exigeracer's Car Photography (Spring '10 opener)

[exigeracer]

Hey guys, wanted to get some feedback on these shots. I've been spending time looking a lot at pro material, and they always prefer using looon lenses, and it's just not clicking for me when I shoot at 70mm. Here's pretty much the same shot, but with 20mm difference. I can't quite decide which I like better (although it's not the best shot to begin with. I would've loved it if the car weren't so close to the overall tone of its surroundings.

And my preferred shot of the bunch.

Also, here are a couple from last week. Which is better, higher angle with a strong white/blue contrast, or lower angle but less of the play between hue and tone.

Oh, and here's one of an M5 with nice wheels. Very point and shoot in composition, but the colours turned out wonderful.

 

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The problem with the Porsche shots are that the tree is coming out of the car... I know that you unfortunately don't have much control over the car and its surroundings but I find it really distracting.

The first TT shot is a bit boring but the second one is really fantastic. Great angle, well shot and good overall tone use.

With the BMW shot, the reflections on the car are a little too strong (the white from what I assume is a shop front), I’d be inclined to try and burn it a little so it darkens the area and takes the focus away from it. Apart from that it’s a pretty interesting shot.

 

[Beerz]

The Porsche one at 70mm is actually working better for me than the 50(?)mm one. Can't really say exactly why, but it just "clicks" better, imo.

The other shot with better composition is really great, even though the car has basically the wrong colour for the set it's in. But it still works quite well.

The 2nd Audi looks far better than the 1st one, as to me it makes the car's colour stand out more, and despite not having such a high blue/dirty white contrast, makes the car pop a lot more due to the more 'personal' angle and a good depth of field, eliminating all that distracts from the car and is seen on the shot from above.
Really love it. 👍

The M5 also came out gorgeous, I especially like the overall colours on the shot.
If it had been shot from a lower angle (mainly to try and cover the overly bright lights from the store) and it had a bit more of depth, perfection had been achieved.
Still, I saved it to my pc (as I do with every shot I see and like, hence the xxGb of pics stored), but I tried a little experiment on it, colour-wise.
I can either send it to you by PM or post it here so I can have your feedback. Your choice. 👍

 

[exigeracer]

The M5 also came out gorgeous, I especially like the overall colours on the shot.
If it had been shot from a lower angle (mainly to try and cover the overly bright lights from the store) and it had a bit more of depth, perfection had been achieved.
Still, I saved it to my pc (as I do with every shot I see and like, hence the xxGb of pics stored), but I tried a little experiment on it, colour-wise.
I can either send it to you by PM or post it here so I can have your feedback. Your choice. 👍

Any lower and the snowbank would've obstructed the wheels too much.

I guess you could PM me yer version.

Thanks guys for the feedback 👍

 

[Cano]

may I ask what was in the other side of the TT that pushed you to shoot the shady side of the car? if the photo was taken from the other side where the sun was hitting it, it would have been awesome, also one of the rear of the car with that light, from the same distance as you shot the second version. damn dude if you had a large white something and reflected some light on the dark side of the TT it would have been perfect.

the M5 shot is awesome.

 

[exigeracer]

There was huuuuge white lettering promoting the interior design show on that side that Audi was sponsoring. Literally top to bottom, too big to clone out. I would've totally shot the other half too.

 

[Cano]

yeah, that is what I tought, there had to be something incredibly ugly for you to pass up the nice light.

 

[exigeracer]

Lovin' this location. Definitely going to have go back with a car sometime. I'm very satisfied with this first one.

And more M3s poppin' up by the day.

 

[exigeracer]

Going more for the wall colours & textures than the car's composition. It wasn't even that great of a Porsche (C4S). Just to the right of the frame is a garage door with Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes and BMW logos on them from some old tenant. They're all peeling off and it would've made for a great little shot. Oh well.

Just around the corner I started playing around with getting a notion of depth with my stock lens. Got a little grasp of drop-off, but I think I compromised too much detail on the car. Too soft?

 

[ferrari_chris]

Yes. Everything looks blurry. Everything.

 

[Azuremen]

Yeah, that last one is much too soft.

That garage bit is quite nice with the brick and colors from the doors. I like it.

 

[exigeracer]

Better? Shmeh, looks a little unnatural to me.

 

[Nicksfix]

very nice pics exigeracer 👍

 

[ferrari_chris]

Better? Shmeh, looks a little unnatural to me.

Yip, looks better to me. 👍

 

[Beerz]

I think it looks great and very natural (just as a legit pic with a great DOF), only thing not quite there is the right of the rear bumper and a bit on the roof as well.

Other than that, great pic. 👍
And you do live in a place where great shooting locations come by the handful. Lucky bastard...

