Subaru STI V8

[Fabolous]

Hey guys, in my hurry to try out my DSLR to shoot cars, I took some pics of my bro's STI in our driveway lol. The car was dirty but the weather was pretty good, midday but cloudy and the trees provided some shade. About half of the shots are straight from the camera (just resized by flickr), which is a first for me as with my point and shoot, I always applied PP. Others I have played around with sharpness, saturation and contrast.

1.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2450/3802287493_66ded79585.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabolousimages/3802287493/)

2.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2515/3803088232_0b3c448026.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabolousimages/3803088232/)

3.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2667/3803086556_23a130f59f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabolousimages/3803086556/)

4.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3574/3803085468_cf9657dcf1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabolousimages/3803085468/)

5.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2532/3803083614_a902894df5.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabolousimages/3803083614/)

[thirdkid]

nice shots bro..the background is great on the car

[smurff]

awww sexy car!!
and nice photos :P

second one is my favorate pic!

im not a big fan of number 3,
i just dont really understand the concept of not having the car being in focus... ive tried it just dont understand it TBH

-smurff

[Fabolous]

thanks for the input guys. I was trying out new things re #3, as most of my shots looked the same, I think it came out OK, but maybe the object in the foreground should be a little more interesting than twigs :P

a problem I'm starting to notice is blown highlights in the skies, even in the evening! how do I get around this? polarizing filter? HDR?

[smurff]

thanks for the input guys. I was trying out new things re #3, as most of my shots looked the same, I think it came out OK, but maybe the object in the foreground should be a little more interesting than twigs :P

a problem I'm starting to notice is blown highlights in the skies, even in the evening! how do I get around this? polarizing filter? HDR?

??? i wouldnt mind just knowing what this means :) :P

-smurff

[robo git]

??? i wouldnt mind just knowing what this means :) :P

-smurffBasically blown highlights are when you take a photo with the ground properly exposed, but the sky just comes out as white or blue, and no matter what you do in post-processing you can't get any detail of the clouds, nor the right colour of the sky.

How I handle it is either slightly underexpose the foreground so that even though over-exposed there's enough sky detail retained to be useful, OR I use my Cokin ND4 Graduated filter to reign in the sky by 2 stops.

[smurff]

ahhh i see, i had this same thing, i got a ND4 filter, use it more often than not... i love that filter now :D actually i think i love my CPL too... but dont let them find out, they may get jelous hehehe ( im bored at work )

-smurff

[Fabolous]

robo git - but then isn't the subject too dark? if you use PS to bring back those details, there's always a high amount of noise. Which is really apparent if you are shooting a surface with no texture - i.e. car panels. I'm trying HDR and exposure merging at the moment and the later seems to do the trick! Also invested in a CPL filter, maybe that will save the skies!!

[robo git]

smurff, Fabolous: Not an ND4 filter, but an ND4 Graduated filter - fades from ND4 to transparent across about the middle third of the filter.

Also I shoot either RAW or RAW+JPG, so I have some leeway with doing an underexposed subject/less-over-exposed sky trick.

Yes, a CPL can bring the skys back under control, but you still need to be aware of how bright things are as the sky can still blow out relative to the properly-exposed subject. Also there's the trade-off with CPLs that you can sometimes get a little colour alteration of the sky, or if you're not paying attention even take a little bit TOO much light from the sky.

Another good trick is to wear a white shirt, use a flash on a cord (or pocket-wiz if you're fortunate enough to own some) and bounce the light off your shirt as a quick & dirty portable reflector to get a bit of soft fill light on the subject. Not the most effective reflector (especially having the camera and your arm in the way), but can be just enough. However: Requires either pre-focusing or using autofocus though.

Heck - If I'm doing a planned daylight shooting session I just about always use a flash to get a light on the subject - either bounced or via a diffuser for soft effect, or direct for a hard-light, often shooting with the flash mounted on the camera (sacrilege!) :D

[talan]

Good to see you're putting the new DSLR to good use. I dig the last one, but I would watch with the extreme angles. Nice car!