My first attempts at doing this... please give me some tips (a.k.a. criticism) if you have any.
Quick question though, why do my pics all have a B back button icon in the bottom left...??
Thanks in advance!!
3rd and 4th shots are great. What kills the other shots, for me, is the lack of motion blur in the foreground. It's a problem with certain angles, camera heights and focal length. If you see that effect, increase the shutter speed until all of the foreground is also blurred. Otherwise, a pretty nice set of natural looking shots
EDIT : I posted the following on my league's forum (not 'my' league as such, but one I help run) a couple of weeks ago. It is not meant to be comprehensive or "a definitive guide", it was just a rough set of ideas to help a couple of people out. It's point #5 - the one I make reference to above - that is my personal beef with a lot of shots. For me, it completely ruins a shot, taking it from 'wow' to 'meh' in an instant. I've done it myself in the past, by accident, but it's now almost the first thing I look for when I take my shots.
I don't want this to sound preachy and big-headed, I need to get that out of the way first. God knows I am not the last word when it comes to screenshots and I look back at some of my earliest shots and cringe. What I'm about to say is really just some general screenshot advice, to try and give things a bit more 'pazazz'. In other words, please don't take offence as none is meant or intended
1. Go easy on the focus depth (the first slider bar). When you go really low on that F-stop you often run the risk of making shots look like shots of models. F4 to F6 usually provide the best balance between the focus of the car and the surroundings. Anything less than F4 should really be reserved for close-up shots, detail of bodywork, that type of thing
2. Choose your weather carefully. Some times of the day and some weather conditions can create really 'flat' looking shots, with colours that don't shine and dull reflections.
3. Make good use of the contrast and exposure settings in the filter screen. Those two settings alone can transform an image.
4. Motion blur. Use it when you've got a lot of background showing. Very few games really shine when you study the background details, those are the areas that don't tend to be really detailed as it's just a waste of resources when you're racing. The base of trees, for example, is something you really want to avoid showing as it will instantly break that "holy crap" moment.
5. Study your shot carefully before taking the screenshot. Look for motion blur anomalies, on the car and the surroundings. The long shutter time settings (the 'lowest' - ie, longest - is 1/30) can create weirdness where the car meets the background and also in the track/grass surfaces in the foreground.
6. Don't be afraid to focus on something other than maybe the main object. I've taken a few shots where the focus has been the 2nd or 3rd car back, to create more of a sense of depth to the shot. Even de-focussing the car slightly can make it a little more believable, if you're after a shot that is trying to be realistic, rather than show-stopping.
7. Use the filters wisely and to your advantage. Play with the sliders to see how they change the image, enhancing specific areas. Practice will soon mean you know which filter (and at what level) is going to work well with any given image on screen. But play around, sometimes an odd choice of filter can work wonders.
8. Look back at the image afterwards and be your own worst critic. Don't be afraid to bin the shot if you don't think it "sparkles" in any way. I have binned probably 5x the number of shots I still have on my drive (and I have thousands upon thousands)
9. Draw inspiration from others and do so unashamedly. We all do it, few of us admit to it, but take ideas from other screenshotters and incorporate them into your own shots. I learnt a lot by sub-consciously picking up ideas from kelnor34 and FlyPT , both of whom have long taken outstanding shots - their shots are often to be seen in SMS marketing shots.
10. Keep taking shots and enjoy doing so. If you get bored of it, stop for a while and come back to it again at some point. We can all overdose at times.
EDIT : And since this is a screenshot thread, here's a screenshot