I've been doing photos of cars for about 2 years now. Before that I just was kind of trying to find something that I really liked doing within photography. Now, generally speaking, automotive photography really isn't that difficult. The subject stays still and in place where you want them to be and they don't move unless you move them, unlike people. This is the niche that I found that I like and that I'm good at (at least I think so). A lot of people may think that there really isn't a market for this kid of photography but I would beg to differ. I'm not talking about your average, everyday stock Toyota Camry that I'm taking photos of. I do cars that are modified or personalized and try to get them in an environment that they stand out in. What I've recently started doing and want to continue to attempt to do is rolling shots of the cars. Sometimes this can be dangerous because it is going sometimes highway speeds and leaning out of the camera car's window.
Doing these photos has taught me some things and some tricks that I've picked up. One trick is that when doing the rolling shots, try to match your shutter speed to the speed of the vehicle. For instance, when doing these images you want both cars going the same speed, lets say 60 mph, for this you should set your camera to a 1/60 of a second. You want to do this so the background and the road are blurred enough and when doing so, if you look at the wheels, they become transparent and you can see the brakes on the inside but you can also sometimes see the shapes within the wheels. Other outcome is that they look completely solid. Another tip is to shoot with a CPL, also known as a polarizing filter. This becomes helpful with the sun and the reflections off the paint and the glass, as well as the transparency of the glass in the image. It allows you to control how much you see through it. Last tip that I would say is to use some sort of stabilization, whether it is within the camera or it is a gimbal. It helps when you are driving on the road and go over the small bumps that could cause shake at a low shutter speed.
Here are some examples of the photos that I've taken.
First 2 are Rolling Shots. The silver Camaro is the one done correct, the blue Toyota Supra below it isn't done as well as the first one, due to traffic.
These 2 are to show the polarizing filter and how it effects the reflections of the glass and paint. First Image has a lot of reflections in the glass and paint while the second doesn't. Both controlled by a CPL.
These last 3 are just others to show what I like to do. First is the front wheel of a 1995 Nissan Skyline from Japan. Below that is a 1995 Mazda Miata.
Looking good!
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