Photography Your Best Automotive Photography

[cawimmer430]

 

[GBOY]

25 second exposure at around f14.

Great photo .. FUGLY car. Looks like a PT cruiser clone with a BMW emblem on it.

 

[cawimmer430]

great photo .. Fugly car. Looks like a pt cruiser clone with a bmw emblem on it.

LOL

I think the BMW guys are going to give you a hard time from now on!

 

[cawimmer430]

The only thing done to this photo was a motion blur editing done to the background to create the illusion that this Porsche 997 Turbo driver was a maniac and speeding in the city.

 

[NevadaJack]

The only thing done to this photo was a motion blur editing done to the background to create the illusion that this Porsche 997 Turbo driver was a maniac and speeding in the city.

Love it!!!!

 

[GBOY]

LOL

I think the BMW guys are going to give you a hard time from now on!

i know ... i hate when people do that but from some angles, the are truly unpretty... Right?

 

[cawimmer430]

i know ... i hate when people do that but from some angles, the are truly unpretty... Right?

The 1-Series looks pretty good in real life. Maybe the car will look better to you if it has its summer tires and light alloy rims on it. Some cars do look akward from certain angles and I think this might be the case here, especially with the wheels angled this extreme.

 

[ree]

Some shots I took today:









and my favourite one:

 

[ree]

Some shots, I really like…:



Love to focus thinks with the B&W/colour theme, that was not focused with the lens…:

 

[Beemer B773ER]

The only thing done to this photo was a motion blur editing done to the background to create the illusion that this Porsche 997 Turbo driver was a maniac and speeding in the city.

Looks pretty good Chris! I like adding this effect to photos I take at this side-on angle, but the only extra thing I do is select the outline of the wheels (including the rims) and give it a Radiall Blur so that it gives it a true look of moving in fast motion.

Here's an exmaple I did mid-last year where I gave the background a Motion Blur effect, and the wheels a Radial Blur effect. The photo was taken at a motorshow, the car was completely static, but the end effect really gives a sense of speed and motion.

BUT... then again, there are instances where not giving the wheels that Radial Blur also works very well. Another example from over a year ago.

Another effect I use every now and then for automotive photos is the Zoom Blur to give the effect that the car is zooming away from you (or zooming towards you if you get a good head-on shot). Here's one I did of a Buick Rendezvous photo I took at a stop light. The original photo is completely amateur and uninteresting..but a little cropping, selective colouring, increased constrast and the Zoom Blur effect gave this end result.

 

[Beemer B773ER]

Some shots, I really like…:

Ree, I love the creative approach to framing the photo! Very nice touch!

The photo itself looks good as well, and the only thing I'd suggest is trying to fill more of the frame as they say. But I know you took those photos a while back because you've definitely got better at packing more focus and detail in the photo with that new series of photos you took at the BMW and MB dealer. I love the dark blue saturation effect you've added to the BMW photos.




A tad off topic...but I was thinking.... I know this isn't a photography forum (well GCF isn't, but Curbzone.com could use this idea), maybe we could have a Photography Critique/Tips/Improvement Ideas section so that we ALL can post a photo or two that we've taken and get the response from fellow members (regardless of whether they're interested in photography or not) so that we ALL can improve our photography and feel comfortable receiving constructive criticism/tips from each other since we are all friends who share a common passion/hobby. I know there are many specialty photography forums which have constructive criticism sections, but sometimes they can be TOO technical since they are dedicated photography forums. It's great the level of friendship, encouragement and interaction that we have in our community here, so why not harness all that to better all of our photography skills. What do you guys think?

 

[ree]

A tad off topic...but I was thinking.... I know this isn't a photography forum (well GCF isn't, but Curbzone.com could use this idea), maybe we could have a Photography Critique/Tips/Improvement Ideas section so that we ALL can post a photo or two that we've taken and get the response from fellow members (regardless of whether they're interested in photography or not) so that we ALL can improve our photography and feel comfortable receiving constructive criticism/tips from each other since we are all friends who share a common passion/hobby. I know there are many specialty photography forums which have constructive criticism sections, but sometimes they can be TOO technical since they are dedicated photography forums. It's great the level of friendship, encouragement and interaction that we have in our community here, so why not harness all that to better all of our photography skills. What do you guys think?

