In the first installment of this series, we discussed what you can do to catch the eye of an editor when displaying your car at shows, many of which on the national level, are well-attended by magazine editors and the contributors who produce many of the features. One of my suggestions is that you consider that anyone taking more than a cursory glance at your car could be an editor or freelance contributor looking to make your car a star. But what about submitting your car to a publication, what are the secrets to catching their attention?

It starts with photography: Virtually all of the true buff books -- those magazines that focus in on a specific make or model, like Mustang Enthusiast rather than Motor Trend -- have a department known as Readers’ Rides (or something similar), where readers submit photos and a short description. The problem is that in many instances, the photos are not nearly publication-quality. Mustang Enthusiast’s editor Larry Jewett explains. “Quite frankly the biggest problem that we face is that people who make all the time and effort to build up a car only to send in dark or unfocused photos. The photos need to make a strong first impression. To send in anything less than your best is a bad strategy.”

So the first step in standing out from the crowd is to submit sharp, well-exposed photos. A front three-quarter shot is probably the best starting point, but avoid taking an eye-level photograph; get down low for a dynamic effect or grab a ladder from the garage and get above the car. And if the rear of the car is something special, like a 1966-1967 Dodge Charger, make sure you get shots of the rear of the car as well.

Be sure to consider the setting: Anyone can take a photo in the driveway, a parking lot, or in a field of grass, but how interesting is that? Think about locations that will enhance your car, allowing it to stand out without being a distraction. If you have a light-colored car, find a building with some old, weathered bricks as a background. Or if you have a dark-colored or black car, find something with some contrast. I like to use corrugated metal, especially with vertical ridges, for best effect. If you must use a driveway or parking lot, hose it down or shoot just after it’s rained; the reflective affect of the water enhances almost any car.

And then there’s what I call period-correct settings, used when shooting vintage cars. Old diners, gas stations, or commercial structures that were built about the same time as your car often make standout backgrounds. It actually doesn’t take much more effort to shoot a car with a great background than it does to shoot a boring shot in your driveway. Half the fun is finding great locations that show off your car!

And what about lighting? The worst time of day to shoot almost any car is in the middle of the day, unless it is cloudy. Try to shoot within an hour of sunrise or sunset for best effect. Photographers call this the “golden light” for good reason. The color spectrum is much richer early or late in the day and this works to great effect, especially on red and black cars. Because light levels are lower than at mid-day, your camera will select a slower shutter speed and wider aperture, so be sure to bring a tripod and use the camera’s self-timer capability to get the best results. Hand-holding your camera below 1/30^th of a second will almost always result in blurry or out-of-focus images.

Click to Buy

It’s not usually customary to send a lot of detail shots in when submitting a car for a Reader’s Ride submission, but if you have aspirations of seeing your car in a multi-page feature, including shots of your engine and interior certainly won’t hurt your chances. And again, technique comes into play. One of my editors, Brad Bowling from Cars and Parts, has made it clear that he has a real pet peeve. “If I can tell you used a flash, the photo goes in the trash.”

While flash photography might work for taking photos of your six-year-old’s birthday party, it won’t work on your six-year-old Mustang. Again, a tripod is the essential tool, no matter what kind of camera you have. And, since most of us don’t have access to a professional photo studio to shoot our cars, the next best thing is to find a bright white, clean, or freshly painted building to use as a background and shoot your detail (underhood/engine, interior, undercarriage, and trunk images) shots with your car parked in the shade nearby. If your camera does have an adjustment to reduce the power of your flash, then try some shots with the flash set to reduced power. This will help fill-in the darker details without overpowering the highlights. Follow Brad’s advice; submit shots where it’s impossible to tell that a flash was used.

Now we come to the Holy Grail of car photography: the “tracking” or car-to-car shot, or what I like to call “the money shot.” This is the image that often makes the covers of buff books as well as being the lead or opening shot of a multi-page feature. As the term implies, it involves shooting the subject car from a second car in front of (shooting backwards) or behind (shooting forward).

For this you will need two cars and three people to make it work. You will also need a lightly traveled four-lane road so that the cars can be in proper position relative to each other. This is the one shot where it is helpful to have a digital SLR (because there’s no lag between the time you hit the shutter and when the image is captured by the camera’s sensor) as opposed to a compact point-and-shoot camera and an image-stabilized lens (which will allow you to shoot with a slower shutter speed).

Ideally you’ll want to position the car so that it will travel in the right-hand lane with sunlight (within two hours of sunset will be best) illuminating the front grille and driver’s side of the car without the shadow of the camera car in the left-hand lane interfering with the shot. This means that you will need to scout a location to see how, where, and when the shadows fall. This is the part of the process where professional photographers earn their keep.

Having a road with light traffic is essential. This will allow you to keep speeds modest (around 25 mph is optimum) while using a shutter speed between 1/60^th to 1/100^th of a second for best effect. (If your camera has a shutter speed priority mode, use it.) You want the car to be tack-sharp while the background and the road surface along with the car’s wheels and tires are blurred. And if you can, get some vertically-framed shots; this will allow editors to visualize what your car might look like on a cover but I’ll tell you up front, snagging a cover is the longest of long shots. Remember: in a given year there are only 12 cover cars and hundreds (if not thousands) of cars will be vying for those 12 opportunities. Almost always, if your car gets this far, the editor will assign someone he’s already worked with to shoot the car.

And remember not to violate any motor vehicle regulations while shooting on public roads. Make sure your seat belt is fastened and don’t drive so slowly that you impede traffic. Both are sure ways to get the driver a ticket; I know and speak from experience.

Now you know some of the secrets. If you want to know more, here are two of the best books that go into the art of car photography in great detail.

How to Photograph Cars: An Enthusiast's Guide to Equipment and Techniques by Tony Baker	How to Photograph Cars by James Mann
Click to Buy	Click to Buy

And of course there’s our own David Newhardt “Cars and Camera” column that appears in each issue of Automotive Traveler.

Finally there’s the text portion of your submission. Keep it short -- no more than 250 words -- where you introduce yourself with phone and e-mail contact information, your car, its known history, and the modifications you’ve made that make it special. If your car is worthy, and you’ve followed all the steps above, you’ll probably receive contact back from the editorial team that your car has been selected for publication.

Congratulations, it’s one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Here are a few of my favorite images, reformatted for use as wallpaper and screen savers. To access click on the following links:

• 4:3 standard screen images

• 16:9 widescreen images

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View Part I of "Catching the Eye of an Editor".

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