Picture taking Guru's, how do you take great pics?

[c0dy]

SVTGriff - it's actually "The rule of thirds" - try to keep the horizon line either near the top third line or bottom third, same with the subject using vertical third lines = )

 

[c0dy]

spicer - a quick attempt at the first one. It's hard to get detail out of the front because it's in the shadow here, so it looks a little grainy.

 

[HouseOfPower]

this backround does your car no justice....you don't want ANYTHING taking the viewers eyes away from the car

 

[c0dy]

That's why i steered clear of that one ; )

 

[SVTgriff]

SVTGriff - it's actually "The rule of thirds" - try to keep the horizon line either near the top third line or bottom third, same with the subject using vertical third lines = )

:beer: I will use that, thanks

Keep it coming, I am a sponge here

 

[Talus]

I picked up these two books a while ago and found that they cover quite a bit. I'd definitely recommend them:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...3356/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0072508-2739904?ie=UTF8

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...3415/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-0072508-2739904?ie=UTF8

as for your pics Spicer, your first is probably the strongest. you have the lane divider that leads your eye straight to your car. thats good stuff. It's a little dark. There's not a whole lot that can be done with it now to bring back much color without making it grainy. I'm with blown vert on the rest, the background is pretty distracting although the third picture is pretty good....

 

[c0dy]

Oh! Another thing I've found is if there are lines (for example, a picture my girlfriend took in B/W of train tracks) try to have the lines originate or end at a corner, or position it to wherever looks best in the size picture you're planning on.

 

[SVTgriff]

c0dy and whomever:

Here are some pics I took awhile back (April I think) when I first got my cam and just started snapping pics. I took +230 pics that day and this was the best of them that I saved. The rest were really bad. Thanks goodness for digital cams and 1g cards

After I took a look at them, I could see a lot of mistakes I made. #1 being how I used the light.:nonono:

Give me some input here and this can be good examples of what not to do for whoever else is trying to learn good cam skils.

 

[SVTgriff]

I picked up these two books a while ago and found that they cover quite a bit. I'd definitely recommend them:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/07...3356/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0072508-2739904?ie=UTF8

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/18...3415/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-0072508-2739904?ie=UTF8

as for your pics Spicer, your first is probably the strongest. you have the lane divider that leads your eye straight to your car. thats good stuff. It's a little dark. There's not a whole lot that can be done with it now to bring back much color without making it grainy. I'm with blown vert on the rest, the background is pretty distracting although the third picture is pretty good....

Thats good stuf there! I need to get these for sure! Thanks!

 

[MinGrey02Stg2]

What I'm really wanting to know is why are the pics so grainy? I would love to take great clear, crisp pics. I need to try a tripod. But is there any tricks to sun position not covered here? From what you guy's have said, not pointing the camera into the direction of the sun is important. How should I position the car in terms of which direction the sun is glowing? To the side, directly behind, or is it personal preference?

What about the shadows of trees? In some of the pics I shot, I used the trees in the background to sort of sheild the sun. Is this not recommended?

If your pics are grainy, try shooting at a lower ISO. Noise is also a problem when shooting in really low light or where there are dark shadow areas. That's where an SLR comes in really handy- their noise levels are VERY low even at high ISOs. As far as positioning in relation to the sun, it really shouldn't matter if you're shooting in correct light. Go outside when it's really cloudy outside or when the sun has just gone down (the time when there is still a lot of light though) and you'll see there aren't really any pronounced shadows. This is the light you want to shoot in. It's very even with low contrast and will give great results. Also, I saw in your pictures that you were using the camera's on board flash. Don't do this. If you have external lighting, use it at angles that won't reflect harsh, overexposed light towards the camera (look at the license plate in the second picture). Oh, and don't shoot at crazy extreme angles. That's not the most appealing thing. Flip through a car magazine and see how many pictures there are that make you have to break your neck to be able to see the car the way it should be shown. Also look through them to get ideas, etc. I hope this helps!

 

[SVTgriff]

MinGrey02Stg2.....that is an amazing pic in your sig! I love pics like that and am trying to shoot ones like that but never do. Maybe its my cam too, not being good enough......my car is not good for low light being its blue either right?

 

[Quick86_331]

Early morning or late afternoon is the best time to take pictures. You dont want DIRECT sunlight.. you wanna catch it when it starts coming up or dying out.

I'm not a photographer by no means, and alot of people might think my pictures suck.

Tips:

Location: I've always looked for somewhere that is clean, and solid. Ie: brickwall, grass, woods, parking lot, loading docks. You can make alot of places work.

Angles: Most of the time your 1/4 angles are the best looking pictures. Such as right front, right rear, left front.. you get the point. Keep it low also, lay on the ground if you have to.

Car position: you want to keep your wheels dead straight, or angled with the picture. Ie: if your taking a passenger side front picture you want the front wheels where you can see most of the wheels.

FWIW, I'm using a cheap Kodak z740. 5 mp, 10x zoom..

heres a couple pictures of my coupe.

NONE of these pics have been edited, other than cropped and resized.

