Do cars have to be clean?

ancient_mariner

ancient_mariner

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Toni
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There's a spot near our home where I park occasionally to pursue another photo project, and a couple of times I've come back to find that I like the way the car looks in the landscape. While I appreciate that often cars should look shiney in photos, both our cars are working vehicles that live in the country and are frequently covered in the country too. C&C welcome.

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I must admit to loving my car looking clean and shiny, particularly with a little bit of soft light playing over its curves (it's black so always looks nice clean)

Having said that I don't mind when mine gets "proper dirty" :eek: with mud and grime all over and just the Windows/lights and plates clean :D


I like your first one where the Beetle's frost mirrors the landscape. Likewise, the 3rd, as Edward mentions, has lovely light. The second is nice but sits out of the theme for me as it looks too bright and clean !!
 
If the car is the star, it has to be clean, the picture car has to be immaculate, totally pristine.
If it isn't, if the picture is documentary, occupational, environmental, just for fun or whatever, clean isn't really relevant..:)
 
I think it depends, sometimes for example, a land rover in a field, or a rally car on a dirt track, both imo would look nice clean but also seemingly out of place.
 
If it's a 'product-type' shot as in front of a showroom or featured with lighting etc then yes it has to be clean ... spotless in fact, but not in images like these which just show ordinary everyday vehicles in a rural setting. #1 doesn't work for me as the car is too close to the bottom left corner but #2 & #3 work fine, with #3 being my preference :)
 
YES!

I hate my car looking dirty, even when the weather is bad and I've covered a lot of miles. The Countryman looks good, never been a "bug" lover myself, new or old....
 
It's an interesting location, full of posibilities
First one looks battered. Not sure if thats the processing or the lack of a polariser or the dirt. Like the composition, how the lane lends the eye to look around the scene and not just at the car, but if a car shot then the car should be the star, yet I find my eye wandering.
The second is better, car dominates more of the image but it needs light (reflector?) on the nearside and again possibly a polariser, or use the reflections to portray something like the branches in the window. Good colours
Third has the branches top right distracting, car is dark, lost in the image, sunset not really showing. Needed the car lighting, probaby car lights on also.

So a car should be shown clean - like a brochure shot, unless it's an off road splashing through mud to show it's toughness and capabilities
 
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Sorry to have left replying so long.

EdwardL said:
Those are clean!!

Not sure if you're hoping for photographic comments but the light in the second one is pleasing.

For "country" cars they're still clean!

I did a spot of graffiti on a friend's car a few years ago: "Plough me" :D
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My fave like this is "Don't wash - plough and plant". Photographic comments welcome, and yes, I liked the light in number 2 (I liked the light in all 3, but the others aren't attractive in the same way).


Buck said:
I must admit to loving my car looking clean and shiny, particularly with a little bit of soft light playing over its curves (it's black so always looks nice clean)

Having said that I don't mind when mine gets "proper dirty" :eek: with mud and grime all over and just the Windows/lights and plates clean :D


I like your first one where the Beetle's frost mirrors the landscape. Likewise, the 3rd, as Edward mentions, has lovely light. The second is nice but sits out of the theme for me as it looks too bright and clean !!
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Thanks Adrian. Number 2 is a little different, with golden light and a car that was washed a week before. :p


joxby said:
If the car is the star, it has to be clean, the picture car has to be immaculate, totally pristine.
If it isn't, if the picture is documentary, occupational, environmental, just for fun or whatever, clean isn't really relevant..:)
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Maybe this is documentary/occupational. I like it when the car is shiny, but that lasts just a few minutes into the first drive. I almost wish car adverts would show what a car looks like after 4 weeks driving round country lanes, so you'd know which vehicles looked good in their normal condition and which looked bad. It would be good to see ads with dirty cars as the star.
 
ejm said:
I think it depends, sometimes for example, a land rover in a field, or a rally car on a dirt track, both imo would look nice clean but also seemingly out of place.
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It always seems odd to me that a 4WD vehicle is pictured at the top of a mountain with completely pristine paint.


gramps said:
If it's a 'product-type' shot as in front of a showroom or featured with lighting etc then yes it has to be clean ... spotless in fact, but not in images like these which just show ordinary everyday vehicles in a rural setting. #1 doesn't work for me as the car is too close to the bottom left corner but #2 & #3 work fine, with #3 being my preference :)
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Thanks Gramps. I think the composition with the beetle puts the landscape at a higher level of importance than the car. This was the first time I'd shot in this place, and although I liked what I saw, it wasn't as closely focussed on the car as it might have been.


Jelster said:
YES!

