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I spent about 12 hours this weekend detailing my MINI and installing my new side skirts. I thought I'd spend some time taking pictures too. Let me know what you think. I am still very new with photography. I'd love some feedback .
This is really intended in the best possible way to be constructive.
Image 1 - The car is underexposed. You could correct that in the future by either exposing longer to get the car exposed correctly, or by parking it where it would be better lit. This shot is very difficult to get right in one exposure. You may need to tripod mount and take two from the same position, one for the background, and one for the car/foreground, then overlay them in photoshop to bring the two exposures together.
Images 2&3 - 2's a little over exposed and 3 is slightly under exposed (shooting a black car at night is a challenge). Watch your background. In both of these there is a streetlamp "growing out of your hood". Ideally your background would be relatively uncluttered in the area immediately around the car. The blur of lights from the passing traffic works, but to get more out of that effect, I would zoom out (or step back) and show more of the surrounding scene so the streaks show up more prominently.
Image 4 - The overall exposure is more even in this one, but the car looks a little out of focus. The autofocus struggles in lowlight, so when shooting at night take a flashlight to light the subject so you can get the autofocus to "lock", once the autofocus is locked (if you're shooting with an SLR, switch the lens to manual focus after autofocus has locked the subject), then you can take the shot. You may have to press your shutter half way down to get the autofocus to lock if you have a point and shoot.
Image 5 - The white balance is off. Notice how there is a yellow tinge? That comes from using auto white balance at night. Read your manual and learn how to change white balance to Flourescent and Incandecent. Those are the two most common light types for streetlights. Before you take the shot, use your preview screen to toggle through your white balance options and see how the color of the scene adjusts with each one. Pick the most appropriate one for the lighting conditions. During the day auto white balance is fantastic, but at night, it definitely struggles.
Image 6 - this one is actually my favorite. The car and the background are nicely exposed, everything is in focus, and the white balance is correct. There are still a couple posts growing out of the car, but overall this image is IMO the strongest of the set. Nice work.
Image 7 - This one had a lot of potential, but like #1 the car is underexposed. Again, you probably would have needed to do two exposures and composite them together in photoshop to get the foreground and the background exposed correctly in the final image.
Again, I'm not trying to nitpick these to death, I'm trying to be as constructive as I can. I think what you have here has potential, but there are some things to take from this to make your next set even better.
This is really intended in the best possible way to be constructive...
I really appreciate your feedback. One thing I really struggled with was getting it in focus because the autofocus on my SLR would not work half the time. It is good to finally understand why this is, and how to solve it. The rest of your comments are definitely things I am going to watch out for when I take some more pics . Thanks again!
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Originally Posted by StoopidGirl
yup...I like #7 too!!! it's sneaky :D
Haha .
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Originally Posted by goldcountrymini
Looks good. I love your MINI... Shots look good too!
hi there, great pics! let me just say that looking through the options on your camera and playing around with them is probably the best thing you can do as a starting camera man. I have gotten so much better attaking pics of my cars and I am definitly still a newbie. just play around with the settings and remember, it's usually a good idea to not center the object that you are taking a picture of, but it seems like you already know that. awesome! I wish i had secenary like that.
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