(or Catching the Eye of an Editor, Part 3)

Over on cardomain.com, my good friend, Editor Jen Dunnaway just posted a rant on the sad state of the car photography that crosses her desk. She brings up some great points, especially with regard to the disappointing photos displayed when selling cars on eBay or Craigslist. This is a pet peeve of mine as well. Here's what she had to say, "The sloppiness is especially baffling when the purpose of the photograph in question is to sell the car, but photos taken for ads on eBay and Craigslist are far from immune to terrible photography. You'd think sellers would want to make their cars look good, wouldn't you?"

Last night I had the opportunity to shoot a great-looking 1968 Ford Mustang California Special, a limited-production Pony sold only in the western states. About 4,000 were built and this is an especially nice example, so I wanted to be sure my photography truly did the vehicle justice.  Let me walk you through what it takes to shoot your car properly, especially if you're going to submit it to a web site like cardomain.com or for publication in your favorite buff book.

First off: For those most-important "money shots" wait until the sun gets lower, to take advantage of the "golden light" provided by the setting sun. The details include under the hood, the interiors, and any elements that are unique to the vehicle that you are shooting. Besides a camera, and I've said this so many times, you will need a tripod to get good results. To give you a time line, we started shooting just a few minutes after 6 p.m. If you're not sure when the sun sets in your area, just visit www.sunrisesunset.com or google "sunset times" plus your city for a variety of sites to help you identify exactly when the sun sets in your region. And remember: if you're an early bird, you can also shoot at sunrise.

Let's start under the hood and by parking the car in the shade, preferably next to a light-colored building. In this case it's behind my local Target. By shooting in the shade, you eliminate the possibility of shadows ruining your shot or obscuring the details. Almost every modern digital camera has a capability to provide a fill flash and most even let you adjust the power. In my case I set my camera at a 100 ASA exposure index, used shutter priority, set the exposure for 1/2-second at f 11 with the flash set at 1/8th power to get a little extra light in the dark areas. Because of the slow shutter speed I set the camera on the tripod - the best $30 you'll ever spend - and used the self-timer to avoid any chance of camera shake.

You can follow basically the same technique when shooting the interior. And here's why I try to park next to a plain, light-colored building. I use the building as a huge reflector to bathe the interior in soft, shadow-free light. Again, I used the fill-flash technique to highlight some of the details on the dash. In this case the exposure was 2.5 seconds at f 22 for lots of depth of field (front-to-rear sharpness). The first time I took this shot there were shopping carts in the background so I raised the tripod head to get a higher angle and eliminate a distracting background element. The important thing here that I was trying to show was that this Mustang was equipped with a very rare bench seat and I wanted to show that and the three sets of seat belts.

Because the California Special is directly related to the Shelby Mustangs of the same era, it was essential to get a close-up shot of the side scoops. Here I turned the camera sideways to get a vertically framed shot. It's really important to mix up your shots, shoot from different angles and look for unusual details, in this case the mesh embedded in the scoop. In this photo, the exposure selected was 1/60th of a second at f 5.6. I'm not as happy as I would like to be with this shot: upon closer examination, I discovered the top screw was missing. Unfortunately on the passenger side the same screw was missing. A fix in Photoshop would be to clone the bottom screw and paste it in the top.

Because I was still waiting for the sun to get lower on the horizon (it was about 6:50 p.m. at this point) I had some time before attempting the car-to-car shots. The owner had suggested a brand-new bridge close by as a background, but unfortunately the available position of the light and construction conspired against us. Instead, I went for a front three-quarter shot from a low angle with the car on the crown of the bridge. The light was rich but shadows from the light poles on the opposite side of the bridge became an issue. I used a wide angle setting for this shot, down low, about a foot off the ground, knowing I could always crop the shot later. The light poles are an interesting element but probably not right for this particular car. The exposure was 1/250th second at f 5.6. Depending on your Photoshop skill, such elements can sometimes be removed in post-production by an artist familiar with the tools.

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GoldenGirl |06-1-2008 Exactly the kind of info I've been looking for forever!! Thanks so much. I go to so many car shows and end up very disappointed with the photos I take when I download them. I'm not a professional photographer and don't want to be. But I really want to re-live the enjoyment of seeing awesome cars over and over again through photos I take. This article gave me some great info. Unfortuanately the links to Parts 1 and 2 are giving a 404 error. Is there anyway this can be fixed? Thanks again! ReplyQuote 0 0

richt |06-1-2008 GoldenGirl, Thanks for the heads-up; we've fixed the broken links. Glad you liked the article. Rich Truesdell Editorial Director, Automotive Traveler ReplyQuote 0 0

dtredinnick13 |07-3-2008 Nice article. After reading the three parts I am curious if you have experimented with HDR processing vs flash for the under the hood shots. I would think that for heavily chromed engine compartments that might be a good alternative, but I have never tried it. Thanks for sharing your techniques. The aperture and shutter speed info is very helpful. ReplyQuote 0 0

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