DIY better car photography... - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Eberhard Weilke · #31 08-20-2003, 06:47 PM

Hello Alon,

some photoshoping does actually improve the pic

I catched the sky piece by piece with the magic wand by pressing down the key for capital letters and clicking the sun, the blue and everything (this way it adds up the selection), then inverted the selection and played a little with contrast and brightness.

I partly switched on the right headlight and here we go:

It is not perfect, but I hope you can see the direction

And sorry for infringing your copyright

Kind regards
Eberhard

Ashman · #32 08-20-2003, 10:55 PM

its cool. I actually wanted the picture ark like that though. I have other shots at different exposures that change the light a lot.

Exposure is my friend. it allows for all the nifty things.

Alon

ericnguyen · #33 08-21-2003, 12:32 AM

Dear Eberhard:

Your pictures are exceedingly clear, gorgeous and colorful. You must have great photographic skills and great cameras.

Best regards,

Eric

Eberhard Weilke · #34 08-21-2003, 03:32 PM

Not all of the pics are mine.

But some...

Cameras are usually different Nikon Coolpix.

Kind regards
Eberhard

pentoman · #35 08-25-2003, 08:42 PM

Remember also, to try out your ZOOM!

Take a look at my A6, at our workshop.

The first pic is from a distance, somewhat zoomed. It looks OK, but not low, sleek or swoopy.

pentoman · #36 08-25-2003, 08:43 PM

Now look at this. From further away and more zoomed.

The car looks low, swoopy and elegant where in the other picture it looks taller.

The effect is more pronounced if you try one side-on with no zoom at all. I think it's to do with foreground and background - in a distant, zoomed picture, you get more foreground into the picture, and so the car seems as wide as that foreground.

Also, as you can tell the picture is taken from far away, it has a 'feel' to it a bit like, say, safari wildlife photography. A presumably psychological effect means that, a distant but highly zoomed photo of a Tiger which you feel can't see you spying on it from a long way away is much more impressive to look at than a close-up of a Tiger taken when standing 5 metres from one in a zoo.

NB I'm far from an expert

pentoman · #37 08-25-2003, 08:44 PM

eric - 1st one looks around '89. It's an Audi 100 and would be a 2.3 Five cylinder. Dunno about the rest.

Eberhard - can you perhaps judge a few of my pictures? be critical. Composition is my main problem, it's getting slightly better as I do more and more photo-shoots of my own car.

This one, I think is not bad for me. It looks like a little bit of effort was put into it, more than just snapping randomly with a disposable. However, I think it could look better and a good photographer could produce a really good-looking photo with the bonnet, curving road and sunset. Ideas?

thanks

Russ

pentoman · #38 08-25-2003, 08:48 PM

Next up - From the side with the sunset reflection. Again, composition wise could be better. I think I should have taken it more to the left, but as I remember there didn't seem to be much car in it then, and looked a bit random, 'stuck-in' on the right hand side.

thanks

Russ

pentoman · #39 08-25-2003, 09:00 PM

This one I'm most happy with and can talk about a little bit.

Remember, you don't have to feature on any one part of the car, nor the whole car or even a whole section. The main focus of this picture is the way the reflections react across the metal and (factory, but seemingly quite reflective) windows. I particularly like it how it goes across the B-pillar from the windows. The parts of the car are quite inconsequential to it all, although this rear-shoulder area of the 190E happens to be my favourite part.

The slightly out of focus door mirror was intentional (I simply used more zoom on my very basic camera) because it would look very out of place and odd with a sharply in-focus door mirror on the middle-right-hand edge of the photo. I would've taken the picture without it there if possible, but in retrospect I quite like it, it's more interesting than the reflections continuing off the right hand side of the pic.

Eberhard, take my off my high horse please with this one :p

And more of your/your friends' pics!

thanks

Russ

Eberhard Weilke · #40 08-26-2003, 01:37 AM

Russ, this is really good work! Nothing I can complain

Good point with perspective. Nothing to add.

Do you use Photoshop? Last step before saving a pic for publishing on the internet is to run the sharpening tool over the pic.

Either the whole pic

or with the lasso or other selection tool, with feather at 10 and just parts of the pic. Look at the star. I kind of overdone it, just for demonstration.

But this is really good work you are doing!

Kind regards
Eberhard

Eberhard Weilke · #41 09-01-2003, 05:33 PM

Eric, you are doing better and better

Kind regards
Eberhard Weilke

Peyton300TD · #42 09-04-2003, 04:57 PM

i am by no means a good photographer, but i love taking pictures! here is one that came out really well for me.

one tip i have is to photograph cars at hte beginning or end of the day- the lighting is ideal and there are not thousands of little light 'pings' all over the car- which make the picture choppy and chaotic.

cheers

eric