Carter N's Photography Advice Thread.

[moodye]

hello mr carter sir! lol

i have a few questions. i'm kinda getting into the whole photography thing, mainly because ive been working on my car, and spending a lot of time on car forums and seen some semi-pro and pro shots on my travels. i havent yet convinced the wife to let me buy a dslr cos she thinks im crap at takin pics!! but i have a pretty decent compact, that allows u to manually change the settings. so i'm hoping once my cars fixed up and clean i'll be able to get a few decent shots.

i also downloaded gimp 2.6 software because apprently its the best free software about. and it seems to be quite similar to photoshop.

so, apart from the obvious, how do you take a good photo? question which is a bit like 'what is the meaning of life'? a couple of p-p questions.

what does curves mean?

how would you create a fish-eye lense look without a fish-eye lens?

is there a way of creating background motion blur, without moving?

many thanks and sorry for rambling!

oh yeah, and how do you layer pics?
g

[SalMoney]

Carter, I've been a long-time fan of you work and an admirer on flickr. Just stumbled across this thread today and I figured I'd post up a couple questions for ya:


1) I'm currently in the process of launching my own automotive photography "business" in my hometown, and I was wondering what have you found to be most effective in attracting customers and scoring shoots?

2) What, if any, sort of off-camera lighting setup do you use aside from light paintint? (i.e. AlienBees, etc.)

3) Aside from the wide-angle variety of lenses, which lens do you prefer, or would you most recommend for automotive photography and why? (prime lenses, zoom lenses, etc)


Thanks for this awesome, insightful thread! Keep up the good work, my man.


Here's one of my shots for fun:

[andy:.]

Hey Carter what do you think about my shots?

[JamesB]

What do we think to these;


rodds4 by James E36, on Flickr


rodds3 by James E36, on Flickr


rodds2 by James E36, on Flickr


edit5 by James E36, on Flickr

Finding a completely dark place is ALOT harder than it sounds!

[DGNeo]

Hey Carter, have you tried out Adobe Lightroom at all?

[sCrapp]

Quick QUestion.
Noob Question.

How do people do the shots of cars that are extremely crisp with an extremely blurred back ground (still shot)
Is it just a telephoto lens from a distance?

[Kielan]

Its all about the low f stops.

[Carter N]

Hey everyone,

Sorry for my absence I have been wrapping up school so I haven't been making my normal rounds on the internet.

I am gonna do my best to go back and answer everyone's questions. Thanks to all those who stepped in to give comments and advice!

Hey

Let me start of with saying you have amazing work!

I can understand this questions isn't necessarily something that is a straight forward answer and applies to the situation but, do you have any tips on composition within the mise-en-scene? I've just got into photography (as well as cinematography) and one of the issues I've been running into is the composition of what I'm focusing on.

Any advice, tips or rules of thumbs would be a great help

Thanks

Thanks for the compliment!

As for composition... Composition is one of those tough aspects of photography that isn't always easy to teach. It seems sometimes that some people have an eye for it and other don't. However, most photographers of every type stick to the "rule of thirds" (you can read more about that here)

There are a lot of other schools of thought on composition and to be honest, just try to shoot the way you think makes your subject look good. Chances are if a photo is appealing to you it will be to others.

Hope that helps!

well, finally got around to trying out the light painting technique.



30 second exposure in a pitch black garage using a led drop light. didn't light up the car as much as i wanted too



same setting as before, except i purposly exposed the light to the camera

Good attempts! You can adjust your aperture and ISO to help capture more light!

I'd be interested in your opinion on these;



It was a bit more of a spur of the moment shot, it was pretty dark (8.30pm ish) without a tripod

I'm not sure on it, the lense I used (10-20) has distorted the car alot and its too underexposed. The cathedral in the background has very very bright lighting infront of it making for a difficult shot without blowing it out. Although I could have (should have!) took two and merged them.







I also do nightlife photography;




Let me know what you think, would be good to hear some critique.

I'm definitely going to go out tonight and do attempt some light painting...with a dirty car!

The first one is pretty cool, and it looks like you already noticed all the major issues. I would definitely try that one again if I were you, it's a potentially epic shot. Love the contrast of small car to big church.

The other car photos are good as well, you could probably try some light painting in the tunnel from the 2nd picture.

You look like you know your way around event photography too!

Good Job all around

Hey so been following this thread for a bit, and learning a lot. Just wanted to get some advice on the editing i did on this pic. I didnt take the pic, i just edited it.

My edit

XDC Model

The original
https://picasaweb.google.com/1011434...87160701130130

Definitely a huge improvement over the original. Don't have any complaints about your edit, there are somethings that could have been done by the photographer differently but besides that very nice!

hello mr carter sir! lol

i have a few questions. i'm kinda getting into the whole photography thing, mainly because ive been working on my car, and spending a lot of time on car forums and seen some semi-pro and pro shots on my travels. i havent yet convinced the wife to let me buy a dslr cos she thinks im crap at takin pics!! but i have a pretty decent compact, that allows u to manually change the settings. so i'm hoping once my cars fixed up and clean i'll be able to get a few decent shots.

i also downloaded gimp 2.6 software because apprently its the best free software about. and it seems to be quite similar to photoshop.

so, apart from the obvious, how do you take a good photo? question which is a bit like 'what is the meaning of life'? a couple of p-p questions.

what does curves mean?

how would you create a fish-eye lense look without a fish-eye lens?

is there a way of creating background motion blur, without moving?

many thanks and sorry for rambling!

oh yeah, and how do you layer pics?
g

Ha, I wish there was an easy answer on how to take a good photo and the only thing I can really say is practice. You can learn all the technical rules about photography but it's not the same until you go out and shoot shoot shoot. If you look at my flickr you can see my continued progression, it's definitely not an overnight thing.

