Car photography is not just a profession but a passion. An automotive photographer always loves his job. He never takes it as a job but a fun experience. It’s like capturing sports photography which means having fun while working. Sports and car photography are almost alike so some Sports Photography Tips and Tricks will also be helpful for you.
Just imagine a photographer’s lifestyle that captures car images. He can see, touch and feel different sorts of cars from a vintage collection to a latest sports car. Then he uses lights, gears, etc for capturing car images from various angles.
It may sound easy but sometimes it isn’t that much easy to do professional car photography. It takes a lot of practice and you also need to know about many different creative photography tips and techniques as automotive photography is all about creativity.
To help you capture automotive images as a professional we’ll give you some amazing tips for car photography. These car photography techniques will help you capture splendid automobile photos and get the best car photography jobs.
Some car photography jobs are –
- For automotive magazines
- For car stores
- For e commerce car products
- Freelancing
- For advertising company
- For stock photos
Choose the best Camera and Lenses
A perfect lens and a perfect camera always determine how much professional your photographs will look like. It’s quite a baffled task for a photographer to choose a camera and lens that suits his/her taste. To make it easier for you I have researched about the best camera for car photography and came up with this one – Canon EOS 6D Mark is quite a perfect fit for this purpose.
The best camera lens for car photography is a wide angled lens as it will inflate the car image properly. The mostly used canon camera lens for car photography is 18-55mm lens and 50mm lens.
Use the Natural Light
Different Automotive photography lighting effects can be used to capture a professional and eye – catching image of a car. Light is what we call the king of a well composed photo. A light decides the sharpness and color contrast of the image. There are two sources of light for photography. The natural light which is the light coming from sun and the other source are external ones like halogens, Led lights, focus lights etc. Natural light is the best one as it gives a sharp and colorful image of the car. Most of the professional car photographers use natural light as a source of light. I prefer using it too for capturing an immense and striking car photograph.
Create a Depth of Field
For beginners at first it is important to know what depth of field is. In simple words it is the distance between the closest and the farthest object that gives a perfectly focused image. A depth of field will help you focus on one specific area making the left over completely blurred. To achieve a good level of depth of field you’ll need to control the aperture of the camera the lower the aperture number, the shallow the depth of field. A shallow depth of field means more blur. Depth of field effect will help you focus specific parts of the car like the headlight, meter, doors, etc.
Proper Background
Backgrounds show the type or condition of the car. Just like a life backgrounds that shows how much established or rebut a person is. A suitable background shows the superiority of the car. For example you must have a sporty type background for taking a sports car photo. If you take a background that doesn’t suit the type of car you’re planning to photograph will worsen the chances of people liking your work. Use a suitable background for the type of car you will capture image of.
Capture the Reflection
Reflections completely change the level of photography. It turns a photo captured by an amateur look like a photo captured by a professional. You can also use reflection of the car while capturing car images. You can take reflection photos by placing the car on a wet or shiny surface that reflects it. Then capture the car image taking the reflection with it. You’ll see then that how much pro your photos become.
Click Driving Shots
It is not always mandatory to always focus the car only. You can also focus on the person while he/she is driving the car. There is a great demand for such images on the stock photo websites. You can sell such images at a great price and earn a lot. Driving shots shows your photography level and experience. So click as much driving photos as you can for improvement.null
Shoot Inside
Clicking the photos of automotive like cars is a difficult thing. Where everyone is busy clicking the photos of the outer look of the car, why not you act different and click some amazing photos of the inner parts of the car. Get inside the car and start shooting the inner parts. Shoot the front part of the car such as the steering wheel, front seats, seat belts, gear shift etc. also you take click photos of the backseat too. The photos will create a depth and creativity in your photography. Make sure that you are using proper gadgets while shooting inside the car. These kinds of photos are very much needed when the car goes for sale to show the customers. In fact many magazines also publish photos of the inner parts of the cars.