In my opinion, that's a great idea!! We have many talented photographer! And probably it's nice to share tips/ideas and "beginner" technics!!

Awesome photos by the way beemer!! Looks fabulous, especially the last one!

 

[NevadaJack]

Another effect I use every now and then for automotive photos is the Zoom Blur to give the effect that the car is zooming away from you (or zooming towards you if you get a good head-on shot). Here's one I did of a Buick Rendezvous photo I took at a stop light. The original photo is completely amateur and uninteresting..but a little cropping, selective colouring, increased constrast and the Zoom Blur effect gave this end result.

Here is one I did of the SL with the zoom blur... I did not get the blend just right

View attachment dc800f58fb3ad7a73eb461d42ce7b5f6.jpg

Another using blur zoom...

 

[Itzkirb]

 

[Beemer B773ER]

Just curious ItzKirb, how often do you use a ladder in your work...and apart from camera-specific accessories, what other tools or accessories do you use in your photography (eg: a ladder? what sort of lens filters? any special accessories to take down-to-the-ground photos? etc...)

 

[Itzkirb]

Just curious ItzKirb, how often do you use a ladder in your work...and apart from camera-specific accessories, what other tools or accessories do you use in your photography (eg: a ladder? what sort of lens filters? any special accessories to take down-to-the-ground photos? etc...)

I only bring my camera, lenses and tripod (sometimes) to shoots. No ladders or lens filters. I had a lens filter but shattered it when I dropped my camera.

The ground shots I'm usually just on the ground shooting.

 

[Beemer B773ER]

Here is one I did of the SL with the zoom blur... I did not get the blend just right

View attachment dc800f58fb3ad7a73eb461d42ce7b5f6.jpg

Another using blur zoom...

Good work there Jack, it adds something more to the photo.

One thing I found with using Zoom Blur (as opposed to Motion Blur) is that the effect works much better when the car is taken in motion. It's a tricky thing to do, and apart from that Buick Rendezvous photo I haven't really used the Zoom Blur effect to any proper success. What you could do with your SL photos is position the car to where it looks like it's in motion even if the car is completely static. A simple example might be to turn the wheels so it seems as though the car is going through a turn....and also, shooting at a lower angle so it really feels as though the car is zooming towards you from the horizon line might make the Zoom Blur effect more successful.

Another small note which I learnt through trial and error about Zoom Blur is to NOT select the entire outline of the car and then apply the Zoom Blur effect. This is what you would do if using Motion Blur, but it doesn't really look good with Zoom Blur because it makes it too obvious that a simple Photoshop effect was used. If you have a look at proper panning photos of cars in motion, as well as my Buick Rendezvous photo, you can see that a good part of the car is actually blurred too. It's unrealistic to expect the entire car to be in focus and only the background and foreground to be blurred when you're doing panning shots..so it's important to try and make any Photoshop blur effects realistic. With your second SL photo, I'd select the outline of the car, but then deselect the area from the back wheel to the rear of the car. This way it'll give the look that the tail end of the car is also caught in the blur effect. This also will give added focus and detail to the front of the car.

Problem with photography is... there are just SOOOOOOOO many different techniques, tools, tricks, ideas to try... HDR, different filters, macro, wide-angle, portrait, flash and so on... AND THEN there's a billion effects you can create in Photoshop. Takes so much time even if you had a tonne of passion and energy.

 

[VroomVroom]

I only bring my camera, lenses and tripod (sometimes) to shoots. No ladders or lens filters. I had a lens filter but shattered it when I dropped my camera.

The ground shots I'm usually just on the ground shooting.

Amazing pictures

I love lime green Lp640s

 

[Itzkirb]

Since you guys are on the topic of zoom blur...I use it lightly in my motions shots sometimes...Some cars are traveling as slow as 15mph. Fastest one in the set is 55mph.

can you guess which 2 below are using zoom blur?

 

[Beemer B773ER]

My guess would be the Lime Lambo and the AC Schnitzer 6er.

Sweet motion shots Itz!!