Venari's Snaps: Nuffin' Special

Hi BigdaddyGT

re: the RS200 pic:

I like your entry, but when I brought it up fullsize, it was just a touch blurred. The idea is fab, and the 'moment' is spot on - so I thought I'd comment. Hope you don't mind, but I'd love to see you make a great shot of this, so I thought I'd suggest a couple of improvements.

Get the replay out again, and get to the same shot. I can see you've worked hard to get a nice wideangle shot, and can also see that if you push closer, the car seems to distort with such a wide angle. Perhaps you can sacrifice a little of the wide angle to get a better composition?

I would try to a camera position further back, and then zoom in a little more. All the dirt in the left is great - keep that, the attitude and position of the car is good too, but if you lose a little of the right-hand side of the shot - maybe losing the orange post so the car is a bit further off to the right, I think that would frame the car better. 'Composition' is all about balance - read up on it on the internet, I'm sure there are stacks of articles. Here, you've got the dirt, the car, and the background and sky around it. The orange string on the right (IMO) isn't a strong enough item to try to keep in the shot.

The bright car and the dark green background behind are excellent - if anything you could try to raise/lower the camera a little to frame the car differently, but I think you've got a good height right there. The sky is then a matter of looking hard and tilting the camera until you think you've found the right balance.

Next is the technical settings bit - there is a huge compromise we all face here - how fast to set the shutter speed to get a clear image, but still want wheels seen to be spinning.

Set the focus on the car's doorhandle or a little rearwards, set the shutter speed to really fast - 1/2000, say, and then save a whole range of photos onto your USB from focal length 1.4 all the way to 22. Leave the PS2 on, whip out the USB stick, and then you can look through them as a slideshow on the PC and see the differences develop.

When you've picked your focal length from all the pictures, put the USB back in the PS2, bring the photo up, select the focal length you chose, then trial some shutter speeds. Some won't work and will be obvious from the PS2 pic, but you never know, the 1/60th shot might be totally fantastic. I am constantly surprised with what comes off my USB Stick that I thought wouldn't work - and does. Try a good range of speeds, save them and take them back to the PC.

It's hard, boring work, but this approach gets you a feel for what might work, helping you to close in on better settings for a great shot more quickly in future.

I think the result will be a shot with more focus on the car and the action (dirt), but will still have the overall feel of the scene without losing the car in all the scenery and fluff.

You mentioned some things you had done to the colour - you could do the same again, it seems to work well.

I think you've got a good shot there, and it seems you do too, but you're not quite sure. A little bit of work, and I think you'll have a really great photo.

Have fun!

Venari.

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LdS

wow, great photos. The Aston Martin ones are just fantastic.

Just one thing: why do you have so many repeatedly photos?

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Gucio

Great shoots. These cars in Beacon hill are very impressive.

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