I tried to take some decent shots of my 3 week old car today:

<a href="http://community.webshots.com/user/stephenrobinson" target="_blank">http://community.webshots.com/user/stephenrobinson</a>

but they definitely fell short of the great ones taken by Brad and his Silver C4S that is attached to his signature "I'm in the garage". To me, he set the standard of 993 pics, while Jack Olsen has the all time best pics and website of his 73 911
<a href="http://members.rennlist.com/jackolsen/Jalopy.html" target="_blank">http://members.rennlist.com/jackolsen/Jalopy.html</a>

I just got an Olympus D-520 digital camera and I had aspirations of taking breathtaking pics today. Didn't happen. To me they look kind of mundane and boring. I'm going back to the drawing board and reading the camera manual...I haven't done that yet.

I didn't get to take the one shot I really wanted to yet, which is a shot from a ladder overhead, from the top of the car down. I love that shape looking down on it from straight above. Maybe another day when I'm more motivated.

I didn't realize how hard it was to get a great pic of a car. I drove to a golf course today to see if I could find the perfect pastoral setting... I didn't, and the sun was bad.

I DID enjoy the heck out of wringing my car out today. Haven't driven it in a week. It's going to snow again tomorrow, so I'm glad I put it through it's meager, city paces today.

Peace, (though it doesn't look like that's coming anytime soon after watching the news
tonight)

Steve

 

Steve

use photoshop!! Many a mundane pic can be brought to life with judicious use of Photoshop.

 

John,

What do you usually do?

I've hade ok results by cropping & adding more contrast but I wonder what else I could do?

Thanks!

 

FF

quite a lot can be achieved with selective de-focussing, dosdging, burning & vignetting. These can be used to remove attention from unwanted backgrounds and draw the eye into the picture.

Ultimately, there is no substitute for good framing, composition & using the right lens for the desired effect, but photoshop can certaintly improve an otherwise aveage picture.

The following was a pretty plain pic I took outside my house. Its still not what I would call a good pic, but 5 minutes on photoshop (I was in a hurry) improved it.

<img src="http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/johns911.jpg" alt=" - " />

 

Steve, your car is awesome! Hurry up and heal those feet so we can go for a spirited drive sometime soon.

 

Looks great Stever,

hope the feet are feeling better!! <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />

 

Thanks John for the tip about Photoshop. I'm a computer illiterate to an extent, so where do you go to do use that? Is it on my desktop?

And John from DC, I am MUCH better and driving again. One weekend soon, when the snow isn't impending, I will call about coming over to check out your TT and talk ... (better go check... no, the wife's not around ) UPGRADES!!!

I just got the chrome tips in the mail today, and while they are very dirty and a bit scraped on the bottom, I plan to put polish them up with Wenol silver cleaner and put them on soon (with the help of a nearby shop or some nice rennlister! - anyone in the DC area with the correct tools? I can't get the darn tips off my car with a wrench even after soaking in WD 40 for 30 minutes <img border="0" alt="[ouch]" title="" src="graemlins/c.gif" /> ).

Steve

 

Steve,

Great looking car.

As for pictures: Besides the importance of framing you subject as already mentioned, to get the best color saturation and the most “pop” from pictures the exposure and lighting are very important. Indirect lighting like in the early morning or evening is the best, or a nice over cast day. Bright sunlight, during the middle of the day is the most difficult to work with, and can wash the colors out and you have a much better chance of getting glare marks or underexposures. Experiment with the exposure settings (bracket the same picture). I am not familiar with your camera, but most consumer digital camera’s (except for the high end ones) have very basic metering systems, which can be fooled rather easily. If you don’t want to mess with all the settings, the great thing about the digital cameras are that photoshop allows you to fix many of the lighting problems.

Photography is an exhaustive subject and really an art form that takes lots of practice. It also takes many, many shots to get the one great one.

 

It is likely that your computer did not come bundled with Photoshop - but it's available at Circuit City and Best Buy, along with ebay (where I got my copy).

 

Thanks for the compliments, Steve, but your pics are fine. They are of a Polar Silver Carrera 4S so how could they be anything less than perfect !!

I see your thinking of the upgrades now! Fun, fun, fun!

 

Steve,

I think that picture number 11 makes a nice statement about your car. Its AWESOME. You have some nice reflections in you beautiful paint. That's a great photo. Imagine what that would look like with some sunset colors reflected on your car.

Keep it up. Poor me. I have to use film.

 

Hi Steve,

I've had a digital camera for two years and while I'm no expert let me make few suggestions as I may be a little farther along the learning curve.

Shooting wide angle accentuates the foreground and minimizes the background. If possible (realizing of course you can't always do this) back up far enough to shoot telephoto, this will give a more natural perspective of your car. To see the difference this makes, shoot two shots of a front 3/4 or a rear 3/4 view, one at full wide angle and the other at 3X telephoto, download both and compare. The difference is less pronounced on side shots as the car doesn't have as much "depth".

You can get nice photos on sunny days, in fact your colors will be richer, but you have to be careful not to shoot into the sun, as this fools the camera's meter. Shoot with the sun behind you or to the side, and if you see a reflection your photo will have it too so move enough so the reflection disappears. Looks like your shots were taken in late afternoon, barely still daylight, there just wasn't enough light to give your colors zing. If you do shoot late (or heavy overcast), go to your camera's EV adjustment and add EV. (It's sort of trial and error as to how much EV to add, the good thing is you aren't wasting film).

Unless you bought it you don't have Photoshop but you may have Microsoft Picture It already installed. Not as good but still you can use it to correct over or under exposed photos, and adjust richness and contrast. You probably also got some type of photo processing software with the camera.

One other suggestion, use fill flash outdoors if lighting is weak (doesn't apply to car photos but helps with people). Fill flash also helps if there is a shadow over subject's face.

BTW, nice car. As a 911 owner for 30 years, it's been really nice reading your posts as you searched for and located your car.

 

Love that top down shot of the rear fender..beautiful!

 

Steve,

Car looks nice. Have you had any issues with cold starts? I remember when I test drove it for you, it would keep dying until it was warmed up.

Getting the tips off can be a PITA. I just took mine off yesterday and managed to break both bolts because they were rusted and corroded. I replaced the broken bolts with stainless steel bolts which are weaker but the tips don't require a lot of torque on the bolts. This way when I want to clean them again, it won't be such a nightmare. (I did commit sacrileige by using non-metric bolts) <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> If you want pics I can post them for you.

BTW, you need some nice silver/aluminium accents in the interior now to set off that awesome black interior.

 

Steve,

Since you have the exact same car that I have, I took your pic and spent a few minutes in photoshop with it. here ya go.

<a href="http://www.nelsonlee.org/stuff/backtop.jpg" target="_blank">a little color correction</a>

<a href="http://www.nelsonlee.org/stuff/backside.jpg" target="_blank">vignette motion blur</a>

-nels