Porsche - If you look at the picture write a comment Please!

[FocalSpeed]

http://www.chaudtight.com/mani/porsche.jpg

What do you think?

[SoCal69]

OK, I looked so I guess I am obligated to comment...

Sorry, but this one does nothing for me. First off, I should say that I'm not a big auto fan. I do enjoy the occasional auto photo, but usually when it is of an unusual, unique or antique car. If the photo is capturing only a small part, it usually has to be a significant feature to hold my interest, such as an emblem/logo, some unique or unusual styling, feature or perspective. Unfortunately, this photo does none of that in my mind. I am not sure what it is, but I am assuming your subject is the logo and the parking brake lever. To me, that just doesn't grab my attention. Don't get me wrong, I am sure many will see it as you intended...it's just not me.

As far as the rest, I think you have a good angle/point of view on the subject, but you include too much in the composition, including the gear shifter in the background. I'm not sure whether less DOF is appropriate here. I might have gone with a smaller aperature to bring a lot more into focus. I think the angle and proximity of the logo are strong enough to allow for that.

As I said, this is just my opinion. I wasn't going to even comment, but since you asked...

[FocalSpeed]

OK, I looked so I guess I am obligated to comment...

As I said, this is just my opinion. I wasn't going to even comment, but since you asked...

Thanks alot for commenting, this is what I need, to get perspective's of different minds to see who likes what :D

[GPR1]

I would have had the e-brake handle extend almost to the far corner of the picture. Also, the depth of field is so shallow that "Porsche" is not all in focus. I think it should all be in focus.

Greg

[snorrish]

It doesn't really capture the essence of a porche (maybe that wasn’t what you were trying to do anyway though), and the e-break isn’t exactly the most exciting part of a car…

…but I still appreciate the unique perspective, if only there was more to look at.


/my highly unprofessional take

[Radtech1]

I don't care for it on both technical and content grounds. On the technical ground I have to restate what GPR1 noted about the shallow depth of focus, that the word "Porsche" should be in focus all way down.

On the content ground I concur with SoCal69 in that there is just nothing special about the subject. I have never been in a Porsche, so I don't know that that is the emergency brake handle. For all I know it is the end of a Porsche que stick, or perhaps a Porsche personal gratification device (if that's not being redundant). But whenever it is, it neither invigorates my spirit nor stirs my curiosity, which I think would be the goal of this type of "brochure" photography.

If you wanted to do close-up, perhaps you could have chosen something more iconographic of the car. If I were to reshoot these http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=24599 with the intention of going as tight as you did, I would probably choose the steering wheel hub. I would like to look at the logo, with the speedometer in the background (subliminal message: fast) as opposed to emergency break handle (if that's what this is) with its message of stop.

Rad

[FocalSpeed]

Lets put it this way, I got shots of the Gear shifter, lets say I'm taking pictures of the cars certain features... Not all cars come with aluminum/carbon fiber hand break levers... I tried to capture that... I also have pics of the gear shifter which I will post later on.

But don't be shy bring on the comments, negative or positive I'm ready to read!

Thanks for all the people who replied!

[Radtech1]

Lets put it this way, I got shots of the Gear shifter, lets say I'm taking pictures of the cars certain features... Not all cars come with aluminum/carbon fiber hand break levers...

OK, if the brake lever is GOT to be it, how about changing perspective, to demonstrate more of what you're trying to show. Imagine a sitting in the car, take a look at where your left knee is, what if you were to shoot the break clever from that prospective? It would definitely show the image subject (the break lever) in a greater context, i.e., between the two front seats. Also, it would be a point of view that your client would not be accustomed to seeing and therefore, might the more interesting as a photograph.

Even if it is carbon fiber wrapped titanium, it is still an emergency break handle. You have one heck of a task if your job is to make it look interesting.

Rad

[stopbath]

:oops: That's rather phallic looking! :oops:
Really the depth of field is just too short. I also don't see the need to focus attention on it. Really, I could care less what material the stick is made out of. Ok, it's shiny. Does it jam on the brakes any better than other material?

Sorry, this photo doesn't do anything for me..

[Mark Kemp]

Afraid I agree with most of the preceding comments -

Good colours and exposure and some punch, basically not a bad idea either but

too shallow DOF

The handle is not dynamic enough (i.e. slanting top left to bottom right is not generally a composition that suggests action)

The bright highlights on the gear knob are distracting

etc. etc. as others have said

[charlesu]

This image isn't too dissimilar from what you might find in some of their literature to feature some of the options like a painted center console (yummy, love speed yellow) or the carbon fiber kit. The execution is off a bit for reasons mentioned above. Mostly, the composition could be more compelling. Gotta make me want to blow $2k on carbon fiber (plastic doodads) upgrades. And the Porsche logo should be sharp.

However, much applause for taking a different look at a car picture. And for sticking your neck out on it. I don't shoot too many cars and readily admit I stink at it but I will go ahead and post 1-2 here for fun.

http://www.runways.com/images/even%20better.jpg

This is a more fun look at cars and their evolution. The Beetle was designed by Ferdinand Porsche. Later, his son designed the 911. Hmmmm.....some striking similarities here though 30 years separates the fundamental beginnings of the cars. Well that and about 250 hp.

http://www.runways.com/images/progeny-web.jpg

[Mark Kemp]

:D I have a mate with a porsche and I like to remind him that its a dome shaped, German, rear engined, aircooled car or basically just a VW with big ideas :D

BTW - as you say the gearstick shot is fine as a product shot for a catalogue. The criticisms that were made were mostly looking at it as a picture viewed on its own, purely for its pictorial content. I think that an image to be viewed for its own sake is a different thing to a professionally taken image intended to illustrate something.

[Leighow]

In '63 I bought a Beetle for $2400 as I was only earning about $7,000 and the all my buddies Porsche's cost $3,600 (maybe I will should post these images!.) But what a car the Porsche was...

My eyes worked from the bottom right to the top left in this image.
My thought at the time was that -- except for the word Porsche -- this looked like a Miele vacuum cleaner. Another German design!

PS

As a retiree the closest thing to your Porsche thatI can afford is probable a Mazda 3 Sport. .... hummm I do love the look of that Mazda 8 .... but.... my '04 income in constant dollars is not that much different that it was in '63.

Zoom ... zoom

[chris.bailey]

I looked hard at this to try and add some new comments.

1) the Porsche being part out of focus is annoying and technically detracting.

2) the composition makes it look as though it could be just about anything with Porsche written on it. To me at first it looked like a Porsche CF screw driver or somesuch.

3) the handle is too seperated from the remainder to enable you to picture them together. Too much black in the background. As my photography teacher used to say "if you want big squares of black or white, go and do modern art and get out of my darkroom"

4) there is no human element, a hand or a leg somewhere would have created some level of information as to how this thing interacts with something else