Some new night photos (freshly waxed MINI!)
- Thread starter hafid
- Start date
tangix2001
New member
Very nice.
gav'spurplez
New member
looks good, love that color. and those photos are great
detailbarn
Professional Detailer
damn I say sell them to mini before they steal them! 
Wow! Thank you for all the kind comments.
I'm happy to share how I did this. It certainly isn't difficult, technically. The hardest thing is obviously getting all the other pieces into place - those being composition, lighting, and location. But before I get into that, how did I do this? Well, several things are needed in that tangible sense.
First off, a decent camera. I don't have a great camera but it seems to really do a great job and I've figured out how to really use it. It's just a Canon S45 and the most important point about it is the manual controls.
A tripod is an absolute must. Nobody can hold a camera in the air absolutely still for more than half a second. These are up to 15 second exposures and the key is to have zero blurring. It's very difficult even with a tripod sometimes b/c the mere process of pressing the shutter release will shake the camera and blur the image so sometimes you need to use the self timer.
Next up is lighting. I like to shoot at night b/c I feel I've got an understanding for what my camera can do under low light conditions. The shots on the bridge are taken under the lighting of the bridge which is no more than the equivalent of several hundred candles. The main point is that the lighting is EVEN. There are really no hot spots so the colors and visual interpretation is truly fantastic. The pictures *almost* look fake, like they were done in CGI.
Technically, all these pictures are set to ISO 50 (for practically no grain or "noise") and an open aperture (hence you see the "star" effect with the lights). The rest is determined on practice of how long I think the picture needs to be exposed based on the lighting. This is a lot of trial and error at first. The white balance for the most part is adjusted for each pic to what I think is the closest to "normal". Hard to explain really - you may be better off leaving the WB to automatic at first.
Location.
This is a tough one for many. You see, although the car is nice, to me, I need a powerful scenery to go with it. Location though is a by product of having the most important requirement for any of this....the "eye".
Car photography follows a certain pattern and sadly I am no where near having a full grasp of it. If I had a digital SLR, I could do so much more (like create some real depth of field for example). But anyway, there's that issue of composition that one needs to create. It's very hard to teach someone this. If you're of the artists' eye, then you've got a headstart. I'd say you need to spend a lot of time studying car pictures. While learning, try to recreate the shot you see in terms of the composition. Technically, you probably won't know how they did that (and more often than not the magazines are going to touch up a picture in photoshop to add more to it). However, that doesn't mean you can't try!
A friend who also has a good eye to come along with you helps. My friend Chris in came with me and certainly was paramount to helping me try a couple of shots. He's a CG animator by trade and so has that "eye" for seeing things visually. He was amazed by how "fake" some of the pictures appeared to him b/c he can come very close to creating the same pic completely in 3D Studio Max.
Style.
Everyone has it, but the trick is expressing it. I love movement. It just adds a new dimension to the picture - the ability to show that some time had passed while taking a picture. I try to show this in night photography by the "trail" of lights. It's an easy trick but you need that long exposure for it to work, and a car passing by
We determined that the bridge has *just* enough room for the turning radius of another MINI. It was literally down to a few inches on each side. So, we did several 13-15 second exposures with the car driving around my car. Some had the hazard lights on, some used the brake light. The pic with the faint car in the picture is because the car came to a stop just before the picture finished taking so you got a stronger impression of the car and it came out like a "ghost".
I'm rambling here and should stop. If you have more questions, post away!
Thank you again for all the comments.
haf
ps. I'll put the pics up in my gallery and you can always check them and others anytime. Cheers.
pps. Yes, I am British
ppps. I used Zaino Z1/Z2/Z6 and forever black on the trim.
I'm happy to share how I did this. It certainly isn't difficult, technically. The hardest thing is obviously getting all the other pieces into place - those being composition, lighting, and location. But before I get into that, how did I do this? Well, several things are needed in that tangible sense.
First off, a decent camera. I don't have a great camera but it seems to really do a great job and I've figured out how to really use it. It's just a Canon S45 and the most important point about it is the manual controls.
A tripod is an absolute must. Nobody can hold a camera in the air absolutely still for more than half a second. These are up to 15 second exposures and the key is to have zero blurring. It's very difficult even with a tripod sometimes b/c the mere process of pressing the shutter release will shake the camera and blur the image so sometimes you need to use the self timer.
Next up is lighting. I like to shoot at night b/c I feel I've got an understanding for what my camera can do under low light conditions. The shots on the bridge are taken under the lighting of the bridge which is no more than the equivalent of several hundred candles. The main point is that the lighting is EVEN. There are really no hot spots so the colors and visual interpretation is truly fantastic. The pictures *almost* look fake, like they were done in CGI.
Technically, all these pictures are set to ISO 50 (for practically no grain or "noise") and an open aperture (hence you see the "star" effect with the lights). The rest is determined on practice of how long I think the picture needs to be exposed based on the lighting. This is a lot of trial and error at first. The white balance for the most part is adjusted for each pic to what I think is the closest to "normal". Hard to explain really - you may be better off leaving the WB to automatic at first.
