After some tips on Car photos [please]

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Morgan Lee
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Going to a TVR Meet on saturday and was after some tips on taking pics of cars not really done this before and just wanted a heads up or general tips on what to bring and how to attack it so to speak.

My gear is in my sig, mostly shoot sports and Portraits, my main concern is the fact they'll be really shiny.


Cheers.
 
To reduce the shiny reflections you really need a circular polariser. Other than that you just need to keep your focal length low and you'll be fine
 
To reduce the shiny reflections you really need a circular polariser. Other than that you just need to keep your focal length low and you'll be fine

Might have to pop to jessops for one of those on friday fingers crossed they have stock.
 
Which Meet?

A lot of the tvrs respond well to a really wide angle lens 3/4 shots. Or the Sagaris looks great shooting down from the front to emphasise the shape

Some examples:
medium.jpg
medium.jpg
medium.jpg


Then don't forget the lineup shots
medium.jpg

medium.jpg


I've a few more shots here http://www.pbase.com/byker28i/cars&page=all :D
Just experiment and have fun
 
Will ask the guy im going with cant remember the details other then theres about 15 TVRs so far and that we are going to a garage :).

I've got a 10-17mm Tokina fishey or should i be looking at something like a 10-20 Sigma?
 
as well as getting photos of the cars themselves, aim to get some to show the atmosphere of the meet :)

vary the angles and play around with different things. ask them to move their cars about so you can get some good shots as well
 
My first post, but guess you start somewhere. But a few tips ;

Whilst the wild forms of the TVR's will probably work better with wide angle lenses than most cars would, I would still treat them like other cars - go long ! Use your 70-200 and get back from the car. You will show off the beauty of the shapes much better - the Griffith for example is a sleek car, and very simple and clean - you can see in the sample shots above that a longer lens will suit the forms better. Stand back, and zoom in, reduce that perspective. There is enough going on with the body work without having to distort it more it with a wide angle lens. Going low always helps, but not too low - try to still be high enough to see the tops of both doors in your shots. And if you get a chance to go very high, TVR's work quite nicely in more plan view.

Look at some images of the TVR's on the net (press shots).

I always thought this original shot was fab.

http://www.bluechipcars.co.uk/tvr-griffith.asp

It accentuates the width nicely, and avoids the droopy nose that you get on more side views like

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6066248.stm (click throught to David Harvey's Griffith shot)

And that goes for most TVRs, the more 'front' front three quarter work better than more 'side' front three quarters - if that makes sense.

And as others have said before on this forum, if you can turn the front wheels slightly so the face of the alloy becomes less elliptical from your viewpoint that always helps.

I would only get out the wide angle for more abstract close up detail shots.

Hope this helps and just have lots of fun.
 
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