Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Next to your camera, the most important thing to bring with you to the next car show is lots of memory cards and by that I mean, fast cards with high capacity.
Whether you’re photographing cars indoors or outside, sometimes getting the correct exposure can be tricky, so you should always follow one of Farace’s most important Laws when photographing cars: You should slightly overexpose white and light colored cars and slightly underexpose black or dark colored ones. Otherwise they’ll end up looking like 18% grey to your camera’s metering system.
How I made this shot: The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix S1R full-frame mirrorless camera with a Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens (at 14mm.) The Program mode exposure was 1/1000 sec at f/6.3 and ISO 320. The image file was converted to monochrome using Silver Efex, with Platinum toning from PhotoKit that was further enhanced with the addition of the Glamour Glow filter that’s part of Color Efex.
While I shoot most cars in color I sometimes use the camera’s black and white mode to produce images to produce a vintage look. Can’t make up your mind about whether to shoot color or monochrome? Shoot it in RAW+JPEG and you can make that decision later and convert to monochrome later in the digital darkroom. This is something I often do, especially with portraits, but also applied to the above photograph of a lead sled.
To maintain consistent depth-of-field, I’ll shoot in Aperture Priority mode and typically like bracket exposures in one-third stops and usually one or more of the three shot bracket is usable.
How I made this shot: The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix S1R and Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens at 22mm. The mode exposure was 1/800 sec at f/7.1 and ISO 320.
Tip: Don’t be frustrated by the lack of space and crowded conditions that you’ll encounter at some shows. That’s the time to shoot some images of parts of a car or some its finer details, like hood ornaments. My wife loves shooting close-ups at shows and is constantly shooting hubcaps and wheel details. You should use that lack of space to your advantage by finding small things, such as details in a car’s grille or the sensuous lines of a street rod’s fender and capture them in sharp focus.
That’s one of the reasons that I like to use wide-angle zooms for car shows, especially ones that let me get close and fill up the frame with part or even the entire car while eliminating distractions. The Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art lens that I used for the two featured images focuses as close as 11-inches. Tip 2: When shooting close ups, start by working in close and gradually back off the zoom ring until some extraneous details appear in the frame, then re-zoom to crop them out—in camera. Tip 3: A low angle also helps to simplify the background.
Along with photographer Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photograph with new copies available from Amazon for $22.99 with used copies starting at six bucks. For some reason,(not Barry or I) the Kindle price is really high.