Winter44

Just got a new camera recently. Nikon P80. Nothing special but its my first camera. I do a ton of photoshop work professionally and for leisure and never had a camera... Anyways Looking at "who's got the most bautiful 944 here?" thread and couldn't help but be super jealous of the way black cars come out in photos. The reflections really make the body lines pop! From what I have seen, its difficult to get a similar look on a white car. I've been googling about photographing white cars and time of day especially sunset seems to really help. Anyone have any tips? Also lets see some of your best photos of white 944s! I need some inspiration

Winter44

Thanks for the advice Tank. Ill try that out this weekend. I have the entire CS4 suite, so i will give lightroom a shot as well. Just well versed in photoshop.

Indy Rev

Night with city lights is the best for white cars. If photoing during the day you need to bump the F-stop down because the white tricks the camera. It's like shooting in the snow. A good clean black car will only pop the highlights and mirror what's around.

James Chimney

ok lets start with all Cameras are calibrated to 15% gray, what does that mean, it means a camera thinks it is looking at gray no matter what you point it at (blue sky, white car, black car...) so you would have to adjust the F-Stop or shot the same shot at several different exposures adjusting for the desired out come (larger Aperture give greater depth of field, but then you will have to use slower shutter speeds and so on)
so how do you shoot a white car? take more than one shot in more than one exposure, the old saying was "film is cheep shot away" but now it does not cost a thing (after the SD card) so go for it, you can always hit the Delete button....now go take some shots and POST them

Van

To expand on James' comment about multiple exposures (bracketing), if you use a tripod, the shots will line up well, so you should be able to mix the foreground (car) and background in photoshop to get the desired overall exposure.

darenchu

1. For white, always underexpose. More often than not, you can fix underexposure post-processing. People usually over-expose white/light-colored objects and when the colors get blown out there really isn't any way to fix that.

2. For reflections, use harsh lighting. It's also important that your paint is actually shiny enough; wax beforehand. http://www.thedigitalstory.com/blog/...o_lighting.jpg << having several sources of lighting puts you in control of the outcome. Explore how the light plays with the lines of the car from different angles as well as the camera angle relative to the car.

3. For contours, use diffused lighting. An easy way to do this is finding a nice background and shooting on an overcast day.

4. Imagine a large rectangular perimeter surrounding the car (10-15 feet around the outside of the car). I find shooting low and around the corners make it easier to capture the lines of the car. Bird's eye view is nice too. shooting the car parallel to the camera flattens the "hips" too much and removes alot of definition.

5. Keep your camera level. looking at a picture with your head tilted is never comfortable.

6. also look at other photos of white cars for inspiration. observe the angle at which the car is shot and the angle of the light

7. After you're satisfied, adjust the curves to your liking. It's easy to get carried away post-processing so try to edit moderately!

Nebio

I scanned through the pictures of my car looking for reflections. Shady side of the car in bright light and/or intense colors seem to be what shows up best.

A friend's photo of my car.
The reflections are on the shade side of the car on a very sunny day.



Intense colors will reflect better on the white too.



The nice fact about white - there are some scratches on the hood that often don't show because of the color, now on a dark car ...

Taymar

Dug through the few pictures I have, and this one was the most reflective. I am guessing the tall and darker backdrop (building/trees) produces a more noticeable reflection than sky/clouds would (at least on white). The lower angle might help a bit too. From what I remember this was taken about 6pm, and it was overcast.

car_slave

Interesting subject. I would shoot it indoors (parking garage) or in the shade. Have you ever used HDR in Photoshop? That would cover the full highlight to shadow range. In this case I think an overcast day would give you highlight problems because of the reflection from the sky (look at the reflections in Taymar's photo). Solid white or black, and reflective objects are the most difficult things to photograph. I do this for a living, but I've never had to tackle an automotive shoot before. Just tabletop studio and lots of journalism.

911 Crazy

Great thread guys!

Winter44

Awesome tips everyone. I took some pictures this weekend. Will post as soon as Im done editing a few!