Second Attempt at Decent Photography

"sm70- why not Duesenberg?" (sm70-whynotduesenberg)
11/03/2014 at 16:32 • Filed to: None

After reading some of your comments and advice on my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! I figured I would take another crack at a photoshoot. In addition, I took inspiration from several people who liked the pictures of the car in front of houses, or the ones that looked like they came out of a period ad for the car, so I kind of tried to replicate that. Here they are, let me know what you think.

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DISCUSSION (16)

jkm7680 > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 16:38

Looks pretty good, Phone camera?

Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 16:39

Nice settings and composition. Looks like you're following the rule of thirds pretty well. Try getting that f stop to <4. That way the car is what's in focus and the background provides a setting and doesn't compete with the subject.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > jkm7680
11/03/2014 at 16:43

Nope, that's still broken. Digital camera.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger
11/03/2014 at 16:45

How would I go about doing that on one of these? Is it a setting?

Kinja'd!!!

RoadHead -- Armand > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 16:53

Looks pretty good! But here's some pro tips to make your next go even better! So one of the tricky things with shooting cars is to minimize the distraction of the gloss of the paint and the windows. In some of the shots, you can't quite make out the contours of the body panels because of the overhwhelming reflection of the blue sky. A way to counter this is to shoot under diffused lighting conditions, i.e, on a slightly overcast or hazy day. Another things I like to do, is put down all the windows, as this also removes a whole bunch of glare.

RoadHead -- Armand > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 16:54

I've never used that particular camera but most compact digital cameras like this one rely on automatic settings and will not let you alter the f/stop. But check the manual

Ballzonya > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 16:55

He is referring to the aperture setting which will give your pictures depth of field. See the below example for using the f stop. Your camera may not have an adjustable aperture

Kinja'd!!!

RoadHead -- Armand > RoadHead -- Armand
11/03/2014 at 16:56

Also nice house my man! Looks like the kind of place I would be happy to retire to and spend the rest of the day in my library with a pipe and some gin

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > RoadHead -- Armand
11/03/2014 at 17:10

Lol yes. Obviously it isn't my house, it has been vacant for over a year so I knew it would be fine for me to use it.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > RoadHead -- Armand
11/03/2014 at 17:11

I never thought about doing the windows down or on a cloudy day. I actually always picked sunny days and rolled all the windows up, but I see what you are saying. I will definitely try both of those. Thanks!

jkm7680 > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 17:12

Oh, Haha. Not bad.

ttyymmnn > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 17:18

What model of Samsung is that?

When you get down to the more budget-y point-and-shoot cameras, there can be few options for more hands-on photography. But most cameras come with at least some sort of manual mode.

As somebody else suggested, see if you can adjust the aperture (the f/number) to a lower number. This gives you a wider aperture, and a shallower depth of field (DOF). That gives you nice blurring of the background (called bokeh ). My limited experience with simpler cameras, as well as Auto mode on higher end cameras, is that they usually shoot at much smaller apertures (f/9-11) to make the image sharper and make sure that everything is in focus. A higher f number (smaller aperture) gives you a greater DOF—more of the image is in focus front-to-back. Think of how you squint your eyes to see something in the distance. You are decreasing the aperture of your eyes, giving them a greater depth of field.

Many cameras have priority modes, where you can choose which one of the three parameters you wish to adjust (shutter speed, aperture, ISO). If your camera has an aperture priority mode, you can crank open your aperture there and the camera will take care of the other settings.

If your camera has a manual mode, take a picture in Auto, look at it on the camera, and have it display the settings for that picture. These are the settings that the camera thinks are ideal. Then, move the camera to Manual and plug in the same settings. This gives you a benchmark from which to start. Then you can adjust the settings one at a time to see what happens. Remember, though, that adjusting one setting will require a balancing adjustment of the others. If you open up the aperture to reduce the DOF and blur the background, this will also let in more light, so you'll have to speed up the shutter or decrease the ISO. It's very much a balancing act, and you learn most of it by trial and error and a lot of reading.

The lighting in your setting is also difficult. Dappled sunlight can be a real pain, because the camera tries to balance out the bright areas of sunlight with the darker areas of shade. Some fill flash can be very helpful here, if your flash is powerful enough. You ought to be able to force the flash to fire even if the camera doesn't think it needs it. This will help to lighten some of the darker areas. It also makes reflective license plates glow, so watch out for that. You can also lighten some of the darker areas in post processing. I use Photoshop Elements, and it's got a nice Shadows adjustment that lightens the dark areas. But too much of it will make the photo look washed out.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > ttyymmnn
11/03/2014 at 17:41

It's a WB150F.

Thanks for the tips, I'll play around some more with the camera!

ttyymmnn > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 17:49

I looked up the model, and it does indeed have both aperture and shutter priority mode, as well as full manual. You should also be able to adjust the ISO, but you may have to be in full manual to do that. Start experimenting!

I would also encourage you to experiment with different angles, particularly height off the ground. We tend to get into the habit of shooting everything from 5.5-6 feet off the ground, because that's where we see things from. Getting lower, even ground level, can make for some very interesting shots. As can getting higher, with a step stool or even a ladder. Probably best not to climb trees, though.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > ttyymmnn
11/03/2014 at 17:51

Some of these were taken at 1-3 feet off the ground (although there were more like that in the last shoot). I will keep experimenting.

Vicente Esteve > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
11/03/2014 at 18:16

Do you know who that house belongs to?

Also, very cool photos.