Amateur or Professional?

The main problem with becoming a Professional Photographer is that when you start out you photograph what you want and enjoy, normally of your favourite sport/interest, what ever it is, you get to choose. When you start getting paid you are just excited about making money from your photography.  As you get more to a more professional level a lot of your work will evolve and you will be shooting more of what the client wants and less of what you enjoy.  If you are very lucky and good enough, eventually you can be more choosy about which jobs you decide to take on.

Unfortunately this means you get less time to shoot personal projects.  However these are very important to do as it can re-energise and spur on your creativity.  It helps bring back the spark and reminds you of why you started photography. If you have an idea, get together with people that can help or be a part of the shoot, brainstorm your ideas and do it!

I have always had personal project ideas but rarely do anything about them.  After looking at other Automotive Photographer’s work it inspired me to get some shots myself.

How to shoot Automotive & Car Photography?

Research

I started by searching lots websites, Photographs, and Blogs on Automotive Photography Tips. Now I have read the basics on automotive photography I am going to try and put it into practice.

Inspiration

Whilst I try to organise more cars to shoot I have been researching all the time online.  I have been looking at lots of other Automotive Photographers Websites, Social Media accounts & Google images. This can be great for inspiration and ideas not only for cars, but for styles & locations.

Top 10 Tips

There are lots of websites that have short and simple tips to set you off in the right direction. Here are a few I found most useful.

Jalopnik – Top 10 Automotive Photography Tips

Tuts+ – 10 Tips on Creative Car Photography

Finding Cars to Shoot

My search for cars goes on.  I found this the most difficult part as most of us don’t have easy access to supercars.  But already I have made a few networks and hope to work out some days to shoot the cars in the next month or two.  I have joined some local car groups and been to some meets/events.  If you see a car you would like to shoot, just ask the owner, be friendly & polite. Car owners love their cars and spend lots of money on them.  Most would love to have some photographs of the car.  If they say no, don’t worry just move on to the next.

The Cars

In an ideal world we want to be shooting classic or exotic cars but this is difficult in practice unless you know someone with one.  But also whats the point until you can take really good shots?

The Location

I also started to think of what locations would make a great Automotive Photography Photograph? A zig zag road, an urban background, etc. I had think of places I knew and places that are not too busy with people in the way when shooting.

Location Scouting

With the research as mentioned above I have been thinking about the types of shot/background I want.  I have been driving around my local area in Hampshire looking for places I would like use to shoot some Automotive Photography.

Angles

Take your time, walk around the car and surrounding areas to get some ideas and look for potential shots/angles.  Try some very close for detail shots, then some medium distance and then some much further away.  A common mistake is to crop the image too tight to the edge of the car. Leave some space around the car. 

Ongoing Research

I have been looking at different types of Automotive Photography to help me understand the varied styles and methods of how you get the different type of shots.

Static Shots

Static automotive photography is when the car is not moving.  These are the best shots to start teaching your self automotive photography as you can get some great shots even if you have very basic kit.  Park the car, the better the location/background the better the shot will be(Below is a very basic example) Ideally you want to get yourself a Tripod so your camera is still(this will stop camera shake and blurry shots) and so your shot is sharp. This also means if it is low light you can run a long exposure to allow more light in to the shot, this helps get a more even light in your background instead of blasting the car with flash and having a dark background.

Panning Shots

Panning(motion blur) shots are when the car is moving past the camera. This type of automotive photography keeps the car sharp, but the wheels and background blur giving the appearance of speed/motion.  This technique is a bit more difficult to master as you have to get your shutter speed just right.  If the shutter is too fast the wheels and background are sharp then it looks like the car is not even moving. If the shutter speed is to slow it will just be a big blurry mess.

Rig Shots

Rig shots use a boom(Long Bar), suction pads and clamps to mount the camera rig to the car. This gives a similar effect as a panning shot with the car sharp and the wheels/background blurred. The main difference with using a rig is you can place the camera almost anywhere around the car giving you a more dynamic shot. I don't own a rig so have not shot any Rig Shot's myself. Its a great piece of kit but also fairly expensive unless you getting bookings to justify the cost.

Rolling Shots

Rolling shots or Car to Car shots also give a similar effect as a panning shot with the car sharp and the wheels/background blurred. The main difference with a rolling shot compared to using a rig is you can't place the camera almost anywhere around the car giving you a more dynamic shot. The advantage of a rolling shot is that you can do them on a public road rather than hiring a place/track. It is also more affordable as you don't need to buy an expensive Rig. 

First Shoot

I started with my car and I have only done a couple of shoots so far to work on the general technique. What angles of the car look best, how long the exposure should be (this depends on lots of things).  On some shots I used natural light, ambient light and other I used some flash to light the car.  Its quite fun experimenting.  The first shot was rubbish, but that was to be expected.  After 10 – 20 minutes of trying different things my shots got much better(Not quite pro level yet) but as long as they are always improving or you are learning from your mistakes then it is a good thing, so stick at it.

