Car/truck photography

A friend has asked me to shoot a few of his trucks in the next few weeks, and I was wondering if anyone out there had any experience shooting autos/trucks etc. My main concern is all the chrome, that will be a pain in the rear end will likely be a big issue since we are shooting outside. Any advice in general? I'm planning on shooting a bunch of different angles/compositions, but I guess the biggest limiting factor is the light. I'm going to try to look at some of the truck magazines out there to get a feel for what the magazine folks like, if I can do my part hopefully these will be submitted to a publication or three. Thanks for any insight y'all can provide.

Since this is in a studio, it won't apply perfectly, but it still is good food for thought:

http://www.prophotolife.com/2008/07/...in-the-studio/

Jason- You might try HDR. I have used this shooting vehicles with excellent results. Taking 3 pictures (bracketing) in 1+, 1, and -1.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob Miner

Jason- You might try HDR. I have used this shooting vehicles with excellent results. Taking 3 pictures (bracketing) in 1+, 1, and -1.

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Rob, HDR had crossed my mind too. I've never played with it much, but I was thinking that bracketing some exposures for this shoot could be beneficial.

Thanks for the input folks.

Jason,
You can try using polariser to cut off the reflections. Several years back, when I was using slides, I had photographed vehicles near a mountain pass using polariser. It was good. So you may try it as well.
Regards,
Sabyasachi

Shoot from low down and on a 45 degree . Front to back and back to front. Fill the frame. Put the car in the shade or at least have it all on one light tone( no shade/sun combo). The polariser will work, shoot in RAW. If you need more lighjt take a time exposure for DOF rather then up the ISO. Shoot ISO 100. You can enlarge with no noise. This my truck "Blackie The Truck" Punch it up on Google.... http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...ejpgs.jpg1.jpg

Shoot cars on relatively bright overcast days. Shooting cars in the bright sun will not yield desireable results most times.

Overcast is important and try to avoid reflections from other materials. I go to car shows all the time and have a great time shooting them. I also look to shoot them in the shade.
I then work in PS to get out all the misc stuff around the car out. I can't post images in this forum otherwise I would give you some examples.
As mentioned a polarizer is important!

I photographed a car show as a favor to a friend to help with a local charity. Certainly not something I was used to, but I found a polarizer seemed to help and I lucked out that it was bright overcast conditions. The cars were moved to a location in the lot that I chose (based on light direction and background, very little for options). It was really hard keeping discernable reflections off of the cars. Shooting from a lower angle seemed to help. Believe it or not this is in the middle of "box store" central. There is a road right behind the car, I had to wait for traffic to move through.

Good luck!

Hi,

Years ago, I did a photoshoot with NOPI. Besides the traditional stuff, they LOVE angles.

Here is one.

Thanks!