7 Tips for Taking Better Photographs of Cars

Taking photos of cars is such an interesting thing on its own. It’s like science. Every time I shoot a car I learn something from it! I would like to share some basic guidelines to get you started and help you understand this interesting niche in the photography world.
7 Tips for Taking Better Photographs of Cars

1. Shoot at the right time of day

This is by far the most common mistake people make when shooting cars. The best time to shoot will be a few minutes after sunset (or a few minutes before sunrise). Use a tripod and get that perfect soft light on the paint! This photo was taken for TopGear a few minutes before sunrise.

 

2. Be on the lookout for reflections

You must be very careful of what reflects in the car. Have a look around you and look closely at the car and see what reflects on its surface. A car (especially a new shiny one) is like a mirror. Try and have an open space behind you like a field. Try and avoid shooting with buildings or trees behind you. One of the most important things you want to show in your car pictures are the design lines of the car, or as I like to call it, ‘her curves’. Reflections can spoil these curves.

Also be very careful not to have your own reflection in the photo. If you can’t avoid your own reflection its best to put the camera on a tripod, set the timer and move out of the shot. Just look at this photo I took of a dark shiny BMW 428i, behind me was nothing except the horizon. You can clearly see the horizon reflecting in the car.

 

3. Driving shots

One very easy way to get a cool image, is to shoot the car out of another moving car. (Please be super careful when doing this!) Shoot the car out of your window while driving at 60 km/h (40 miles/h) with a shutter speed of 1/100th of a second.

By doing this you will get some nice movement on the road and on the wheels. You can even decrease the shutter speed some more, but this will increase your chances to sit with unsharp photos afterwards. This Audi S3 was shot before sunset, driving at 70 km/h with a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second.

 

4. Color of the car

All types of paint react differently at different times of the day, with different light. Most colors hate direct sunlight, but some color works really well in direct sunlight. Just look at this baby blue beetle shot in the middle of the day.

 

5. Background

Make sure your background suits the car and the theme. Avoid having things in the background that will distract the eye. Things like dustbins, power lines and other cars can kill a picture. For this Aston Martin, I used a simple background . The yellow paint matches the car’s color.

 

6. Panning for motion blur

A cool way to get some motion in your picture is to stand next to the road and let the car drive past you. Follow the car with your lens in one smooth action and set the shutter speed to 125th of a second. You will be amazed how easy this is! This Ferrari was shot at 125th of a second at 200mm. The car was driving roughly 60 km/h (40 miles/hr)

 

7. Let the car interact with nature

Another way to make the photo speak to you is to make the car interact with its surroundings. Examples of this could be the car making dust, a 4×4 climbing over an obstacle. Look at this Chevrolet Trailblazer climbing over a rock or this G-Class AMG drifting on loose sand!

 

8. Shooting at night

This might sound daunting but you will be amazed how easy and awesome this is! The biggest secret here is to find a spot where it’s completely dark, any streetlights or even a full moon could make life tricky.

When you have found this spot, set the camera up on a tripod. Set your ISO to 100, the shutter speed on 30 seconds and the aperture to f/9.

When the shutter opens take a strong constant light source and walk around the car ‘painting’ the car with your light. A normal household torch (flashlight) works for this.

There are no rules here, paint the car in different ways to get different effects; you will be blown away with the results! Here are some examples of this technique:

This is an Opel Astra shot next to Table Mountain with Cape Town in the background.

This is a Dodge Charger with the skyline of Detroit City in the back. This photo took me no longer than 5 minutes to set up and take.