Car Photography tech talk

[z34]

Some of my interior shots :

settings to get shots like these

ISO - 100 (less noise + drag slower shutter speed to overexposed details outside the car)
Aperture - F5.6 ~ F8 (get everything in the interior in focus and sharp)
Shutter speed - 1/10s ~ 1/50s (irest my hand on the seat so I can stabilize my camera to avoid shakes)

use of tripod + remote is highly recommended to avoid camera shake but thinking that it's someone's interior, I dont wanna face the risk of tearing or putting dirt in it so I rarely use tripod for these shots.

PP involved - contrast + exposure + erase all other elements outside the car that is visible through the window.

 

[Won]

Wow... I've been reading a lot; where have I been all this while?! Could have learnt so much from the gurus in here!

Personally, I find it easier to take some panning shots at night because it is easier to deal with the lighting. As I've read, the shutter speed is ideally set to between the ranges of 1/30 - 1/100; however, a lot of the time, you have to balance with the aperture and ISO and for me, there is usually a lot of over-exposure.

Here were some of my attempts at night:

These were shot handheld, whilst I was standing by the roadside just practicing, lol. I tried a few during the day, and they were all fail cases!

Thanks for z34 for the shots of the interior; I have no idea how to properly take some interior pics, and I will definitely be trying out some of his angles soon! :D

 

[Izso]

Eh.. the Cayenne shot is pretty neat. The light glare makes it pretty interesting but half the car is outta focus. How'd you do that? LOL

 

[TitanRev]

Bro, thats some nice night shot.....not much blur actually...good skill...

 

[HKS-GT2835R]

Here were some of my attempts at night:

These were shot handheld, whilst I was standing by the roadside just practicing, lol. I tried a few during the day, and they were all fail cases!

wah, u call that practice ar?

 

[Won]

Like Izso said; half the Cayenne was blurry, so it didn't really work completely lah. And yes, those were really my first few tries at panning. Decided it was much too hard, and really didn't try any harder. There was once that the result was a little better, but that was because I used a flash (that was on loan, lol):

My attempt in the day has been pretty poor:

Composition lacking, sharpness/clarity gone case, etc. Think if I want to pursue this, I need to sit down at a roundabout and get someone to drive in circles... any volunteers? :P

As for editing - I'll admit I suck at it. I use Lightroom, but I really want to explore how to use PS for its clone/healing tools, etc. And I need to work on a watermark of sorts... people have been stealing my pics like crazy! There was this one Facebook page that had almost ALL my pictures :/

 

[z34]

the logic behind panning is simple

you can get the whole car in focus. provided that the car is parallel to your focal plane

what is focal plane? focal plane basically is a line/or area in which everything that lies on it will be in focus. the focal plane will always be perpendicular to the sensor of your camera, hence perpendicular to your camera as well.

so in diagram above, where the car in position A, you can't (or difficult to) get the whole car in focus because only a part of the car lies on the focal plane of your camera. Those part will be in focus while the other will not

where the car is in position B, the car is parallel/lies on the focal plane of your camera hence the whole car can be in focus.

car in position C is the same as in position A.

so, in order for you to get the whole car to be in focus, you need to let the car be lies on your camera focal plane (or in other words, parallel to direction you are swinging).

note that this theory is not the same as rolling shots/tracking shots.

the gallardo pic by r3k4hstubb is rolling shots. not panning.

 

[anion]

wow...finally someone started a thread bout automotive photography. Thumbs up !! Sharing is caring...very nice to know u guys have so much to share...so Im just gonna lurk here and read...muahahahaha

very nice z34, absolutely love ur enthusiasm in automotive photography, showing people that its not always about the equipments that does the work.

Anyway just a few shares of my works...most of my work for zerotohundred.com is shown in the feature cars...

These were shot with 3 lights...

and my version of rolling shots :)

 

[TitanRev]

Anion, those rolling shots...are they rigged shots? How do you get them?

 

[anion]

TitanRev, yes those are rig shots :)

 

[wsukun]

Anion, recruiting any rookie like me?

 

[Gnes]

One of my personal projects.

 

[wsukun]

nice one Gnes!
Can we see more of your great pictures please?

 

[Izso]

Actually, I just had a thought. With the right editing and colours, this could look like the car coming out of warp speed.

 

[Gnes]

A few shots before bodykit added.