• Graphic Design

How to Shoot Automobiles – All the Essential Tips

We love cars for their characters. Ever thought how to best capture the car which is big on spirit? Well, that’s an interesting challenge. For a start, simply get the car of your dreams in front of your lens and get to shooting. To convey the real essence of the automobile you need to become one with it. Feel its character, try to find some aggressive angles and do your best to capture smooth lines and moody atmosphere. Doing that takes a bit of forethought and work, so here we’ve brought to the table some essential tips on how to photograph cars. Sit back and read a little to become a pro car shooter.

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• Not many of you have been blessed with opportunities to shoot cars in exotic locations such as ocean or canyons, however try shooting your auto in dramatic outdoor surrounding. Find a neutral background that suit the car and accents it. Also think about the purpose of the auto (off-roader, sports car, or city runaround) and the look you are going for. Setting should lend itself to the subject matter.

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• Make some fine-tuning of your car position and choose direction in which the car is facing. After that, back up the proper distance and try zooming-in to fill the frame with automobile. Think about taking several of the same shots with and without the wheels turned.

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• Search for the car’s best angles and altitudes by moving around. Explore different positions until you find the one that works perfectly. Try shooting up at a low angle, which will exaggerate the proportions and make the car look more impressive, or you can shoot from above the car, giving a sort of bird’s eye view. Do a full frontal shot, a full profile, or a 3/4 frontal or rear view of the car. Also you can capture the wide angle view to create a distorted shot with aggressive stance or use extreme tilted angles to give an effect of a motion to a still car. This will make the car jump out of the frame.

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• Ideally, you need lots of soft, evenly-distributed light. Therefore, time your photo session for either dawn or dusk, and don’t shot in the bright sunlight as you’ll confront a melange of harsh glare and harsh shadows on your car. If photographing in studio, you may use a sophisticated mix of shape and fill lights, placing the light source on the back side and in the front part of car correspondingly.

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• Keep in mind that you can as well deploy polarizing filter, if certainly your camera allows the use of filter. A polarizer boosts colors and increases saturation, contrast by eliminating glare and reflections. Thus, you’ll have a full control over the reflections and use them to your artistic advantage.

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• Put a strong emphasis on the details. You can capture the contours of your car, accurately render its curves, take close up shots – overall getting close is good. Think of the car as a whole, then break down the pieces and find what makes this particular car special. The smallest detail can mean the most and talk about the real essence of the vehicle.

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• Take professional action shots of your car to show its fast-moving nature. You can do it with panning that results in a blurred background and blurred wheels with a feeling of a high-speed car motion.

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