 

[c0dy]

SVTGriff:
I have to run so I don't really have time to go into depth of the pictures, although I like the composition of some of them, do you alter levels/saturation etc in ps at all? (Beautiful Car btw)
If you're inclined you can give this place a looksy, they tend to discuss tips
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/dimaging

 

[SVTgriff]

SVTGriff:
I have to run so I don't really have time to go into depth of the pictures, although I like the composition of some of them, do you alter levels/saturation etc in ps at all? (Beautiful Car btw)
If you're inclined you can give this place a looksy, they tend to discuss tips
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/dimaging

I did not mess with them at all. I have Paint Shop 5 but I don't mess with the pics cuz I think the color is usually good and I don't know what I am doing with PSP anyway.

Thanks for the compliments. Thanks for the link as well.

 

[c0dy]

Here's a quick one-over with one of the pictures, I blurred the background to try to make it less distracting, and also to give it more of a narrow depth of field look. I enhanced the saturation a bit too.

Hopefully you think it's decent. Again, this is a 5 minute job in Photoshop just manipulating a few things. I didn't touch the shadows/highlights or lightness or anything (although I think you had a good exposure on it) Anywho, here ya go.

edit: there's a bit of a "Halo" on part of the car because I changed the saturation AFTER I blurred the rest.. D'Oh!

 

[Brian97vobra]

Wow awesome thread! Makes me wanna go out and buy a dslr and go take some pics!!!:thumbsup: :beer:

 

[Snowboarda42]

Even though this is only a 5 minute touch up, he really had a good idea behind this. If you found some time and a picture you really liked, you might do something like this, but dont blur everything like he has. You can leave horizon lines, areas, etc. around the car still in focus so it looks like it was shot that way.

I.E.

Using whats called quick mask, its really easy to select certain areas of the picture you want to blur, darken, etc.
I used a gaussian blur of .5 and turned the contrast up a little bit, the brightness up a teeny bit, changed the yellow on the train to a more suttle orange, etc.


The camera you are using is pretty decent so I would say that your pretty good there. What you need now is to do some touch up on some of them. I think I read earlier that you have Paint Shop Pro. Thats an okay program, but honestly I put it and Kid Pix in the same Category. It was sort of meant for those with less experience and therefore has less features. You really ought to look into getting a copy of photoshop 7 or above. Theres plenty of tutorials (http://www.good-tutorials.com/) on photoshop, just look through them, especially in the photo retouch sections.

Using things like hue/saturation to desaturate certain colors (all but red and magenta) and turning the contrast up you can acheive an effect like this, which litterally took me 25 seconds:

As for your photos as they are, you have the basics down very well, in some of the pictures.

Take that picture for example. Whats the big distraction that makes your eyes jump right to it? (The Sign) The setting for the car was excellent, except its too dark since the sun is on the opposite side. Next time keep that sign out the pic so that it draws a little more attention to your car, and the shadows on the opposite side of the car, or to the rear where you can't see it. All your pictures that were taken right before sunset have excellent lighting. There is little to no shadow and no glare coming off of your paint. These pictures are the best to work with and come out the best right off the camera.

As for this picture:

I would have parked the car farther back so you don't see the shadows from the telephone lines in front of the car, but its nothing a little cropping wouldn't fix:

Your First Two pictures are very well done, especially for being untouched in PS(photoshop).

Also try taking more pictures like these:

but try getting a little more of the side of the car.

Also, try going to some very well lit places at night, GET A TRIPOD FOR THIS, and take some of your car. It has very reflective paint on it, and the lights will give your car a very cool effectNOT MY PIC)

I could keep going but the best advice is just to keep shooting. Honestly there is no replacement for just going out and trying different angles, messing with pictures in photoshop, deleting the ones that dont look good, changing backgrounds, and taking more pictures when you have the urge.

Hope this helps...

 

[GH1086]

This thread is awesome, I have a Konica-Minolta 6MP DSLR that I have no idea how to use and I have no photoshop skills at all. Maybe one of you could critique and maybe photoshop one of my pics and tell me what you did.

Full Size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/1639-1/Memorial+Day+045.jpg

Full Size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/1645-1/Memorial+Day+050.jpg

Full Size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/1663-1/Memorial+Day+067.jpg

Full Size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/3224-1/Night+Shots+007.jpg

Full Size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/3792-1/Island+07-15-06+001.jpg

Full size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/2443-1/Watkins+Glen+207.jpg

Full size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/2629-1/Watkins+Glen+269.jpg

Full size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/2638-1/Watkins+Glen+272.jpg

Full size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/2706-2/Watkins+Glen+294.jpg

And here's the original of one them I tried to photoshop.

Full Size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/1678-1/Memorial+Day+066.jpg

Full Size - http://sincitygoats.com/gallery/d/1681-1/Memorial+Day+066+_2_.jpg

 

[BreBar21]

MinGrey02Stg2.....that is an amazing pic in your sig! I love pics like that and am trying to shoot ones like that but never do. Maybe its my cam too, not being good enough......my car is not good for low light being its blue either right?

You make pics look like that in photoshop. They do not come out of the camera like that.

Get photoshop, get some books on it, and start playing around. Photoshop is a great way to add the "wow" factor to your pics.:coolman:

 

[c0dy]

Even though this is only a 5 minute touch up, he really had a good idea behind this. If you found some time and a picture you really liked, you might do something like this, but dont blur everything like he has. You can leave horizon lines, areas, etc. around the car still in focus so it looks like it was shot that way.

I didn't think of that until I was done That's what I get for rushing!