I hate my car looking dirty, even when the weather is bad and I've covered a lot of miles. The Countryman looks good, never been a "bug" lover myself, new or old....
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It's curious: when I had a pug 307 I'd dislike it looking dirty, but the countryman seems to carry it off well. As for the beetle, this isn't terribly flattering with it all covered in frost, but with the colour scheme (metallic green body & khaki hood) it looks quite military at times.


Byker28i said:
It's an interesting location, full of posibilities
First one looks battered. Not sure if thats the processing or the lack of a polariser or the dirt. Like the composition, how the lane lends the eye to look around the scene and not just at the car, but if a car shot then the car should be the star, yet I find my eye wandering.
The second is better, car dominates more of the image but it needs light (reflector?) on the nearside and again possibly a polariser, or use the reflections to portray something like the branches in the window. Good colours
Third has the branches top right distracting, car is dark, lost in the image, sunset not really showing. Needed the car lighting, probaby car lights on also.

So a car should be shown clean - like a brochure shot, unless it's an off road splashing through mud to show it's toughness and capabilities
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Thanks for taking the time to CC - really appreciate that. These are the first car shots that I've done intentionally, and can see it's a craft that could be developed. I may try a re-tweak of number 3, and will also try a polariser when there's a next time.

:)
 
don't post these on DW they will all have a fit :)
 
So long as the car is clean on the inside, I would not worry too much about the outside of the car :)

Got a lot of photos of our car, it is a lovely dark blue and it photographs well as the dirt does not show up. I had a bright red car that was very hard to photograph, it always came out a horrible luminous red.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
There's a spot near our home where I park occasionally to pursue another photo project, and a couple of times I've come back to find that I like the way the car looks in the landscape. While I appreciate that often cars should look shiney in photos, both our cars are working vehicles that live in the country and are frequently covered in the country too. C&C welcome.

Clean%20cars--0630_zpspchntpel.jpg~original
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...another bug shot :rolleyes:

:coat:
 
Unless it's a vehicle that is supposed to get dirty i.e. a 4X4 splashing through a river or mud then I think it should be clean.
 
Some paint colours are worse than others, my wife's car is metallic silver-grey and can look clean for ages, mine is metallic black & looks dirty within a day of cleaning it. I had a dark blue Disco II & an ex-military Land Rover air-portable, they both looked much better dirty , especially off tarmac.
 
That's too clean ... showing up all the grotty ones in the reflection lol :)

Very smart colour scheme and wheels. Doesn't look like that's a normal "off the peg" model.
 
EdwardL said:
That's too clean ... showing up all the grotty ones in the reflection lol :)

Very smart colour scheme and wheels. Doesn't look like that's a normal "off the peg" model.
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There are no 'off the peg' minis - every one is made to order.
 
EdwardL said:
That's too clean ... showing up all the grotty ones in the reflection lol :)

Very smart colour scheme and wheels. Doesn't look like that's a normal "off the peg" model.
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John Cooper Works Special by the look of it ;) very tasty :D
 
EdwardL said:
That's too clean ... showing up all the grotty ones in the reflection lol :)

Very smart colour scheme and wheels. Doesn't look like that's a normal "off the peg" model.
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You sussed me, it was the day after I picked it up and the detailers had been :)

It is in fact a "stock" JCW, just with about every extra. It was destined for the showroom but I rescued it before it it met its fate, so it could be driven like the sporty little number it is. 230bhp in a roller skate. Almost as much fun as a bike, and it sounds just as good.
 
FWIW the boy (over in the guzzi thread - since several posters here have been there as well) was building minis at Cowley in 2014 on the production line to earn money for travel. Each one required a specific set of parts, and each one was unique to that particular order.

230bhp in a roller skate. Almost as much fun as a bike, and it sounds just as good.
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Love the mini handling - though I describe it as being like a go-kart, but roller skate is close too.
 
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James May did a live program following a mini down the production line there recently called "Build a car live."
I used to work there when they made Maxis, Marinas and Princesses. How the mighty have fallen!
 
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Maxis - the mighty?!!! My father's worst car he ever had - and he'd had a VW Beetle and Hillman Imp. In fairness, that Rover 3500 (SDI?) from the same factory a few years later was one of his favourites. Sir Michael Edwardes ... British Leyland ... golly, those were the days with Brian Redhead on Radio 4

Sorry, Toni - well off topic!
 
Not at all Edward - quite locally appropriate really. I did try an Ambassador (tweaked Princess) nearly 25 years ago, but it wasn't a winner (4 low gears was really dumb).
 
Did a factory tour a couple of weeks ago, really interesting place.
 
I wanted to rework that 3rd picture, turn the lights on and increase separation between the car and background a little, plus bump the sunset.

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