 

[exigeracer]

Whatchall think? Not too used to shooting with the intentions of Black and White, but I think this sort of turned out. I wasn't expecting it, but it needed something as the colours were pretty flat.

(bit of a cleanup done)

 

[boiltheocean]

Not a fan of the mods done to the car itself but the tone is all spot on.

 

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I like this one. Certainly works well in B&W. 👍

 

[exigeracer]

Feedback if you're feelin it?

 

[Speedster502]

Pretty nice set if you ask me.

BMW Is it me, or is this shot a bit yellow-ish? Other than that, it's alright, background is a bit distracting such as the telegraph pole growing out of the roof of the car. Perhaps if you'd done a slightly different angle, maybe more straight on than the current one then you'd avoid the distractions.

The old red car These two shots are pretty nice too, must say I'm a bigger fan of the second picture rather than the first. The reflections in the first are nice, not too distracting in my opinion and held exaggerate the lines of the car. As I said I prefer the second shot, I like the way the car sits in the right hand side of the picture and the way the background seems to bode really well with the car. You've got no major distractions in this shot either. My only minor gripe with it is it looks like it's tinging a bit red especially on the bricks. Also, I might suggest experimenting with cropping it a little bit tighter.

White Car Nice work, although I'm not sure I like the higher angle. My only other probelm with it is that you seem to have lost some of the details on the car due to it being a tad over-exposed around the hood area. Other than that, I like it!

Anyway, good work! I just feel like giving a bit more criticism seeming your already at a much higher level of work compared to most of us!

 

[Cano]

the Buick pictures are awesome man, I really like them and the way they are composed, I just think they need a bit more contrast overall, a bit more black and a bit more darkness in the bulding behind, I think the vignetting in the Healy picture would work better with the Skylark, it'd add more drama, but that is just me (:

got damn I'd SSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOO use your city as location, heck if I lived there I wouldnt fight that much with finding good spots for photoshooting, I'd just walk to the alley behind and have a great place. Damn you.

Edit: maybe a tad red on the whole skylark pics would add greatly to both. And remember, PROVIDE BIG!!!

 

[boiltheocean]

I'm getting abit of yellow look on the first pic same as Speedster but other than that I like what I'm seeing. I'd give so much to be in a city like yours. So many nice cars in nice locations.

 

[exigeracer]

I actually used the same preset for all the shots, I guess the ambiance in the e30 shot took more of the warm bias. And I totally apologize about that lamppost above that BMW. That's just being lazy and not looking for such things. Also, I could've spent more than 30 seconds playing around with exposures on the Healey shot. I just snapped the photo, not thinking what kind of photo I wanted it to end up. I vignetted the crap out of it, so I could've played with the overall exposures seeing as I wasn't keeping the background lit anyways. The liberties and shortcuts with post I guess...

Thanks for the feedback though guys, I really appreciate it.

Here're a couple rollers in these first days of true summer weather. The first is a bit shmeh, hard to get a decent depth in the red paint under direct sunlight like that.

And this one was just to get my bearings with the pan and shutter, but it turned out so good. Classy guy, probably the cleanest-design cars in the last decade and a half, and the colours came in just perfect.

 

[Carlos]

I'm not feeling the Audi shot. It's not sharp and that ruins it for me really. But i really really like the Porsche shot! That photo is like, BAMMM there it is.. You get me? haha!

The black and grey photo of the WRX is just awesome..

hawt!

 

[exigeracer]

My real world dreamcar:

Going for a bit of a Miami feel here, more green:

 

[Speedster502]

Nice set, can't really think of anything to complain about apart from in the first Audi one you've got a bit of glare coming of the chrome trim on the grill maybe you could photoshop it out or something as its a bit distracting, and in the last Golf one I think you could probably get rid of your shadow in the bottom right corner too. Although it must be said, they aren't exactly msjor things. Great work. 👍

 

[exigeracer]

Thanks! I agree, not major grievances, but they aren't major photographs. I really need to finally get to that next level, of taking less conservative shots. I always walk up to a potential subject and automatically start shooting the usual angles, but I need to get a more creative vibe and feel out something more interesting.

 

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If you can rope a friend in to going with you to do some guerilla tactic shots, and get your friend to hold up one of those folding reflectors (I think about $50 on ebay) to bounce light onto the cars to give them more pop, it would probably dramatically improve the shots. It only takes something as simple as that to make an average decent shot turn into a wow shot.

 

[Cano]

ypu just need to take THE step and go back to the guy with the Packard Clipper and incredible house and arrange a photoshoot. I really like the colours on the Audi wagon one. The red in the bricks rule, hahaha, nice place too, and nicely solved even if it was a hard one to acomplish, due to the place.

 

[ExigeEvan]

exigeracer, where would it be possible to get a larger resolution of the Elise rear shots you put in the HYSAGT thread? Checked your quiet noises and here but couldn't find them.