Car pictures

[Flykilla]

Evening folks,

I am trying my hand at car photography and was hoping for some feedback on some photos, please. The shots of the cobra were taken on my D3300 and the Jag photos on my D750. I didn't realise how good the d3300 was until I got the D750. I assumed that the D750 would somehow transform my photos =). Anyway, all of the photos needed cropping as I still haven't mastered framing. I also had to do some serious photshopping on them to remove traffic cones, me and other stuff.

On some of them, I have also tried changing exposure and sky colours.

Sometimes I think less is more.

Am I on the right track or are there any rookie mistakes I need to be aware of? All feedback apreciated.

Thanks Brad.

 

[sep9001]

Sorry no expert but from the above I believe the composition for 1,2 and 4 works well.

On 1 and 4 as the car is the main subject highlighting them I believe would make it look better. In 2 and 4 as the sky is so bright my eyes seem to go there. Try pulling the shadow on the one d750 one and see what they look like.

Thank you

 

[woof woof]

Lovely pictures Brad. My favourite is No.1.

Would it be possible for you to retain more sky detail? There's banding in the sky in the first on my screen but that could be due to the resizing and posting process?

Cropping or not the end pictures all look to be well framed. Well done

 

[sep9001]

I know these are night shots, but as per no2 is what I am try to say in terms of highlighting the car.

Porsche in Sunderland

A night shoot with my car and a couple of lads taking rolling shots. These are my static photos. Im still waiting for the rollers. JAY_3638 by jason greenwood, on Flickr JAY_3651 by jason greenwood, on Flickr JAY_3714 by jason greenwood, on Flickr

www.talkphotography.co.uk

 

[Craikeybaby]

You can't be doing too bad when your main rookie mistake is posting in the motorsport instead of transport forum.

Being backlit is tricky, on the first Cobra the car looks too dark, but the sky is about right, but on the second (and the second Jaguar image) the sky is to bright but the car looks better. You could try multiple exposures, or some magic in Photoshop to even out the exposure.

Usually on front 3/4 shot, like you have done, the front wheels would be turned into the corner, to show the face of the wheel, rather than the tyre treads. And as you have probably realised, picking a clean background/positioning the car to hide obstructions/physically moving things out the scene is often easier than removing them in Photoshop. But these are minor points.

 

[woof woof]

I suppose one way to avoid sky issues could be to if possible photograph the cars in a different location with a more forgiving dynamic range. Maybe with the car in front of a building or trees.

 

[gman]

As Craikeybaby mentioned, a multiple exposure should definitely help and give you more dynamic range to play with and deal with the shadows, whilst retaining the detail in the brighter sky. Bring a static subject makes this ideal. I think you've mentioned that you've started to play with HDR, so it sounds like you are already on it. It's easy to push it too far and lose an authentic look. Unless you can introduce lighting, but that's a whole new world of photography to master!

I believe you have the latest PS and LR subscription so you should have access to the PS AI beta, which is very powerful. Using the object selection tool you should be able to quickly clean up any clutter if such an environment is unavoidable.

If this is a first attempt then they are very good indeed, especially the first one.

 

[Flykilla]

Thanks for the positive comments guys..

Great comments regarding the sky. Really, I should have taken the photos facing away from the sky, but 1 - facing the other way the background / scenery is not quite as good, 2 - I liked the colour of the sky. Taking multiple shots at different exposures is a great idea.

So apart from the exposure, having to remove objects in PS, not having the wheels facing the right direction and highlighting the cars.. The key takeaway is to post in the correct section.. Got it..

Thanks again.

Brad

Below, for a laugh, is the original for picture 3 .... It was actually taken by the owner of the Jag and I really liked the way the car was facing and colour of the paint...

 

[gman]

If the sky is washed out and the background isn't too noisy with things like branches, PS has an excellent sky replace feature and it will automatically find the sky and give you options to replace it with some AI generated ones.

Often it can look near flawless and whilst it is always better to get the sky right in the shot due to reflections, colour temperature across the whole scene etc, if it can save what would otherwise be a perfect photo then it's a tool I would consider.

 

[woof woof]

Hmmm.

I'm not a big fan of sky replacement but one thing I've been doing recently with the updates to PS2023 is selecting and processing different areas of the picture separately. So far it seems very good at selecting the sky, subject and background. Other packages may have similar features and abilities.

BTW. Back in my film and Canon DSLR days I struggled with car pictures and the answer was to change location... and/or shoot with trees as the background.