Car pics part deux

[COKE CAN]

http://files.bighosting.net/mj30630.jpg
http://files.bighosting.net/el30631.jpg
http://files.bighosting.net/jg30632.jpg
http://files.bighosting.net/sy30633.jpg

[COKE CAN]

Last time I posted car pics (http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=65373), I was informed I had a few things to work on. Here is attempt part 2. Enjoy.

[SonicZoom]

well yea its better, however try to keep everying in the frame within at least 5 stops. Including the shade and bright sunlight creates 2 extreme forms of light, and if you meter for the car in the shade, then the sunlight areas are going to be nearly white..

#1 expresses what i'm trying to say. What exposure mode are you shooting under? Full manual?

[COKE CAN]

well yea its better, however try to keep everying in the frame within at least 5 stops. Including the shade and bright sunlight creates 2 extreme forms of light, and if you meter for the car in the shade, then the sunlight areas are going to be nearly white..

#1 expresses what i'm trying to say. What exposure mode are you shooting under? Full manual?

Full manual, this was my first shoot with the new camera. How would I fix that, position the subject differently?

[musthavemuzk]

the stuff around the car is what distracts me. the building, garbage can, railing.
cloneout the yellow post in the first pic would help.
i like the shot from above.
i see an IC there. how about a nose shot down low of just that? or mayb a little bit of the car so it shows where it is located at.

windows closed might help.

i cannot comment on light and dark too much yet as i am still working on that myself.

just commenting on things i see.

Monty

[cmM]

nice car, pretty cool shots.

That dumpster ain't your best choice of a background though :D

[COKE CAN]

nice car, pretty cool shots.

That dumpster ain't your best choice of a background though :D

For some reason, I always like seeing you post. I think you state everything in a nice manner and it's understandable. I'm new, I just bought my DRebel 1 week ago, how do I meter light? It would be nice if people explain how to fix what they see as wrong. But you, you didn't like the dumpster, thats easy to fix next time. http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif

[RbrtPtikLeoSeny]

Pretty good pics! Good angles, nice car, not the best background, but I'm sure you'll find something better next time.

[cmM]

For some reason, I always like seeing you post. I think you state everything in a nice manner and it's understandable. I'm new, I just bought my DRebel 1 week ago, how do I meter light? It would be nice if people explain how to fix what they see as wrong. But you, you didn't like the dumpster, thats easy to fix next time. http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif
Hey thanks for that :). Now I know I'm not an annoying post-whore :-P
Ok now let me answer (or try to answer) your question: what SonicZoom is talking about is the dynamic range. These digital cameras don't have as much dynamic range as film. Basically dynamic range means how many tones your sensor can see (how many shades of grey). In a scene where you have bright sunlight as well as shade, your eye can see details in both areas of your scene, but your camera won't, so somewhere, some detail will be lost. Where? Well, if you point at the shaddow when you half-press the shutter, you meter for the shade, which means your bright part of the frame will be over exposed and you'll lose detail. If you do it for the bright part, you will underexpose your other half (the shade), and lose detail there. So basically, you have to be aware of how much light difference there is within the picture, and stay within reasonable limits in order to be able to expose the scene properly.

Metering modes on the Drebel is not selectable, so you don't have much control over that, which is no biggie especially if most of the frame will be the car. Taking pics of cars can be tricky sometimes, because how metering works is it tries to average to 18% grey. So if you have a really dark car that might throw your exposure off, or a white car, same thing, just in the other direction. I overcome this by shooting RAW. That gives you more flexibility over exposure, so you can just adjust it later when you convert.


...ok, gotta stop now, if I make this post any longer, you'll get bored reading it ;):-P
Oh, just another point (it's a matter of personal prefference though), get low, like on your knees for some shots. I love the way that looks: here's an example of that, taken by me earlier this year:

http://www.cmuntean.net/images/feb20aut/feb20aut7.jpg

[COKE CAN]

I shoot in RAW, now, how would I adjust something like that?

Thanks for the post cmM I do appreciate it.

[cmM]

by changing the exposure compensation in your RAW conversion software. What do you use to convert your RAW files?

[COKE CAN]

by changing the exposure compensation in your RAW conversion software. What do you use to convert your RAW files?

Zoom browser.

[cmM]

Zoom browser.
never used this one... but there has to an exposure compensation slider somewhere

[COKE CAN]

never used this one... but there has to an exposure compensation slider somewhere

It came with the camera. I use it to choose what photos to open in Photo Shop.

[cmM]

when you open the raw file in zoom browser you have the controls on the right side. In the middle, there's a "digital exposure compansation" slider. That's how you adjust your exposure compensation.

[COKE CAN]

when you open the raw file in zoom browser you have the controls on the right side. In the middle, there's a "digital exposure compansation" slider. That's how you adjust your exposure compensation.

I'll check that out when I get home. I never payed any attention seeing as I just convert the files I want using ZoomBrowser. I'll check that out! Thanks!