Go for Motion Blur
Clicking motion blur photo is one of the creative photography types I have ever seen. One of my most favorite automotive photography tips is shooting motion blur photos of the cars. This is also one creative photography idea. When a car goes from your side and clicking the photo of the car in focus and the rest of the surroundings are blurry and seems like motion, the photo looks marvelous. But creative an automotive motion blur photo is very difficult. Right camera setting plays a vital role to click motion blur car photographs. At first, you have to adjust the aperture of your camera. Decrease your aperture mode if your camera setting is manual. But if your camera setting is on automatic mode, the camera will do that itself. High amount of ISO can destroy the photo. Capturing the motion, you have to decrease the ISO to lower. Use longer shutter speed to click the motion blur. Longer shutter speed is important to catch the moving things perfectly.
Click at Night
It is not important to click the photos of cars in the day time only. I agree that the automotive may look significant during day time but it looks more luscious and classy at night. The actual beauty of a car can be seen at night. Get ready with your camera gear to click the automotive photos at night. One of the automotive photography ideas I would like to give is to avoid clicking photos in crowd places at night. If you click photos in the crowd, your main object may not be seen properly. So click the photos of the car at the empty places where there are fewer amounts of people and vehicles. You will get the clear picture that time. Use the lamppost lights while clicking car photography at night. Lamppost lights are best sources of lighting while photographing at night. Many photographers do a mistake of using flash; you should avoid using flash during night. It will give your photos gaudy looks.
Take Close-Up
While you are doing photography with car, you have to think out of the box to deliver some unique images. But how to click the unique photos of cars my answer would be to click close-up shots of the different parts of the cars. You can click the brand logo of the car, the details of the steer wheels, click the photos of the rim, click the photos of engine, bonnet, decklid and many other small details should be clicked using your camera. Take the close-up shots of all the small details. You will get some great photographs by getting closer with the camera. You can also use macro lens to get some great and clear macro shots. Some macro photography tips may also be followed to click close up shots of the cars.
Click from Various Angles
Any of the things cannot be understood seeing from one angle only. You have to show an object from different angles to make the people understand about the object/product. Especially when you are selling something through picture, the customer would want to see the product from various angles. When you are doing car photography, make sure that you are not clicking the car’s photo from only one angle. Experiment clicking photos with different angles. Different angles will give you different perspectives. Keep your gadgets ready, to move your camera from here to there. Shooting from different angles may cause you some shaky photos. To get rid of the shakiness of the photos use tripod while shooting from various angles.
Photo Editing
Photo editing has become a special weapon for making the photos look exceptional. You have to know some photo editing tips and techniques to edit photos. Talking about the automotive photography tips, this tip of photo editing is exceptional. When you are done with photography, go for photo processing. There are different photo editing techniques such as background removal, photo retouching, color correction, photo manipulation etc. are in trend. These photo editing techniques lead you to deliver some great car photographs. Thus this helps you to boost the conversion rate of the photos and can increase the sales as well. You can also outsource photo editing services from editing companies to save your time and costs.
Focus on the Color of the Cars
Color of the cars can create changes in the lighting while shooting for car photography. Cars are mostly shiny and give shades. When the light is been put on the car, the color of the car gets complimented by lights and shine more or it can also make your car looks dull. It all depends what color cars you are choosing. There are matt colors in the cars which does not give you the proper color under the light in the photographs. So you have to choose vibrant colors or colors which are shiny.
Combine your Car with the Nature
We have spoken about the backgrounds earlier in this article. But we are going to talk about the relation of cars with nature in this. Cars just do not always look good in the parking lots and on the roads of the city. But it also gives you a refreshing feel in the nature. I would say that the cars look best in the nature the most. Get out with the car surrounded by nature and shoot your cars interacting with the nature to get the best car photography.
FAQs
What Camera Setting should I use for car photography?
It is important to keep both the car and the background in the focus. So you should go for wide aperture, quick shutter speed and low ISO setting for getting good car photographs.
What is the best focal length for car photography?
50mm would be the best focal length for car photography.
How do I light my car photos more?
It is very simple. Just add an LED light while shooting car photos. It will prevent more lighting.
Conclusion
There are many photographs you will see in your everyday life, but nothing can look as classy as automotive or car photography. Following the trend and doing the car photography exceptionally, you can follow these 12 automotive photography tips I have included here. These may give you some great ideas and you can also click car photographs like professionals.
