How To Take 'good' Photos Of Your Car - If You Really Care That Is.  

i want to take a pic of my ute under a bridge at night under like blue neons do u think it will look shit or what

28th November 2005 - 02:40 AM  Reply  Quote

I have that speed magazine!!! lol
I Love my photography but i need a new camera. i want a D-SLR but just can't afford one right now. so the old kodak 4.1mp will have to do...

My Car (not the greatest, but it'll do):

My good photography (i love this one):

28th November 2005 - 03:56 AM  Reply  Quote

i dont like the low angle that much. it leaves out the top half of the car. they have their place in the art world, but for seeing a car as a whole the low angle doesn't do it for me.

28th November 2005 - 04:44 AM  Reply  Quote

my baby

4th January 2006 - 03:12 PM  Reply  Quote

good tips

5th January 2006 - 01:27 AM  Reply  Quote

i forget some times and have my shadow all over the car but other than that im alrite

5th January 2006 - 03:47 AM  Reply  Quote

Man those tips rock i wouldnt have thaught of half of them things i will give it a go

Add Me:[email protected]

4th February 2006 - 03:59 AM  Reply  Quote

Whoops, you can see my reflection, and the dust on my lens! haha

EDIT: Typos FTL

7th February 2006 - 02:16 AM  Reply  Quote

Nice photo, pity about the subject matter

7th February 2006 - 02:33 AM  Reply  Quote

There are the main rules (rule of thirds, correct exposure, road car on road, off-road car on grass, if it's moving, give it room to move into) etc etc, but these rules aren't laws. you won't get locked up or riddled with guilt if you break them. In fact, it could benefit you if you did break the rules.

Basically, these rules were made as eye openners..
let me elaborate;
when you take a photo, it MUST please the eyes, if not, it's just not a good photo, simply put.
If you're constantly taking photos with your finger infront of the lens, with vertical horizons, really bad composition, in bright sunlight , over exposed, and without a true subject to attract the eyes - You'll never get anywhere, and you'll never sell shots, or please people, or get credit where credit is due.
There for, a set of rules were made (long before any of our time), the main rule made was the "Rule Of Thirds"

So, lets look at that for a moment.

The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. Proponents of this technique claim that aligning a photograph with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would.

Meaning, draw imaginary lines in your mind to cut up the frame (through the viewfinder) to divide it into 3 (each way, making 9 squares)
where these lines meet each other, is where you want the interesting points, or the subject.
You can have it in the lower left, lower right, upper left, upper right. just leave it away from the far edge of the photo, or dead center.
It makes the image more pleasing for the viewer, by either causing the eyes to be drawn toward the subject, then away to another point which you've purposely framed, or tells the person what to look at, or stops the irritating problem of having a tiny subject surrounded by nothingness.

the rule is derived from an ancient greek mathematical expression "golden mean" (divine proportion, golden section, golden ratio).
Greek philosophers considered the Golden Mean to be the middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency.
(ie; your subject, and the rest of the space filling the frame)

the rule of thirds is a very very rough branch-off of the Golden Mean, which has taken a huge battering over the decades, some will tell you the rule of thirds is only existent in landscape photography and to have the sky, sun/horizon, and foreground - which is almost as subtle to be labelled a false definition.

once you've learnt this rule and used it, you'll be keen as mustard to break the rule. thats a good thing..
in modern day photography, the rule of thirds is just a guideline to make you think about how photos are looked at, so you start to learn which photos please the eye, and why.

Some of you will be thinking "no one thinks that much when they look at a photo, it's just the subject that counts" - well, you'd be suprised, having a well composed photo subconciously makes people look at it properly, and let their eyes follow the lines to where the photog wanted you to look.
(which is also achievable without the rule of thirds, but generally it works alot better.)

It's... the causing an unbalance of differences to create balance.



I think that was more than a moment, lets move on, haha.

Road Cars on Grass/Gravel/etc.

this one should be easy enough for you to figure out.
when someone is looking at a photo of a car, generally you want to put the subject where it belongs..

think about it, unless it's abstract, would you photograph an LCD monitor on a sandy beach, or on an old oak desk with a black leather chair next to it?
the latter, exactly.

So why would you photography a road car, off-road?
It looks too fake, placed, and unrealistic, you want people to look at the car on the road it was built to drive. usually gives the car a tougher stance, and is alot more dominating.

The opposite applys for 4x4's with monster lift-kits. you don't want to photograph it at coles carpark, you want it perched up on a rock looking fierce as if it's about to take off and go bush bashing.


My hands are completely rooted, i can't type much more..
with the other rules you here, they're usually a guideline..
learn them, understand why they were made, then experiment with breaking them.

thats all for now, now go shoot stuff!

7th May 2006 - 02:10 PM  Reply  Quote

Here is one of my shots. Love the photo. But noone got out of the frame when i told them too. Was only playing round trying to get exposure setting rite when i forst got my camera. Its a 5.0MP Kodak DX7590.

Upgrading again shortly due to my camera being half farked from being dropped.



Also using the canver in the road to give it a tougher stance.