Curves is an adjustment on photoshop that allows you to manipulate pixels across the histogram. Essentially it is a exposure, contrast, brightness, etc. tool all in one.

I am sure there are plug ins on the internet for Photoshop that add a fisheye effect. There are preset transformation tools in Photoshop as well that would mimic the effect as well.

There are some motion blur filters in photoshop, and then some outside plugins that do it as well.

There are several ways to layer pictures. Easiest way is to open both, drag one on top of the other.

Hope that helps!

Carter, I've been a long-time fan of you work and an admirer on flickr. Just stumbled across this thread today and I figured I'd post up a couple questions for ya:


1) I'm currently in the process of launching my own automotive photography "business" in my hometown, and I was wondering what have you found to be most effective in attracting customers and scoring shoots?

2) What, if any, sort of off-camera lighting setup do you use aside from light paintint? (i.e. AlienBees, etc.)

3) Aside from the wide-angle variety of lenses, which lens do you prefer, or would you most recommend for automotive photography and why? (prime lenses, zoom lenses, etc)


Thanks for this awesome, insightful thread! Keep up the good work, my man.


Here's one of my shots for fun:

Thanks for the kind words man, good to know someone is looking at my shit ha.

I would say two things help me consistently connect with drivers. Getting out to the local meets is key, once you have shot someone's car all their car friends will see it and so your client base grows. The other thing, and I strongly suggest this to anyone trying to have a creditable photography name, is to be selective with what you publish. Don't take 500 pictures, spend 5 minutes editing, then post all of them. I might take 100 shots on any given shoot and only 5-10 make the cut.

I use speedlites. I have used Alienbees as well but I find them to be too time consuming and labor intensive. Speedlites are just as good IMO.

The type of lens you use has a lot to do with your style to be honest. If you want artistic a more artistic feel then perhaps something with a wide aperture would suit you. If you want highly detailed, sharp images, a prime lens may be the way to go. If I had to choose only one lens to use it would be a Canon 24-70 2.8L USM

That's a really good roller man! Thanks again for the support, keep shooting!

Hey Carter what do you think about my shots?

They didn't work for me? Maybe because they are uploaded instead of linked

What do we think to these;


rodds4 by James E36, on Flickr


rodds3 by James E36, on Flickr


rodds2 by James E36, on Flickr


edit5 by James E36, on Flickr

Finding a completely dark place is ALOT harder than it sounds!

Very nice! I'd try to get the light trails out of the picture though. Also, dark places make it easier to single out the car but they are not necessary to light paint!

Hey Carter, have you tried out Adobe Lightroom at all?

I have, it was a lot more than I needed... I use Aperture 3 simply to organize my photos because it has an easier interface IMO. I only edit in Photoshop.

Quick QUestion.
Noob Question.

How do people do the shots of cars that are extremely crisp with an extremely blurred back ground (still shot)
Is it just a telephoto lens from a distance?

You're referring to a shallow depth of field and there are several ways to achieve it. Depth of field can be controlled by focal length, aperture, and light.

[Hakosukaa]

thanks man I appreciate it

any thoughts?

[Krolik]

That last one is trippy.

[Carter N]

thanks man I appreciate it

any thoughts?

I love the processing style from number 1 & 3. Reminds me of old 70's polaroids.

[Hakosukaa]

That was EXACTLY what I was trying to achieve.
Thanks for the comment and thanks for this thread (:

[Carter N]

That was EXACTLY what I was trying to achieve.
Thanks for the comment and thanks for this thread (:

No problem, keep shootin & posting!

[jdel]

So I have a question. I took Kielan's advice and started shooting in Av mode on my Canon to try and get better results. The issue I'm having is that most of my shots don't end up with the color or the "pop" that I want from the colors. Example:



I think I may be able to solve this with better post processing, but I don't really know where to start. Can you help me out or point me in the right direction?

[Carter N]

Shooting in Av simply let's you pick the aperture while the camera takes exposure readings to assign the proper shutter speed and ISO (if you have it on automatic). This is beneficial if all you are looking to control is the depth of field but it really limits your control over how your photos will turn out

There are several ways your can manipulate the color on and off the camera.

Depending on what kind of camera you are shooting with, most give the user the ability to adjust the saturation, vibrancy, contrast, etc. in camera. There are also presets for portrait, landscape, nighttime, indoor/outdoor, etc.

It is easier, IMO, to adjust contrast, saturation, vibrancy, etc in post processing though. Almost all photo management programs will have those basic controls and the best way to get a photo exactly how you want it is to just play with those sliders.

As a general guideline however, raising contrast and saturation will make colors in the photo 'pop'