Photo Tips

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Start with a good composition, good light, great angle, get the exposure right, watch out for reflections, focus then click. Then PHOTOSHOP THE HELL OUT OF IT!

Here's one my nephew made earlier. The original 'shot' was taken indoors, with ambient daylight, and comped together from 7 individual shots. The background was created 'from scratch'. And the original car wasn't even orange...

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/surreymustang/2885238099/" title="Head on by surreymustang, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/2885238099_ea85bd7df7_b.jpg" width="1024" height="401" alt="Head on" /></a>
 
I read an article many moons ago in Hot Rod magazine that using a 6' ladder can add a different look if your trying to get stripe pics across the top. 3/4 shots from the front and rear make it interesting.
 
Lots of good info on this thread. Thanks for taking the time folks, I've learned alot.

I'm sure that there are a lot of different tricks you can do, the ladder in the post above is a good one, to get neat shots. I think the best piece of advice was already mentioned and that's to experiment with different settings until you find one that suits your tastes and just keep shooting as you can discard what you don't like. Most of all, have fun!!
 
I tried something cool today. Some of you may have a better way to do this, but I tried it anyways,lol. I wear polarized sunglasses, and they make different colors really pop, and cut down glare and such. So i thought, they should make a camera with a polarized lense. I took my sunglasses off and took a couple pics with my camera pointed thru the glasses. Actually turned out looking kinda cool. Ill post the picture up.
 
Here is what the lighting looked like regular:
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And here is what it looked like thru polarized sunglasses:D
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What does slr stand for? All I have is a cheap camera i believe. Its a kodak 7.1 mega pixel with zoom that is broken and full of body filler dust and paint overspray haha. Id like to buy a really nice digital camera since this one is about to bite the dust, but I really dunno what to look for.
 
What does slr stand for? All I have is a cheap camera i believe. Its a kodak 7.1 mega pixel with zoom that is broken and full of body filler dust and paint overspray haha. Id like to buy a really nice digital camera since this one is about to bite the dust, but I really dunno what to look for.


Single Lens Reflex

That's the old style of camera that had a mirror that would reflect light on to the image area. That's the "click" you hear when using an old style camera. The click is the mirror quickly moving to reflect light to expose the film and then going back to it's original position.
 
heres one of mine i use hdr ever so slightly try and always make sure the space from top to bottom is equal and nothing looks added to the shot like u just threw it in also i find the more low u get to take the pic the better it looks id be more then happy to work on anyones photo

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heres one of mine i use hdr ever so slightly try and always make sure the space from top to bottom is equal and nothing looks added to the shot like u just threw it in also i find the more low u get to take the pic the better it looks id be more then happy to work on anyones photo

daum.jpg

The composition in this picture isn't quite there. You split the frame in half as opposed to using the rule of thirds, which this shot would have benefited from. There's also a door and a gutter pipe growing out of the top of your car. You should either try to avoid those or remove them in post. A polarizing filter would have removed the harsh glare on the windshield, and a lot of the reflection around the car to get a better look at the blue paint. The front of the car is underexposed, which tells me you don't actually know what HDR is used for. You should have either used a fill flash to light the front, or done a proper HDR. Sorry if I come off brash, but I'd rather you guys get great shots of your Mustangs than settle for shots like this.
 
Single Lens Reflex

That's the old style of camera that had a mirror that would reflect light on to the image area. That's the "click" you hear when using an old style camera. The click is the mirror quickly moving to reflect light to expose the film and then going back to it's original position.

Old style? You know they still make SLRs right?

The mirror reflects light to the viewfinder, not the "image area" (either film negative or digital sensor). When the shutter is released, the mirror lifts up and the image is captured by the film or sensor.
 
Old style? You know they still make SLRs right?

The mirror reflects light to the viewfinder, not the "image area" (either film negative or digital sensor). When the shutter is released, the mirror lifts up and the image is captured by the film or sensor.

Yikes... brought this thread back from the dead. :zombie:
 
A DSLR is a SLR that uses a digital sensor. The D stands for digital. The most modern cameras and arguably the best cameras today are SLRs of either the film or digital variety. Some do still shoot film, but digital is so much quicker and cheaper. Quality of digital is now as good if not better than film.

The mirror does indeed flip up out of the way at the moment a photo is taken.

Unfortunately, the $200 someone mentioned earlier won't buy a really good quality lens let alone a camera. Some of the glass I shoot with, and I am not what most would consider a pro, cost $1,000. Some pros I know have lenses that cost $4,000. I won't get into the reasons as to why they cost so much. But there are good reasons. You can buy a decent point and shoot camera for $200. Canon and Nikon make some in that price range. They are fine for what they are. But they are good for scenes that are well lit and very short distances inside using the built-in flash. They are far from pro quality. I have an old Brownie Kodak that made OK photos in its day. It was cheap. Sometimes you do get what you pay for. People ask me what kind of camera they should buy. It is kind of like what kind of tools you should buy -- it depends on how serious you are about what you are doing and what you can afford to pay.
 
I try to do as much as possible in the camera so I don't have to do anything in Photoshop. Framing, exposure, depth of field are all things that should be considered BEFORE you push the button, not after. My general rule is that if you have to spend more than 10 minutes fixing a picture, it's not worth it.

Having said that, here are some neat little tricks for images that aren't quite where you want them to be...

Framing:

Look at this for example. On the surface it's a decent enough picture.

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However, it suffers from a few fatal flaws because I didn't consider framing it. The tree growing out of the back seat is the major killer. The tilted angle is bad and the sign and buildings behind it distract from the thing you really want people to look at, which is the car.

A more appropriate example would be this:

20130705_173642.jpg

The level horizon and lack of distractions in the background help people to focus a lot on the real subject, which is the car. I'm not crazy about the trees on the hood, but that is minor compared to what it was and is easily fixed in a couple of minutes in Photoshop.

To be continued...
 
This is a great thread! I love looking at pics of other people's Mustangs. I know some simple stuff - try not to shoot in the middle of the day but if you do keep the sun at your back, get down to the level of the car, etc. I just take a ton of pics (with my iPhone 4S by the way) and get lucky from time to time. Here's a couple lucky ones
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(at least I think so)