Location.
This is a tough one for many. You see, although the car is nice, to me, I need a powerful scenery to go with it. Location though is a by product of having the most important requirement for any of this....the "eye".
Car photography follows a certain pattern and sadly I am no where near having a full grasp of it. If I had a digital SLR, I could do so much more (like create some real depth of field for example). But anyway, there's that issue of composition that one needs to create. It's very hard to teach someone this. If you're of the artists' eye, then you've got a headstart. I'd say you need to spend a lot of time studying car pictures. While learning, try to recreate the shot you see in terms of the composition. Technically, you probably won't know how they did that (and more often than not the magazines are going to touch up a picture in photoshop to add more to it). However, that doesn't mean you can't try!
A friend who also has a good eye to come along with you helps. My friend Chris in came with me and certainly was paramount to helping me try a couple of shots. He's a CG animator by trade and so has that "eye" for seeing things visually. He was amazed by how "fake" some of the pictures appeared to him b/c he can come very close to creating the same pic completely in 3D Studio Max.
Style.
Everyone has it, but the trick is expressing it. I love movement. It just adds a new dimension to the picture - the ability to show that some time had passed while taking a picture. I try to show this in night photography by the "trail" of lights. It's an easy trick but you need that long exposure for it to work, and a car passing by
We determined that the bridge has *just* enough room for the turning radius of another MINI. It was literally down to a few inches on each side. So, we did several 13-15 second exposures with the car driving around my car. Some had the hazard lights on, some used the brake light. The pic with the faint car in the picture is because the car came to a stop just before the picture finished taking so you got a stronger impression of the car and it came out like a "ghost".
I'm rambling here and should stop. If you have more questions, post away!
Thank you again for all the comments.
haf
ps. I'll put the pics up in my gallery and you can always check them and others anytime. Cheers.
pps. Yes, I am British
ppps. I used Zaino Z1/Z2/Z6 and forever black on the trim.
imported_gsrjedi
New member
Where was this shot at? I live in AZ as well, and this looks like a good photo op.
gsrjedi - as a local you know that the influence Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona is quite strong. Well, this tower has caused quite a ruckus here as it's supposed to imitate FLW's designs in the desert but I really don't think it does. Without starting a discourse on FLW, the point of his work was to blend in with the desert - not stick out like a sore (and in this case blue) thumb.
Needless to say I really don't like the structure but it made for a fun couple of photos. It sits at the corner of FLW Blvd and Scottdale Rd.
Thanks TnM6i!
Needless to say I really don't like the structure but it made for a fun couple of photos. It sits at the corner of FLW Blvd and Scottdale Rd.
Thanks TnM6i!
Thomas Dekany
New member
I have a S50 and only used the auto mode so far. I guess I should read the manual.
Now the time for some critic Don't get me wrong, I'm not a professional photographer but I have some clue on compositions..
Some of the compositions look "disturbing" because the car is right in the middle of the photo. In some of the photo's the car has more space behind then in the front of it = bad.
Allways avoid compositing the object in the middle of the picture. And allways try to keep more space in front of the car, thet's the direction the car would be looking and moving. The same applies to human photography, more space in the direction of the "eyeline". This would give a balanced and neutral feel to the picture.
The second last picture where the car is in the lower right corner is the 'worst', it should be more like in the upper right corner, because it is moving tovards the opposite - lower left corner.
Overall the pictures are wery nice and the lightning is perfect. The classic "traffic"effects are adapted in a wery nice way. The backgrounds are wery well chosen.
Regrads,
Silli
BTW. Nice mods!!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a professional photographer but I have some clue on compositions..Some of the compositions look "disturbing" because the car is right in the middle of the photo. In some of the photo's the car has more space behind then in the front of it = bad.
Allways avoid compositing the object in the middle of the picture. And allways try to keep more space in front of the car, thet's the direction the car would be looking and moving. The same applies to human photography, more space in the direction of the "eyeline". This would give a balanced and neutral feel to the picture.
The second last picture where the car is in the lower right corner is the 'worst', it should be more like in the upper right corner, because it is moving tovards the opposite - lower left corner.
Overall the pictures are wery nice and the lightning is perfect. The classic "traffic"effects are adapted in a wery nice way. The backgrounds are wery well chosen.
Regrads,
Silli
BTW. Nice mods!!
Thanks Silli! Yes, the rule of thirds is a lovely thing and I certainly do like to use that. I suppose with the experimentation of lighting I had to play with, the majority was so even I wanted to "engulf" the car with such beautiful articificial light. Again though, it's experimental.
If you click the link in my signature, you can see many more pics where I'm trying to do different things. I certainly appreciate the lovely constructive criticisim. This is what makes us all better photographers! Thank you again for the comments!
If you click the link in my signature, you can see many more pics where I'm trying to do different things. I certainly appreciate the lovely constructive criticisim. This is what makes us all better photographers! Thank you again for the comments!