My last day out photographing

Now I've read through the sticky, and actually folled quite a bit of that advice but I still feel my photos are lacking that extra "something", those are the best 30 or so photos from a day I took about 900.

In an effort to get better phots every time I go out, I was wondering if I could get some help and ideas of how to improve my photos.

 

Angles. Almost all o your pics are from straight side angles. Get low, get high(UP) get side ways. Angles.

And rule of thirds. Place all of your points of interest, in mid corners.

 

Rules.
First learn 'em, then break them, and, make your own!

 

Thanks for the tips guys, also here are some of my past photos. I guess I felt I ended up with some bland results this last time, and while digital is great for expirimenting I feel I've also lost the extra thought I used to put into photos, and I want to improve my composition and framing which I don't feel I've ever really been great at to begin with.

 

The first thing that stands out to me about your first set of photos is that you are so tightly framing them that the car takes up the entire frame. Visually it gives the car no where to travel into or out of.

 

MotorOn, is there something specific you are wanting to improve on? Can you quantify it? I personally like a lot of your photos, but it's always a good idea to push yourself.

If it's car racing photos you're wanting to improve on, take a close look at Jimz68 and Mark S's photos and determine what it is you like about them. Explore some racing web sites and do the same. The book Jimz68 recommended to me for learning old school techniques for racing photography is: Unfortunately it's out of print, but I found a copy cheap online at a used bookstore. The photos in the book are first rate, inspirational, and cover a very wide gamut of photographic opportunities at the track.

The book that really helped me with composition and to get out of a predictable rut was Freeman Patterson's Art of seeing. This is more creative based and has no focus on motor sport photography, but could also be helpful.

I have a lot of side profile only shots from the previous weekend in Monterey and I'm realizing that I'm not all that crazy about that angle. The 3/4 [front | rear] view shots with the car accelerating out of a corner and the suspension loaded up made for such a more dramatic shot IMHO. That's my $.02 FWIW.

 

Well though I hadn't gotten any books yet I did alot of Google image searches for cars mainly classics and racing, and tried to apply some of what I saw and what was advised, here's the results.
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#6

Overall I think I'm happier with these than I've been in a while.
But still I'd like to here comments. Speednut it's more an issue of I feel my photos are good, and I'm ready to make the great, like the quality of many others that have posted here.

 

Nobody has anything to say?

I know about the wax on the gap and the bug on the other headlamp

 

Hello!
I do like the second set! Just be careful of backgrounds. (I miss this one all the time!)
Here's a link to some of my stuff. It's a bit of everything. Take a look and if you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to help.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimz68/sets/

Jim

 

One more, this was taken in .RAW I had to run it through PS to get it formatted to post. Clickable for desktop.

 

Not sure if I'm really qualified to give opinions, but if you want my critical opinion, I'll be happy to give it as it's my lunch break and I have some free time. Of course, I'm still going to push for you to look at the Freeman Patterson book (see link in post #6) to help you with your compositional goals. I sure need to re-read it!

You obviously know how to use the camera technically because you always have the proper exposure and I suspect you're getting the depth of focus your creative mind is seeking. Composition however is unlike the technical side of using the camera and is so very subjective to each individual. The following is how I'd analyse these shots as if they were my photos and what I wanted to learn from them.

#1 - What's my subject or message? I ask myself this question frequently as I approach a vast diverse landscape I wish to photograph. Winged demon in cloud reflection on hood (or cute bunny rabbit)? Headlight bezel is cropped with no relief on left side which breaks the clean oval shape lines.

#2 - I'm always a sucker for sepia tones, but same comments from #1 apply here too (subject missing and broken visual lines).

#3 - "out of nowhere appeared this black Mini and it ran me over". I'd personally turn the front wheels the other way. Maybe because I'm tall I don't like the get down low cockroach viewpoint shots, but others certainly recommend it. YMMV.

#4 - I could swear I've seen this composition before. Who knows who I subconsciously stole it from? The car's reflections is very nice. What would make both of our compositions look better however is something of interest at the focal point that our eyes get instinctively drawn to in the distance ahead of the car.

#5 - I really miss big clouds like that in NorCal (yeah, like NorCal people can really complain about bad weather! The constant blue cloudless skies just get a bit old in the summertime). So I love the reflections on the black roof, looks fantastic. Same suggestion as #4 though; the lines of the roof draw our eyes forward out to the horizon and need something more interesting there.

