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I have a stupid question and my google skills are failing me.
How do you take a photo of a wide bodied car from the back and make it look correct?
Im sure it something to do with lenses but I have no idea where to start.
When I take a photo of my GTS from the back the proportions or perspective in the photo gets really weird and you literally can’t see the bit of body paneling between the tail light and wheel well.
It does require some post-processing to selectively boost the dark areas without blowing out the highlights. Probably the best way is with a range mask in a tool like Lightroom that allows you to just touch certain areas, but shadow/highlights (boosting shadows) or just boosting the darks in curves will work too. I used range masks to bring back the details in the lower shaded parts in these.
I have a stupid question and my google skills are failing me.
How do you take a photo of a wide bodied car from the back and make it look correct?
Im sure it something to do with lenses but I have no idea where to start.
When I take a photo of my GTS from the back the proportions or perspective in the photo gets really weird and you literally can’t see the bit of body paneling between the tail light and wheel well.
Not sure what the disappearing body paneling is about. What I've noticed though is that getting the angle just right makes a difference. To me that angle is from straight behind. Exactly straight. Just a little bit off and one side looks wider than the other. The attached picture of my long gone -06 C4S is my best effort so far but not spot on.
You can look at the rear view mirrors to see if you got it right. More mirror visible on one side than the other and you're off. On my picture, look carefully and you'll see just a bit more mirror on the left side than the right so the left rear looks a little wider than the right. Not by much but visible to my eyes. Nitpicking here...no discussion on that.
Im no expert photographer, but it shouldnt be too hard. A few random pics I snapped with my phone
OK, I think I see what your talking about. Your pics are coming out more like the one below, but you would like it to look more like the ones above? Stand way back from the car, and take a high resolution shot. Then on your computer crop out the large background and keep the centre of the pic where the focus on the car. Im guessing you can get the same effect with a different lens, but this is the easy way to get less distortion of the image you are talking about with a close up.
Subject distance and focal length play a major role. The closer you are to the vehicle (if you are trying to capture the whole vehicle) the more you introduce barrel distortion.
Taking several steps back (further away) and zooming in (or using a longer lens) will give you a more natural image.
From the rear as sandwedge said, and I think you have to be above it slightly, or have the camera tilted. To make it look widest you need to get some of the top part of the fender not just the back of it. It's one of the greatest automotive views there will ever be.
It does require some post-processing to selectively boost the dark areas without blowing out the highlights. Probably the best way is with a range mask in a tool like Lightroom that allows you to just touch certain areas, but shadow/highlights (boosting shadows) or just boosting the darks in curves will work too. I used range masks to bring back the details in the lower shaded parts in these.
thank you for the idea of a bit of correction to being out the detail in black cars. I have a black car and while Im just trying to send some photos to my dad this will really show the detail.
Subject distance and focal length play a major role. The closer you are to the vehicle (if you are trying to capture the whole vehicle) the more you introduce barrel distortion.
Taking several steps back (further away) and zooming in (or using a longer lens) will give you a more natural image.
@EMC2 these we’re the terms & technique I needed. Thank you!
on the top pre you advise I was getting this “reverse fish eye” camera type effect making the car look distorted. From where I was standing and even forward of that my 2 camera brain was see the full shape but my 1 camera phone was not.
even in the terrible lighting of the bottom pic you can see wide body. That’s using your suggestion of standing back and zooming in.
Basically the smaller your lens number and closer you are to the car, the bigger the butt will be. Walk further and set lens to 80+ to get more accurate picture (which not always will be the the best
I've also noticed the phenomenon being discussed when trying to capture my GTS from behind.
Sometimes the front fenders of the car seems to shrink into a distorted caricature of a widebody 911.
But when you nail it, by accident or design, the straight on rear view of a fat-hipped 997 is very cool.
And sandwedge is correct- the side mirrors reveal any angular deviation- when they are evenly visible, the shot is exactly straight on.
The quarter rear shot is still my fave, though:
Last edited by Liste-Renn; 03-30-2021 at 11:41 PM.
03-28-2021, 12:11 AM
Photographing wide body’s?
