my car

[hybrid_h]

theres were taken with a friends canon 50D
seeing what we could do with his new fish eye

http://photos-b-8.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs092.snc1/4673_220868105001_800470001_7099841_2063913_n.jpg
http://photos-c-8.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs092.snc1/4673_220868110001_800470001_7099842_7426312_n.jpg
http://photos-d-8.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs092.snc1/4673_220868115001_800470001_7099843_6982682_n.jpg
http://photos-e-8.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs112.snc1/4673_220868125001_800470001_7099844_3156707_n.jpg

EDIT- Can you see the pics now ?

[creepdontsleep]

ahh photos arnt coming up

[Haim]

i think the thing about fisheye's is that u can use their distortion for your advantage and in those pics you didnt really... flash photo's white balance isnt right too...

[hybrid_h]

yea we didnt really go crazy with it. it was more of a

"hey check out my new lens"
"yea sweet my cars outside lets go have a play"

Yea we were outside in the cold for a while and just couldnt get it right and couldnt figure out why ? tried some long exposures but we just couldnt nail it

any suggestions on making better use of the lens ?

EDIT-photos should work now

[robo git]

Part of the problem with the fisheye and the 50D (I get this with my 350D as well) is that you're using a cropped-sensor camera, so you don't get the extreme fisheye effect at the edge of the photo, as that's cropped off-sensor.

2nd photo is the most "fisheye" of the bunch, but would have been improved by being a little more in-front of the car, so you get some of the flank of the car in shot. Perhaps try that with a slightly-tipped-foward portrait orientation of the camera?

Fisheye shots REALLY benefit from shooting at minimum focal distance (aka get as close as you can), and extremes of height (either very low relative to the subject or very high). Also as depth of field increases with lower focal lengths at wider apertures, experiment with shooting as wide open as you can (f2.8 if it's the Canon fisheye) - you may find it has enough DoF to capture the entire subject.

Other than that, composition is king: Get rid of the suburban background - go to like a fairly dingy area with basic blocky architecture (any well-established industrial park is often good), so that the clean white of the car pops - the houses in the background distract from the photo, and the overexposed sky distracts. I suggest using a graduated Neutral density filter to help control the sky.

Of the shots there, the last one has the most potential: Needs to be closer to the car, lower and more evenly lit (and the white-balance controlled a bit more), but because the sky is darkly exposed / background underexposed it isolates the subject nicely. Next time, instead of using the flash, try getting another car pointing at it with lights on dip/full-beam (whatever it takes to just get the car lit with background minimally lit) and a couple of lightweight white plastic shopping bags (standard supermarket jobbies are fine) draped over the lights to act as crude diffusers.

Minimum: If you can't get some kind of off-camera flash or relay-flash going, get a diffuser for the on-camera flash (Such as the one Rick0r made or even a bit of white shopping-bag + sellotape). This will cut the amount of light from your flash (bad), but will disperse it and make it more even (very good), so that you don't get the harsh catch-light on the bumper.

My biggest wish with the Canon fisheye is that I wish the minimum focusing distance was closer. :D

Hope this helps!

[talan]

Hi Pritesh (or twin?) :p

Definately need to find a cleaner setting and maybe follow the advice of Robo Git. I have no experience with fisheyes so can't really give your mate any technical feedback.

However i'd love to shoot the car someday. Really have a thing for EK sedans :p.

We'll get in touch :)

[hybrid_h]

hey robo git
thanks heaps for the tips, i think we will definatly have to play more with the lighting like you said

background does let it down. i liked the curve of the road on the second to last pic. i guess we'll just have to get off our arses next time and brave out the cold weather to a better location.

talan- this is Piyush (Priteshs twin haha) Pritesh isnt really into photography

---------- Post added at 06:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 PM ----------

heres another one
http://photos-e-0.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs169.snc1/6328_248320765001_800470001_7851308_2547531_n.jpg

[robo git]

Glad you added that one - it's the best one thus far (IMO) for both composition and lighting. Again could benefit from getting closer, right up in yo face styles - I'd probably try to get the car filling the frame as much as possible to maximize the fisheye effect.

The photo is underexposed. I would bring up the exposure by a half-stop and maybe increase the black-clipping by 2pts or increase the contrast a little.... Or maybe even add a little taste of (Shock! Horror!) vignetting.

I'm assuming the moody blueish white-balance has been left untouched deliberately - it suits the shot.

[Fabolous]

nice ek dude. I can't really add to much critique, cept the location is a little meh, although u said it wans't a full on shoot so ...

[keriboi]

vignetting is cars, well if you like topgear and fifth gear :)

[talan]

vignetting is cars, well if you like topgear and fifth gear :)
LOL so true. Please vignette in moderation :p

[hybrid_h]

haha vignetting is cool but its so easy to get carried away with it

[creepdontsleep]

nice ek dude.. puts mine to shame LOL