Need advise on shooting Hotrod.

shaylou

shaylou

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Shayne
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Hello everyone,
One of my racing buddies has just about finished a 6 year project and wants me to do a photo shoot of his truck. I am not an armature in photography but I have never done a serious auto shoot before either. This truck will end up in magazines (it's that nice) and my shoots could be the ones used if I do this correctly. I guess I need advise on two subjects here. One, advise on how to do a photo shoot on a automobile, and two how to position myself to get my shots used in the magazines. Here are a couple of shots I took yesterday. He just showed up so of course a grabbed my camera. Please don't think these shots are by any means shots that I would use. I had trouble uploading them so I had to stick them on my flicker page to give you an idea of what I would be shooting.

16751479347_4d3b9ae0b3_s.jpg
455A1683[/url] by Pro Shot Image, on Flickr[/IMG]
16771417200_22175ef586_s.jpg
455A1646[/url] by Pro Shot Image, on Flickr[/IMG] Sorry the shots didn't open automatically,I don't know what I am doing wrong. I had someone work/ mess up my lightroom yesterday. If you open the page the truck is the first two shots. Again, sorry for the trouble and thank you for the help.

Mod edit: correct links to picture added...

455A1683 by Pro Shot Image, on Flickr

455A1646 by Pro Shot Image, on Flickr
 
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fstoppers on youtube had a couple of tutorials on car ones. and that looks lush :D
 
Neither is really an auto shoot type shot they are more snaps. In the first one the background is too distracting and to be honest anybody with your camera could simply have sat on the driveway and taken that image. The second shot is technically poor. The shadow spoils the image which is not lit very well at all plus again the image's background is too busy and distracting and the angle has not been thought out very well.

What you need to do is make sure that the lighting accentuates the car. You also need to find a background which makes the image as a whole more interesting (or a blank background). The angle you take the shot needs to be flattering - the head on shot is not flattering from that height and misses a lot of details which would have helped. Experiment with angles and height even to the point of having a step ladder with you to get high shots. Giving an angled shot from a height would show the bonnet and intake whilst catching the entire car but make sure you are not blocking the light because your shadow in the image is going to spoil it. Look at pictures in car magazines and see how they do it because if someone is going to pay you to use your images or use them in a publication they are only going to do that if they fit in with THAT publication. What might be good in "Kit car builders magazine" isn't going to work in "Fire spitting ford mustang magazine"..... i.e. know you audience.

Sorry if this isn't what you want to hear but if you want to improve you need to take it on the chin.

Go to Google and just type "hot rod" into the search and click "images"....... You'll see what I am saying.
 
cowasaki said:
Neither is really an auto shoot type shot they are more snaps. In the first one the background is too distracting and to be honest anybody with your camera could simply have sat on the driveway and taken that image. The second shot is technically poor. The shadow spoils the image which is not lit very well at all plus again the image's background is too busy and distracting and the angle has not been thought out very well.

What you need to do is make sure that the lighting accentuates the car. You also need to find a background which makes the image as a whole more interesting (or a blank background). The angle you take the shot needs to be flattering - the head on shot is not flattering from that height and misses a lot of details which would have helped. Experiment with angles and height even to the point of having a step ladder with you to get high shots. Giving an angled shot from a height would show the bonnet and intake whilst catching the entire car but make sure you are not blocking the light because your shadow in the image is going to spoil it. Look at pictures in car magazines and see how they do it because if someone is going to pay you to use your images or use them in a publication they are only going to do that if they fit in with THAT publication. What might be good in "Kit car builders magazine" isn't going to work in "Fire spitting ford mustang magazine"..... i.e. know you audience.

Sorry if this isn't what you want to hear but if you want to improve you need to take it on the chin.

Go to Google and just type "hot rod" into the search and click "images"....... You'll see what I am saying.
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I wasn't looking for a cc on these pictures, they are just fast snaps I took and was showing you the car I will shoot. I even said said that in my post? :thinking: . I am looking for general suggestions from those who have experience doing automotive shoots.
 
you could get the truck in a underground carpark or the likes and at least 3 poss more speed lights around it and take some shots from a ladder and some lower angle shots ,or go urban and try find a back street with some wall art as a back drop
 
hoochy1 said:
you could get the truck in a underground carpark or the likes and at least 3 poss more speed lights around it and take some shots from a ladder and some lower angle shots ,or go urban and try find a back street with some wall art as a back drop
Click to expand...

All great ideas. I thought about the latter and I always get low to the ground to see what I can come up with but the wall art idea is great. I will be documenting the truck as much as getting shots of it. The truck is custom built from the ground up. If you like drag racing under the truck is as impressive as the rest. So I will need to document every inch of it. I could use some gel flash under the truck too.
 
i would do some urban shots of it and as said with some sort of wall art back drop with a sort of urban warrior theme going on pref when the light is dropping and get a few showing the stance of the truck and a super low shot of the rear as it looks like its got 10-15 inch wide alloys
 
shaylou said:
I wasn't looking for a cc on these pictures, they are just fast snaps I took and was showing you the car I will shoot. I even said said that in my post? :thinking: . I am looking for general suggestions from those who have experience doing automotive shoots.
Click to expand...

Why post them then? The suggestions are there in my post.
 
moved to "talk motorsport and transport" to save any further unwanted critique on the shots...

for reference however, any picture posted in a critique area IS fair game and likely to receive feedback. Please consider this when choosing where to post in future.
 
TheBigYin said:
moved to "talk motorsport and transport" to save any further unwanted critique on the shots...

for reference however, any picture posted in a critique area IS fair game and likely to receive feedback. Please consider this when choosing where to post in future.
Click to expand...

Did I post this in the cc forum? I'm really sorry if I did, i didn't meant to do that at all.
 
shaylou said:
Sorry for the confusion. I didn't mean to post this in the cc section. I thought it was odd that you gave me a cc lol. Sorry about that.
Click to expand...

No problem at all but giving you critique about those images was a good way to show what you need to be aiming at. A lot of the most commercial car shots involve plenty of post production BUT you need to get the shot in order to make it better with the post production.
 
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