Car Events &  Car Clubs

Going to Car Events or meeting with Car Clubs is one of the best ways to get to shoot cars and get to know the owners. Also you will most likely met other keen and some professional automotive photographer that maybe able to give you tips and advice. The other big advantage of this, it is a great way to meet car owners. But don't ask any supercar owners just yet, get your skills up first, work on building a small portfolio of quality over quantity. Once you have done this you will have some nice shots to show them rather than getting a no. 

Fareham Wheel Specialist Open Day

This was a small local meet with around 50-100 cars.  As it was close by it was a chance to get some shots, practice angles that did or didn’t work for automotive photography. The problem i have found with meets like this is there almost always in a car park/industrial estate with messy backgrounds like skips/bins in shot. But if you find a car that you really like it can be a great opportunity to talk to the owner.  You can exchange details and arrange a shoot at a better location on another day. Also any shots you get of peoples car on the day is a great way of adding to your social media followers/likes by posting up a gallery from the event.

I shot around 150-200 shots at this event but only uploaded less than half of that to the gallery.  Only select your best shots, if there good people will want to work with you and let you shoot their cars.

This is my best shot of the day and has been very popular on Instagram. Find me on Instagram – Click Here

Hampshire BMW Owners Club

I am a member of a few local car groups including a few BMW groups. I am the club photographer for Hampshire BMW Owners Club & BMW Z Roadsters.

Each month members meet with a range of BMW’s including 1 Series, 3 Series, Z3's & Z4's. I shoot lots of different cars trying different angles and backgrounds to see what works best for me. 

Vanity BMW Show

Each year I also attend the Vanity BMW show at Beaulieu with some of the car clubs.  This year I photographed a friends BMW Z4. A simple setup using natural light.

Goodwood Breakfast Club

Goodwood’s Breakfast club kicked off this year with Supercar Sunday, it should have been named Super Wet Sunday as the weather was heavy rain for the first half. It soon dried up and there was still a good turn out of cars and crowds.

This is probably one of my favourite shots of the year at Goodwood Breakfast Club of the McLaren F1 GTR(Below). I has very little editing on it. Shot with just the natural light.

I shot the McLaren F1 GTR(Below) and many people think that the car was lit, it was just natural light. The morning and evening can give you great light. Many Photographers prefer using natural light. But it just goes to show that you don’t need lots of expensive lighting to get a great shot.

Facebook – Goodwood Breakfast Club Photography

Gentleman’s Jolly

The gentleman’s jolly also attended the Vee Power Sunday at Goodwood Breakfast Club with their beautiful Lamborghini Diablo in a vibrant yellow. I find vibrant colours work well and make the car stand out.

Porsche Carrera Club UK

I was lucky enough to have access to Porsche Carrera Club UK annual meeting at Goodwood at the end of the summer. My favourite shot of the day was this Porsche GT3 RS in the pit lane.

Wilton Wake Up

I went along to the first Wilton Wake Up Breakfast Club meeting at Wilton House, near Salisbury. Its similar to Goodwood Breakfast Club but on a smaller scale, but is getting more popular each year. This is a Charity event with different themes during the summer months.

Light Painting Cars

Lighting cars rather than using natural(Day light) is were things get a bit more advanced. So I would say start off with some of the basics I have mentioned above using natural light first, once you feel more confident, then move on to lighting the car. 

Again do your research to understand the techniques used. There are some great you videos on how to do it. Andrew Link has some great tutorials, there are also other photographers such as GF Williams, Pepper Yandell etc depending on the style you like. Research these as they all use a similar approach but you might prefer one over the other.

Light Painting & Strobes

There are 2 main techniques for lighting the car. 

1. Strobes(Studio lights or Flash guns) where there is a single shot taken for each part of the car. Then you or a Retoucher puts them all together in photoshop using layers and masking. 

2. Light Painting where you use a long exposure shutter and with a continuous light source such as a torch, light stick or studio light(modelling light on all the time)

Lighting with Strobes/Flashes

The Aston Martin DBX shot above was lit using just one studio light on a pole. I put the camera on a tripod, this is very important that the camera doesn't move or get knocked otherwise each of the multiple shots wont line up and it makes much more work later during editing/post production.

This image was made up from about 30 individual shots, 20 for the plane and 10 for the car. First of all I had a good look at the hanger to see which area/ angle I thought would be a best shot. I setup the camera in position roughly where i wanted it. The plane and car were moved in to position. Try and think about where you want them before you ask people to endlessly move the car etc. One it looks more like you know what you are doing and it stops your crew/client getting annoyed at all the changes.

Once everything is in position check your camera settings are correct. Shooting at f2.8 would mean most of the shoot would be out of focus, shooting at f22 would mean the background would very sharp too, but this would probably take the focus off the car and plane in the finished shot. I picked up from my research on another automotive photographer that he says "Shoot at f9, always f9"  to make sure the car is sharp from front to back.

Whats coming next?

Next will be light painting cars and editing.

How to be a Car Photographer?

Please take a look at my page on common questions I get asked about how to be a car photographer. Hopefully there are some tips you might find help you. Click Here.