Getting decent photos at static car shows

srichards

srichards

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Suz
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I'd love to know how to do this. I was at Tatton earlier today and I'm not happy with many of them. Either there's some herbert with their limbs in the way or I've bogged up the framing due to rushing to get a shot before some herbert and their limbs get in the way.

What sort of method is best? Longer zoom? Wider angle but in quite close. Sticking with detail shots which exclude sky and limbs? Crop tighter and cut off tops of car to fill the frame more? I half heartedly did that but it doesn't seem natural. I also struggled where you cut off as there seems to be a grey area between an obvious deliberately cut it off and a messed it up kind of cut off. How you decide which is which or is it just a matter of taste?

I used my 18-55 kit lens which had never been out of the box. The wide bit was wide enough but felt I could have done with a bit more zoom to try and take long shots and isolate some of the cars better.

Rushed this, chopped his hat off and the top of the car!


DSC01143 by srichgtr, on Flickr

Framed all wrong. Chopped bits off, pole in the way.


DSC01213 by srichgtr, on Flickr

Some of the group shots seemed to have worked but single car shots seem to end up with bits of other cars or bits of people where you don't want them.

This is the only one I'm generally happy with:


DSC01194 by srichgtr, on Flickr
 
its good work but i feel your pain. sometimes you just have to wait until people bugger off. Also try shooting a little lower .... car level. When low down you can hide people behind the car.

in the first shot you could have come level with the headlights then move to your right and matey boy in chair would go behind rear left quater ...... or most of him would. Knock his hat off first :)
 
I didn't think about getting lower. So obvious when you think about it! Was rather a lot of sheep poo around though...

I'm waiting for the photoshop plugin with automatic people removal :)
 
Get used to kneeling in stuff. A pair of army pants with knee pads. Has the added effect of keeping people away from you and your shots *** of the smell.

I used to ask people if they would'nt mind moving out of the way but I just spent all my time asking. One would move to be replaced by another.

In the end you will notice people come and go in waves. Get two people looking and more will join to see whats up.

Two walk away and the others think it must be boring. Get into human nature and it will help get better shots.

There are exceptions ... in which case .... you stab them ..... bump body behind a bush and got your picture. Works for me :)

Here are a few 'down low' shots. Good if you also have a moody sky:

http://jalbum.net/en/browse/user/album/938160/

Good luck and share your next attempts please

T
 
I shall also try portrait orientation more as when low down that should exclude more of the distractions.

Suffering for art is all very well but kneeling in poo is beyond the pale :)
 
Stop rushing and look at the shot you're taking, particularly things that aren't the main subject of the photo.

Re: Getting lower.
It's generally a good idea when photographing something/someone that you should be at eye level (or the equivalent of eye level for whatever you're photographing) unless you're trying to make them look smaller or larger than they are, around headlight height is usually a good place to start for cars.
 
My biggest bugbear is other photographers, they see you lining up a shot and then walk straight across the frame or worse still, as one guy kept doing yesterday at Appleby, see you ready to take your shot and then position themselves directly in front of you to take the same...:bat:
 
Tatton isn't the best to photograph as they always insist on putting ropes, poles and other guff in the way and sometimes there just isn't an angle that doesn't have something in the way. It's also quite hard to resist rushing when there are often only small windows of opportunity for a people free shot.

I think there is an advantage to being able to work quickly and get the clutter free shot. I haven't learnt quite how to do it yet.
 
I'm am probably a pain to walk round a show with as I'll often wait some time to hope that a particular person might move. It could even be someone in the background as floating heads just behind the car you are photographing can be equally as annoying as someone in front of it.

Sometimes people can add to a shot though. This lady was getting something out of the car so I was waiting/hoping for her to move away. She hadn't noticed me and came round the front and leant against it. I was about to give up when she looked straight at me (and was most apologetic!) I think in this case she made the shot for me, especially as it was spontaneous.

Croxleygreen_009.jpg


Using a long lens can also give good results as you can capture people and their cars while they are totally oblivious to you. Or of you can crank the aperture wide you can isolate one car in focus with a nice blurry "car show activity" background.

"Show boards" are an annoyance and I also personally try not to take photos of cars wearing boring minilights :bonk:
 
I generally use my wide lens (Sigma 15-30mm) and as mentioned try to get down low.
I have noticed at the shows I go to (mostly VW stuff) whenever someone see's me crouched down ready to take a shot they pause and wait til Im done before they pass the car. I always give them a quick thanks afterwards.
I suppose it helps if you are close to the car and people can see you are trying to take a shot.
 
I have done a couple of days like this , id recommend always chatting to the owners as they often can tell you lots of interesting things about the car ' oh this one has the bla bla that nothing else has ' and you can get some really good close ups , ask them if they have any good pictures of the car as they can normally sugest its ' best angle ' Also bide your time , wait for people to move - or even ask for people to move, they normally dont mind :)
 
Get level with the car, you can hide people in the background that way. Portrait always helps cut out people too
 
It's Trentham car show at the weekend so if it isn't piddling then I'll try and give it a go and see how I get on. Will try and force myself into turning the camera into portrait mode as I never do. Stupid really!

Hopefully the sound of my scrunchy knees will make people move away :)
 
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