First Honda S2000 Shoot

I've taken roughly 2000 photos with my new Rebel XSi but had yet to do a "true" photo shoot with my car. I got home late from church today but still had about an hour of light to possibly shoot in so I took the car downtown to see if I could find a suitable spot. I couldn't be THAT picky but I think it worked out pretty well. I shot against a mural just for the colors (I know it's distracting from the main subject but it was a neat backdrop) and then in a loading zone in a back alley.

These were mostly shot with the 18-55mm kit lens since I needed its wide-angle capabilities. The zoomed shots (and even some of the distance ones) were mostly taken with my 50mm f/1.4 as it does tend to be crisper overall.

Since I didn't have time to mess around with settings too much, I shot in aperture priority mode and let the camera figure out my shutter speeds.

For post-processing, I used the basic Canon software to adjust my white balance and sharpen the colors and features slightly.

1. Against the mural

i like the 1st and 4th, however thats such a busy background in 1 that my eye is drawn to the mural, try moving the car a bit more next time, trying to get more aggressive angles and more pleasing to the eye, i think we only really need one from high up.

The mural is definitely busy, as I knew it would be, but it was so colorful that I shot against it anyways...

Aggressive angles and different posturing of the car will happen next time. I didn't have time except to park the car and shoot until light failed. The 50mm prime could have kept me going a while longer but I couldn't get far enough away to use it properly (walls got in the way).

The top view with the top off is amazing, but needs a more dynamic angle.

Good start here!

Love it, White S2k = <3

#2 and #3 are fantastic, congrats!

Thanks, guys - appreciate the nice comments.

More importantly, what should I do different? Dynamic angles and such are a given the next time I shoot. It was getting dark so I'll remedy that with an earlier time of the day but what about colors? Contrast? General setup and composition? It's a fairly busy background - does it work and if not, why not? I picked it for the orange/red brick to make the pictures pop a bit but is it really suitable?

In other words, what would you like more of and what would you like less of?

i love em. s2ks are such sick cars. i want to sell my civic and put a dp on one of them but id be getting myself into trouble doing that with my current job so no go.

ill be shooting a bmw z4 soon hopefully they come out nice.

Don't! See the link in my Sig.

They look OK.

If it's supposed to be a car shot, then I'd like to see a tighter crop that puts attention on the car, as in this: MOVE YOUR FEET!
#1 is a good "Car + landscape" shot, & would be good filler in a magazine. I wouldn't be hanging it on my wall, though.

It works to make the car pop out, but again, I'd prefer to see less of it.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #7302421
Don't! See the link in my Sig.

I'm not talking about three hours earlier, I'm talking about an hour earlier. The angle of the sun would still allow the car to not experience direct sunlight but would give me a lot more shooting time. Believe me, I'm not going to be out there shooting in bright light. Way too much glare and reflection to deal with.

The car was well protected from direct light - this was an hour before sunset - so I could still get there relatively early and have good shooting light. The car is facing south so the sun is setting to the west, which means the side walls are blocking it from the car.

So what would make them better?

It's a shoot with the car as the main subject but it was as much about "old vs new" or "shiny vs dull" as anything. Call it a car themed shoot, not just a car shoot.

I have some tighter crops but didn't post them. Perhaps that's one thing I've learned - post very different shots instead of just crops of essentially the same shot (the frontal and top ones are all quite similar)....

Thanks for the critique - I'll keep it in mind the next time. I plan on reshooting here and taking into account the feedback I've been given.

****ing clean car. Nice shots

might i suggest parking the car in the space of the mural and try to get an angle where the car is like in the mural...

love the third and fifth shot, awesome location for a shoot

I was thinking of using the sky to add some highlights, like in the Shelby GT-350 in this:
https://photography-on-the.net …hp?p=6129597&po​stcount=52

OTOH, white cars can stand some direct sun, so try both ways & see what you like best.