a little longer. The colors of the car are darker, and the background is stronger. Any darker, however, and some of the finer details would be too dark, and you couldn't see them. It's a fine line, but we'd probably use the darker exposure, which is different than the camera called for. That's why we bracket.