Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I was in this restaurant and I asked for something herby. They gave me a Volkswagen with no driver.—Tim Vine
When photographing any cars, one of the most important things to keep in mind is the camera angle you select. Choosing the best possible camera position can simplify the overall composition by eliminating any distractions you might see at eye level, which is the way many people photograph cars. Using low or high angles not only provide a different perspective for the viewer but can often minimize background clutter.
For Example…
When photographing cars, some pros will use twenty-foot stepladders* to provide a dramatic angle but even using a short, two-step kitchen step stool—please don’t stand on a chair—will get you higher than eye level. Before schlepping any kind of support to a car show, email one of the organizers for permission, especially if it’s an indoor show, to ask about their policy regarding any kind of camera supports including tripods and monopods as well as ladders. Getting permission, even a permit if required, will make your photography go much smoother without any unpleasant encounters.
How I made this photograph: My wife and I have an affinity for Volkswagen cars. Early in our marriage she owned a VW Cabriolet that she dearly loved; it was her dream car for a long time. After a brief flirtation with a couple of Mercedes Benz SLKs—one good one, one bad one—she traded the bad one for a 2016 VW Beetle convertible that we still own and I often drive. In the above shot of a VW Beetle parked on a supermarket parking lot, I held a Sony point-and-shoot digital camera over my head to create a classic “Hail Mary” shot. The Motion Blur effect was added later in Photoshop to, well, give it a sense of motion.
If ladders or stools won;t work for you, don’t forget the classic Hail Mary option that works great with DSLR and mirrorless cameras, especially those that have fully articulated screens. Just aim the screen at you an hold the camera as high as you can. Bang, zoom you got the shot. In the above image, the camera used was a 3.2-megapixel Konica Minolta diMage Xt point-and-shoot camera that didn’t have any kind of retractable screen, so it was indeed a Hail Mary shot.
If you can’t get higher, try a low angle. The best shots can be made when you’re sitting or lying on the ground pointing your camera at angles up at the car. (Tip: Wear your grungies.) One of the disadvantages of using low camera angles with wide-angle lenses is that sometimes a car’s wheels will not photograph as perfectly round because of distortion at the edges of the lens, focal length and camera angle. If that kind of technical problem bothers you, you’ll probably need to shoot with a view camera or get a tilt-shift lens. This kind of stuff doesn’t bother me.
*What did I make photographs after climbing up a ladder? You can read all about in the post about how I photographed a small car collection.
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