Photography guide

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Kent Border Kenny

Original Poster:

2,219 posts

61 months

Monday 26th October 2020
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Does anyone know of a decent guide to help me pick up my photography skills a bit?

I’m pretty aware of the basics, understand how to get my depth of focus, capture fast action, keep noise to a minimum, frame things well etc, but it seems like I could do with a set of tips for where to start from in settings to start taking the sort of thing that I’d like to put on a wall.

I took a load of pictures of my car to sell last week, and just used the pretty decent camera on my iPhone, and they did the job fine, but were flat, and uninteresting. They showed a buyer what they were getting, but that’s all.

The other night, when I arrived home in the new one, the sun was getting low, and the light had a lovely quality, but I knew that by time I got my nice SLR out and then fancied around with it it’d be dark.

Are there any flash-cards or similar that will just lay out some ideas?

For example,

“Photographing your car like what Evo does...
Wide prime lens, 35m or wider
Shoot from 5-10m away
Shoot wide and then crop
Take bracketed shots over 3-5 apertures
Use a vivid setting if you don’t want to post-process
Sun at right angles to shooting angle”

Kent Border Kenny

Original Poster:

2,219 posts

61 months

Tuesday 27th October 2020
quotequote all
I suppose the first step is carrying the camera with me, and using it a lot.

Kent Border Kenny

Original Poster:

2,219 posts

61 months

Tuesday 27th October 2020
quotequote all
satans worm said:
To get Evo style photos an iphone snap wont cut it in any way, you think how much they are paying to get that result, car photography is an art in itself

However, the easiest way to make your photos pop for selling , or wall hanging, i would say is just drive to a place with a decent background, often urban graffiti wall or run down industrial site it seems these days, or a field if you prefer, but not on the drive way or road side with houses outside.

Then take photos early morning/ late evening for decent light, and also use a telephoto lens (or the most tele you have) on your SLR fully open (F2.8 or what ever you can go down to) to blur the back ground.

if you have a polariser on your set up all the better to remove window relfections

Look at the pictures you would like your car to be look like and mimic the angles

Finally, use Photoshop to remove blemishes and lightly enhance colors as well as deepen blacks , lower highlights and open some shadows.

At that point it should 'pop' better than iphone shooting car on driveway type photo

The next step i would imagine is adding lighting, but then it becomes rather serious at that point.

important to note, i know nothing about car photography, just thinking in general how photos are made!!! so take the above with a pinch of salt and listen to real pros who im sure will pipe up soon!!
Thanks. Long lens to stop the fisheye / distortion from shooting closer?