First car shoot

[Bob_Defly]

Hi all, I did my first car shoot the other day and was very pleased with how it went. It was an Alfa Romeo 147 GTA, which I hope you'll agree is a nice car! I haven't finished editing them all yet but pics below, constructive criticism welcome...











Hope you like them!

[flat-planedCrank]

Really nice shots


Loving number 3 and 5 especially.
5 is a corker Did you combine 2 exposures ?
(bit of sensor dust visible in the sky)


Number 1 is my least favourite of the set, imo there is too much dead space to the right.
The angle and detail of the car is nice, perhaps a tighter crop ?...


Cheers

Edited by flat-planedCrank on Monday 11th February 23:55

[Bob_Defly]

thanks fpc!

It was actually 8 exposures! to be sure to be sure, ha ha...

yes I see that pesky speck of dust now.

[baz7175]

Good job, remember and take care of the small bits and pieces too once the car is in position for the pics - i.e. the dirt on the edge of the tread/wall of the tyre, the small marks on plastic to left of the badge...the wee 2min jobs can make a massive difference to the finished piccies

[TonyHetherington]

REALLY nice shots!

I love the strength of colour in the full car shots

[Bob_Defly]

Thanks everyone. Yes it was a fair drive to the location so the car got a tiny bit dirty.

[JackGTA]

Love the last one! (Nice car too!!)

[Fordo]

Lovely photos!

Any chance of sharing what your equipment you used, or techniques you employed? id love to take pics like that.
First photo looks to have a really wide lens.

Only critism id had, would be a tiny bit of tidying up in photoshop- sensor dirt etc, but im just being uber picky!

[Chris71]

The one at the bottom looks truly superb - how did did you shoot/edit that one?

[Bob_Defly]

All taken with a Nikon D40, the top one was with a sigma 10-20mm lens, the rest were either with the kit lens (18-55mm) or a Nikon 55-200mm zoom.

The sunrise one was 8 different exposures from very light to very dark, combined in photomatix to create an HDR image, this was then edited in photoshop. Most of the others only needed a contrast boost (curves) in photoshop.

[Fordo]

Bob_Defly said:

All taken with a Nikon D40,

excellent- ive got a d40 too! now ive got no excuses

that last one- possibly the first hdr photo ive seen thats really impressed me. Most, to me, look artifical and lacking in contrast. That looks superb though

[flat-planedCrank]

Fordo said:

that last one- possibly the first hdr photo ive seen thats really impressed me. Most, to me, look artifical and lacking in contrast. That looks superb though

I'd like to echo this point as well
I don't like 99% of the hdr shots i've seen, this is a good example imo

HDR shots need that slighty hyper-real feel to them, no more


Cheers.

[Bob_Defly]

Ah yes, you mean like this...





I agree, it doesn't need to be overcooked, it can look awesome if toned down. Here is a manual HDR I did in photoshop, from 2 exposures.



And here is another pic from the shoot:



Yep, a D40 is a relatively cheap camera so I'm very happy with the results so far, I got it for xmas!

[nick_bbb]

Great job for a first effort, looking forward to seeing more Just as a personal preference but I really don't like a 10mm lens anywhere near a car but I know I'm in the minority as photos seem to be everywhere!

[LotusJas]

Great pics! Very impressive, amd moreso for a first attempt.

Just curious about you using so many exposures in the HDR. I thought you only need 3 and there's no point in using more. I presume I'm wrong, and that's why you used many more?

[BigMansZetec]

Superb, whether it was a first shoot or not. Love the bottom one on your first post.

Keep it up!