#6 - My favorite, very abstract. I have to confess I starred at this photo for quite awhile before I understood what actually was photographed. I was originally thinking it was a water drop or something. Yeah, I was just being stupid but that's why I liked it because it made me have to stare at it and pause instead of scrolling away. I personally would have put the door handle a bit more over to the right in the photo.

Post #10 photo - More abstract and using the lines of the car for the composition. I like the motion that the hood gives the cloud reflections. Not sure what to suggest here other than to continue to experiment along these lines. IMHO, I really like browsing Juan's photos for ideas on selectively capturing small details of cars. He has a very good eye for composition.

I think sometimes for me it's just finding a subject of interest and playing with it until I feel I've truly captured it. For example, I thought this gauge (water temp?) mounted on a hot rod's radiator had a lot of detail and was interesting. My first instinctive photo came out like this:


but then I really started to look a the background more carefully and decided to try and get the blower in the background, knowing full well that my P&S camera wouldn't give me the real shallow depth of focus I really wanted. I was much happier with this composition, knowing I did the best I could in the circumstances while my hungry pregnant wife and parents were waiting for me to finish.


Is this the sort of feedback you were wanting?
p.s. Great job with the detailing work you've been doing to keep The Black Pearl looking so shiny and reflective.

 

Yes is was exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for, I was writing a response and my browser cloesed and I lost it, so this time it will be overly condensed. I'm going to keep this thread going with my next few shoots. I need to work on the composition, much of my photography experiance is based from photojournalism studies techniques and situations, where I could get a handful of staple shots and then begin to work on composition, also I was able to use people to easily convey an emotion, that's a harder task with car photography.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Here is the original version of #6

 

You did a very good crop job then.

FWIW, I typically use a simple text editor with a multiple undo buffer to write my posts which fixes the issue you had. Murphy visits me often.

 

Here is a link I got from a photography forum, relates to composition. Just thought I'd share, more rules to try, and eventually break.

And here in lies the motivation for this thread.

 

Each Photo had a goal this time (creating not capturing):


Simplicity and breaking of patterns/lines/curves

Detail, but lack of cluttler

Patterns

Message (Recipe for Fun)

So tell me what you think, opinons, things you'd have done differently,etc.

Also this last set I tried something that I'm slowly warming up to. RAW format. I avoided it in the past as, it chews up my memory cards, requires a decent amount of post processing just ot post. But I'm also start to prefer the conrol that I have in the ability to manipulate and refine the details and characteristics.

 

Bump added text to previous post.

 

I was wondering if anyone would comment on some post-processing techniques, as I've found incorporating compsition techniques as well as post processing can enhacne the quality of my photographs as I grow to learn to use more of the tools and assets availble to me in the digital realm.

 

Wow, I just read this.

IMHO, first Dave got it right for your first set. To be honest (and I hope you want honesty), all were blah. Centering shots like that are for ma and pa in front of Disney world

The Rule of Thirds is important and he mention of having a place for the car to go is correct!

Its all about composition ...

pic 1. Very good but very over done. I had somoene professionaly photograph my car for those Sonus ads and he took the exact same shot (more or less). I would try to not imitate what others have done but try your own angles. Low is always good.

pic 2. better, like the reflection ... like the warm tones ... more sepia like the old days.

pic 3. classic low angle, might be better with a polarizing filter to bring out the blue in the sky more.

pic 4. makes me dizze

pic 5. GREAT Idea. That composition would work great if you were out in the desert or a long windy road all by yourself. IMO, the horizontal parking lot lines distract from it whereas a curved, center line would be better. The IDEA is great ... the location is not so great. Sorry

pic. 6. does nothing for me. sorry

pic 9/20

I like! I would like to see the blues in the sky pop out more for contrast.

Closeups ...

I like the last one best

In general, its great to see your having fun. My wife got me into photography years ago. She has won some awards in a national magazine. Its all about composition and make the people see what you want them to see.

I think for cars, the best pics I've seen show the car on the road with the road ... curved, extended endless in front of the car

or ... a car at speed with the background blurred (panning the camera ... takes practice)

Night pics work great too. I best the MINI interior lights would be a great closeup!

Great Work there ... keep it up.

I learned a long time ago (with film), if I too 100 shots (3 rolls of 36), maybe 3 pics would be OK and maybe ONE ... really good.

Now with digital, of course, film is free. My wife takes, literally, 100s of pics in a day. Throws out 99% of them and keeps only the best angles, lights, etc. You got to take pics all the time

Try very wide angles, try different angles and ... the rule of thirds IS important

Best of luck!

