I still have a lot to learn about photography, but here are some tips I wrote up based on my experiences to date.

• Read the manual that came with your camera. There is a lot of excellent information in there.
• Ask questions on NAM if you're confused or having problems putting something together.
• As a photographer you're not trying to take pictures, you're trying to make them. It's not a passive thing. You want to create a scene. That means car placement, background, people, weather, mood, and timing.
• Think about photography as light management. Aperture controls how big the opening is for the light to hit the sensor. Shutter speed controls how long the light is passing through the aperture. ISO is the sensor's sensitivity to light. All three interact.
  
• When you shoot "wide open" (i.e. F/3.5 on the kit lens), you're letting in the most light possible, so your shutter speed will be fastest, your depth of field (amount of depth in the picture you have in focus) will be the most shallow.
• Experiment with your camera's modes (not the pre-programmed modes), but aperture priority mode (you set the aperture, and the camera picks the "most appropriate" shutter speed based on what you meter), and shutter priority mode (you set the shutter speed and the camera picks the "most appropriate" aperture), and the manual mode (you set the aperture and the shutter).
• Get a tripod!
• Get off your driveway! Nothing against your driveway, but a lot of people take pictures on there driveway and they don't tend to get the most exciting backgrounds as a result.
• Make a little adventure out of it, go some place interesting specifically to take pictures.
• Get yourself a Circular Polarizer (if you have a D70 and the kit lens it is a 67mm thread). This filter helps control the amount of reflected light that comes off of reflective surfaces (i.e glass, painted metal, painted plastic, chrome, all the fun materials on the outsides of cars).
• Learn to use your new Circular Polarizer. You thread it onto the end of the lens and the rotate it to change how much reflection you get off the metallic surfaces.
• Don't take pictures in the middle of the day. The harsh light does nothing good for your photos. Morning, late afternoon, evening, and night are your friends.
• Get LOW! Don't just stand up and take pictures. Get lower and shoot a little bit "up". That way you get more sky in your pictures.
• Think about what is in the frame you're trying to photography.
• Pick your focus point carefully, so that what you want to be in focus, is actually in focus.
• Walk around, look for interesting angles, reposition the car.
• Be careful of the background - I have seen a couple of photoshoots done by fairly experienced photographers, where they shot car pictures in a construction site. The background looked great, except in both cases they shot a picture with a bright blue porta potty reflecting off the car door.
• If you can, try to find something that communicates a sense of place or a sense of what it feels like for you to drive or own your MINI.
• Get out and shoot! A lot!
• Post pictures when you get home. We like to see pictures and offer suggestions. We're not here to rip you a new one. We're here to help each other get better.

If you have other tips to add, post them up!

This is awesome!

Thanks for these tips as they are helpful. One of the first things I bought with the camera was the magic lantern guide. People said that these guides have more in depth info than just the manual but serve as a full replacement to the manual.

I have been reading like crazy but feel a bit confused. I need to just focus on some of the key things like the priorities!

I'll keep shooting and posting!

I'd like to add a couple of tips here.

First off, you've invested money in camera equipment. Now invest in magazines and books. Get out and buy 2 or 3 car mags a month. The tuner ones seem to have more creative photos. Purchase how-to books. One of my favorites is James Mann's How to Photograph Cars.

Second, get out to museums- photography and art. You can learn a lot by studying examples of others' work. Plus, if you have kids, you'd be educating them in the process, along with instilling a value of the arts.

James Mann's book is excellent. And, while not car-specific, I really like the National Geographic Field Guides. I also agree that books, magazines, museums, and even movies are wonderful sources of inspiration.

Mark

Thanks for the help! I long ago realized that I was not taking photos to the utmost potential and now that I have a great setup I want to learn a whole lot more!

Today alone I figured some new things out that made my life easier! Now I just have to find some cool spots to setup the MINI and start taking shots.

The one thing I love about shooting digital is that I am only limited to the size of my mem. card and as long as I keep my laptop with me I can shoot thousands of photos and never worry about running out of space or wasting film!

I got a 100 gig hard drive for all my photos! I'm in the proccess of setting up a webpage for all of my photos.

I want to get a webpage setup as well but I don't have the creative intelligence for web design........ maybe when I have some free time (when I am dead and cold in the ground maybe) I can look into it.

Chris

I have one of the National Geographic Field Guides that MarkS linked to and would recommend that.

One of the things that really drives me nuts about some of the current magazine car photography is the use of tilt for no reason other than to make you crane your head to look at the car. IMO, taking a picture at an angle should help convey something (attacking a corner for instance), but taking static posed shots with the tripod head canted over 30+ degrees can get pretty annoying.

As far as magazines with excellent photography go, my favorites are EVO and CAR.

Long exposure photos ? can they be done on any camera ? I have a Fujifilm F410 digital camera and its absolutley fantastic yet i cant see this function anywhere ? I saw some of your photos DiD and they are amazing...can u help ?

According to this spec sheet on dpreview for the Finepix F410 the longest shutter time you have available is 1/4 second (which isn't very long). It doesn't look like your camera has a manual mode either.

Based on that, I would say it isn't possible to take long duration photos with your current camera.

thanx for the reply, thats a shame then hey...other than that it comes up with some awsome pictures !!!

thanks for replying anyway

This thread deserves a bump.


I just bumped a sticky.

some great tips on here...

nice dave... u need to post these tips on M|U too

Bookmarking for myself....

Have a look at my gallery for some pretty interesting locations!!

Rams

PLEASE forgive me messing with members photos but I want to make a point.

I LOVE these 2 pix that were entered in the September Photo Contest.

The only correction is the lack of cropping. In Photo I and II the prof pounded into us the importance of cropping. I try to always crop through the lense but sometimes time, or other factors do not allow and you can always crop later.

Here are my versions of the 2 pix. All that was changed was cropping out objects that distract from the main subject, the wonderful MINI! and adding borders to seal in the subject.

Hope this helps

Hey Dave, is this LOW enough? I hate the plastic fence now.

Great picture Kurt!!!

There are so many old but brilliantly useful gems in this forum. I need to get more out my Nikon D50 and Mini Cooper.

I just discovered this forum since I'm new to NAM but I think me and my Nikon D70 have found a home....

For models who blink alot resulting in eyes closed shots ;
To combat this ... ask the model to close there eyes and open them on 3 ... snap the shutter on 4 ... that way the eyes will be open

http://digital-photography-school.co...l-photography/

http://digital-photography-school.co...photographers/

http://digital-photography-school.co...l-photography/

http://www.shutterbug.net/techniques...ost/index.html

http://www.shutterbug.net/techniques...pen/index.html

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=198005

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...ad.php?t=22081

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...ad.php?t=52418

http://community.automotivephoto.net...splay.php?f=18

These look very helpful. Thanks Drew!

I hate it when my dad tells me I'm taking a picture wrong because I'm not standing up straight taking the picture and it looks like I'm ten feet about the picture.