29th May 2006 - 07:45 AM  Reply  Quote

retouching the photo is the most important bits eg i have some kodak 2mpg camera and its crap but as long as u hold the shot still and know what ur doin in photoshop they come out not bad

29th May 2006 - 02:56 PM  Reply  Quote

also, carrying on where twist left off - the white balance is way off

it's partially because of australias oh-so-fun yellow tinged street lamps, and also because of the long exposure, temp, etc etc..

a half arsed way to do it (with a 300D/350D/20D etc, and hopefully with some others) without a set of grey cards - is to find a white car, or put 5 pieces of A4 paper (ontop of each other) on the ground next to the car, switch your lens to manual focus so it doesn't go beserk and try and focus up close (and also toget rid of any details) and blur the frame as much as possible, take the shot, and set that photo to custom white balance.

works a real treat, but it's definately not perfect, you'll find it may end up giving you a tinge of blue instead, or whatever.. but in my experience it's worked nicely.

another way, shoot in raw and adjust the temp when you convert it

31st May 2006 - 09:17 AM  Reply  Quote

to take a great photo you do not need a fancy camera, or an SLR camera, you need to know how to take a good looking photo, and these guidlines (or laws/rules whatever you want to call them) will help you understand why you look at photos from people like 'justdave' and say "damn thats a great photo" how many people can look at his photos and say WHY they like it (other than the subject matter) knowing things such as the rule of thirds blah blah blah helps!!

The reason I have a DSLR, is simply i did not like the quality i could get from even an 8mp point and shoot (even with manual modes) this is due to the size of the 'glass' or the internal bits in the lens, they are simply too small on a 'point n shoot'
I love being able to take a great photo and print it on A2 paper and have it look just as sharp as it would on A4 paper, or on my monitor...

i'll post some of my photos when i get home form work..

31st May 2006 - 10:54 PM  Reply  Quote

Ken Duncan, my favourite photographer has some words of wisdom for us - http://www.kenduncan.com/funandfree.php?ms=74&

1st June 2006 - 11:15 AM  Reply  Quote

Yeah.. i thought the yellow street light complimented the colours of the car in my shots? hence why i told him to go there to take the photos. But yeah i do see what you mean about the street light on top. Ahwell.. Got to start somewhere.

5th June 2006 - 08:12 AM  Reply  Quote

has given me a few ideas on takin some photos of the cressida. Thanks for the tips

10th July 2006 - 06:17 PM  Reply  Quote

I know this isn't the aim of the thread but seeing as everyone else is having a go, I wanted to post one of my images that I 'think' works really well, even though I've broken a couple of rules from this guide.

1. Car is on grass
2. Shadow across car

This image could have also used a contrast and saturation bump:

12th November 2006 - 07:57 PM  Reply  Quote

i was expirementing with photograph on my car earlier this year. here are some pics that i took. i took about 300+ photos & i only got about less then 40 that i was happy with, but i did gain confidence/knowledge with experimenting with angles, Shades & reflections.

with my phtography exprience all i have to say is have fun & experiment with your photos

P.S i didnt have a very good camera so the quality might not be that good & i had no prior experience or have taken photograph seriously b4.

26th December 2006 - 11:09 PM  Reply  Quote

Pic no 3 is a clasic example of what not to do. The car isnt fully in the frame, so the thing, what ever it is next to the car dominates the screen.

27th December 2006 - 02:45 AM  Reply  Quote

The last one isn't bad though, best out of the set...

28th December 2006 - 05:59 AM  Reply  Quote

Could have been better with a polariser and a few tweaks thou...

28th December 2006 - 11:01 PM  Reply  Quote

Last one is a good shot just needs better quality/camera

Bad location for the first few to much background stuff, Nice car.

28th December 2006 - 11:52 PM  Reply  Quote

my fulli sikk cars

29th December 2006 - 12:33 AM  Reply  Quote

First 2 pictures i've ever taken with a digital camera, way before I even seen this thread. (First time I seen it was now)
Both of my old VL on grass.




What do you guys think?, shall I continue to take uber cool photos.

EDIT: Having trouble resizing pictures at the moment.

18th April 2008 - 04:43 AM  Reply  Quote

I actually tried shooting on grass for the first time the other day. Ive had mixed comments on the photo. Tell me what you all think.




This shot is probably one of my favourties.

4th June 2008 - 06:52 AM  Reply  Quote

Love the Green rx7, but, remove the car and just focus on the tyres, the car looks abandoned.. Its an AWESOME SHOT but not complete if you know what i mean. Take the car to an industrial estate on a weekend. Take a shot on the middle of the road.

With the Rx3 i like the angle, the area etc, but even looking at the car my eye sees the orange pipes and wants to look at them, wih them removed, it would be flawless in my eyes

4th June 2008 - 03:26 PM  Reply  Quote

heres a few ones ive taken, just a shitty point and click Fujifilm, Park the car get a spot, and click.

not professional by any means, but was mainly to have some ok pics of my cars and mates cars, as i didnt have any/many.


would love to actually get a nice camera one day

4th June 2008 - 05:37 PM  Reply  Quote