 

Thanks Chows, and I appreciate the honesty without it I'd never be able to improve (and I suspect I'd even be prone to regressing). As far as locations go I'm kinda stuck in suburbia so not much locally, but I can get to farm land pretty easily, so I'll have to see if I can budget the time to get out there after my next detailing. I have a location I really want to try for nights but keep veering off into the twisties instead, however I am much better at always making sure I have a camera, so its only a matter of time before I get to try it out.

I used to do a lot of photojournalism shooting for the school paper, and was the only one that did the sports photography so I have the technical aspects of the camera down and my composition has almost always been passable as I was always able to get a photo that "told the story" but wasn't always the most athsetically pleasing so now I'm pushing myself to do both. Ohh and I also need to get a CCD cleaner as almost all of my photos for the past 2 years have been exclusively under f/6 and almost always as wide open on a zoom lens as possible. I can go as wide as 19mm and for quite a while the lens lived on camera at 19mm so I tried changing it up a bit recently and begining to see in telephoto again as well. Unfortunately at 19mm with my 10D I also have to multiply that by 1.6 because of the smaller sensor, I'd love to be able to do some fisheye and 9mm-14mm work but just don't have that chance yet, so I need to keep practicing improving my work withthe tools at hand. I also start truly utilizing all of the other more subtle functions on the camera. I don't always shoot everday (but still most) however I'm still managing to rack up 200+ images a week, a handful of which I feel are decent enough to post.

Sorry for the length; more comments welcome.

 

As far as locations go I'm kinda stuck in suburbia so not much locally, but I can get to farm land pretty easily, so I'll have to see if I can budget the time to get out there after my next detailing.

I would bet you could find some deserted roads in farm country. In fact, farm fields, with old corn stalks would be interesting along with the overdown red barn! Good background material.

For night shots, I meant INSIDE the car with the orange lighting. I bet it would look great.

The techinical part is easy ... the composition is the hard stuff. If you did a lot of work ... you can get panning down pat at a racetrack. Make the background blur and pan on the car.

As to lens, and I can only think in terms of 35 mm, 19mm is very wide and nice. would make great shots down low and odd angles. Stop it all the way down, get in all the detail in focus, much like a landscape

Keep practicing ... practice DOES make perfect and you look like your into this ... it can become a lifetime hobby (I know!)

Best of luck! and keep the shots coming!

 

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New Locations yeilded some postable snapshots and some more tuned photographs. Let me know what everyone thinks, the scenery helps but I think I'm getting back some composition.

 

Anyone? I wish I could get the title of the thread to update so more people might offer their opions.

 

Just saw it ....

1. bland landscape. Nothing in the foreground for perspective. Sorry ... not a good one
2. nice
3. better! flows better!
4. Interesting. Could be lighter but good composition with the old house in it!
5. blah
6. GREAT composition but maybe if the car was in focus ... EXCELLENT composition though!
7. NICE. Off center is good. Maybe a bit more lighter!
8. too dark
9. EXCELLENT!
10. too dark
11. EXCELLENT Very nice
12. Superb. Maybe a bit lighter but Superb!
13. not as nice as 12 but excellent
14. blah ... vacation shot
15. blah ... vacation shot
16. artsy. OK if you like artsy stuff ... photorealistic
17. Again ... excellent composition. I think if you had the skyline of the city a bit lower ... showing a bit more city ... but excellent overall composition

In general, I think a lot of these are a bit dark? But, that could be my old fashioned monitor as when I see the same pic of the flat screens, they are always brighter. But your composition is getting excellent with good ideas

my only real criticism (to take as constructive) ... lose the vacation shots.

 

4 and 17 were shot out the window while driving (didn't even slow down, just cropped out the A and B pillars). I took all of the exterior shots in the midday afternoon with full thick overcast bland grey sky clouds, so they ended up a bit on the dark side, but given I was unwilling to wait for better conditions I'm not particularly dissatified.

9 I'm not particularly fond of just because I think it was cluttered, but I'm glad you found it appealing.

11 is dulled down, as the full color version is a contender for this months contest, if I decide against it (still have a few I didn't post at all) then I'll post the original which is lighter more colorful and all around more appealing version of the composition.

If you look closely on 6 the car is the only thing in focus, a decent shot, but I really wish the gaurdrail wasn't there.

I included the vacation shots instead of writing a story in the travel section, but I'm intrested to hear how the composition of them goes over.

Thanks for the honest feedback.

 

Clickable, mroe to follow once my uploading/photo hosting service is working. Dug out the polarizer last night and detailed in the morning.