User:Johannes Maximilian/How to take good car photos

Disclaimer

I am by no means an expert or professional photographer. I usually take pictures of vehicles that are standing still; this is therefore an essay that describes how I recommend taking photos of vehicles that are not moving.

Light

Photography literally means “painting with light”, therefore, proper light is essential for good photos. Indirect sunlight works best, ideally on overcast days. If there are only few clouds, make sure that the light comes from behind you, this will also eliminate most reflections. Sometimes, waiting for clouds is an option. Taking vehicle photos at night time doesn’t work particularly well; even with low ISO and a decent camera, photos will turn out very poor.

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  Taken on an overcast, rainy day.
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  The sunlight was really intense, and my positioning was bad; notice how bright the car looks on the photo.
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  Taken on an overcast day before noon, the sun is behind me.
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  There is too much sunlight, and the bus doesn't sit in a good spot. I should have chosen a different motif!
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  Taken in a street with just enough sweet light.
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  The sunlight comes from the wrong angle, resulting in very bad reflections.
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  In this photo, the sun is above me.
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  Don't try taking photos at night with a hand-held camera.

Positioning

Vehicle photos should always be taken from a distance! Don’t get too close, and first have a look at the vehicle with your own eyes. Walk away from the vehicle until you can see both headlamps and a fair part of the vehicle’s side, this will automatically result in a good viewing angle. It is always better to stand too far away than being too close. The ideal distance depends upon the vehicle, but 15 metres usually works for cars.

Sometimes, car photos look good if taken from above, but I’d rather stand on the same level as the car.

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  I stood too close to the car, and I should have held the camera upright. This angle is just awful.
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  The vehicle's side is barely visible, so the angle is not good; the distance is fine though.
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  Fine viewing angle, but the camera should not be held closer than this!
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  Distance is good, angle is fine.
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  This is possibly the best viewing angle, and best distance.
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  The distance is fine, but the viewing angle isn't. The bus' side should be visible, too.
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  This is better, but I could have taken some steps further to the right…
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  …this is better!
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  I stood too close!
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  An interesting viewing angle, but note how the light is not good.
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  Interesting viewing angle, but I'd rather avoid it.
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  This viewing angle is good – I have chosen this particular photograph because of its imperfections. I reckon several editors would avoid this picture because my 135 film developing skills definitely cannot keep up with modern imaging technology. However, if we ignore that this is a muddy B&W picture, this picture illustrates how I think good photographs should be taken…)

Background

Make sure that the background is not too busy; especially persons should be avoided.

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  These chaps just wouldn't want to go away…
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  A perfect background doesn't always have to be a fence or wall.
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  Not perfect, but nonetheless fine.

The right camera

Good vehicle photos can be taken with virtually any camera. There is no ‘best camera’, but there certainly are camera-lens-combinations I’d recommend, and others I’d advise against.

For taking photos of objects that are not moving, a camera with fast focus and many AF points is not necessary. This means, that medium-range cameras are sufficient. For example, a Canon EOS 7D has no advantages over an EOS 70D, or an EOS 700D, when used for “not moving car” photography, despite being a “better” model.

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  A bog-standard SLR camera with slow autofocus should work.
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  Even a manual focus camera works fine…
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  …unless the vehicle is super quick!

The right lens

For cameras with interchangeable lenses, I consider the following focal lengths ideal:

• 35 mm Full Frame: 115 mm
• APS-H: 90 mm
• APS-C: 70 mm

In general, any focal length in between the 50 to 135 mm range (35 mm equivalent) should result in decent photographs. Even the bog-standard Canon 18-55 mm lens should work fine if used in the 50 to 55 mm range. At great focal lengths, distortion effects will occur, however, they are not always bad, and definitely better than the fish-eye-like distortion effects caused by small focal lengths. You should definitely avoid wide-angle lenses (usually 28 mm and below), and macro lenses.

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  This is what a photo taken with a Canon 18–55 mm lens looks like.
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  This was taken with a Canon PowerShot S110 compact camera, that doesn't even have interchangable lenses.
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  I have taken this one with a phone.
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  Good distance and angle. However, this photo looks bad because the light was not 100% perfect, or well, rather because I have taken this picture with a phone, too.
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  300 mm telephoto lens…
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  …70 mm…
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  …18 mm

Setting up the camera

Aperture

Should not be wide open! A wide open aperture will not allow the necessary depth of field that is ideal for a car photo. However, if closed too much, photos can turn out too dark. Keep in mind that the aperture also depends upon the focal length. The F-stops indicate how wide the aperture is open, but they are a ratio. This means that an aperture of F/4.0 at 20 mm is not going to result in the same depth of field as the same aperture with a 70 mm focal length. In other words: The greater the focal length, the more you should stop down. At 50 mm, F/5.6 is fine, but at 70 mm, it would probably blur out too much. I usually choose something in between F/5.6 and F/9.0; for 70 mm, F/9.0 is my sweet spot.

The aperture and sharpness also depend upon the type of lens, quality of lens, and other factors. If in doubt, stop down.

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  This photo is just not good. I stood too close, the focal length is too small, and the aperture is open way too wide.
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  The entire car is nicely visible and in focus at F/8.0
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  There are better E36 Compact pictures out there; take a look at the rear wheel and the filler cap. Everything back there is really blurry. I should have stopped down to avoid this.
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  The entire car is sharp at 85 mm, F/8.0 with the Canon New FD 70–210 mm F/4.0 lens. This becomes especially visible around the rear tyre.

Shutter speed

As a rule of thumb, divide 1 by two times the focal length to get the shutter speed in seconds. For example, at 50 mm, choose a shutter speed of at least 1/100 s. At 70 mm, I go with either 1/160 s or 1/200 s.

Exposure compensation

I usually try to have it at 0. Don’t go below -1 EV or above +0.66 EV. I find overexposure worse than underexposure, because it can become impossible to correct.

ISO

Depends upon the camera. The better the camera, the higher the ISO can be, especially outdoors with good natural light. I always try to keep it below 1600 indoors and 3200 outdoors.

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  I had to cheat in order to take this photo. The focal length is very short, and the aperture is open wide. And still, I had to use ISO 1600. It certainly isn't awful, but still very noisy. So this is not ideal.
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  In this ISO 3200 photo, the noise is even more apparent.
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  ISO 1000 and already very noisy. Taken at 21:00 on a summer day.
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  High ISO doesn't have to result in much noise though!

Metering

I choose centre-weighted average metering. Spot metering doesn’t work well for cars, I reckon.

AF points

Choose all AF points your camera has. Ideally, when looking though the viewfinder, the car should be covered by as many AF points as possible. Sometimes I think that manual focus is an option, but the viewfinder of most modern cameras is not suited for manual focus.

Additional equipment

• A tripod can be useful sometimes. I have used a tripod for most of the photos I have taken at the 2019 IAA.

• I have never used a flash in car photography, but I’d rather not use one anyways, especially not outdoors.

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  I have used a tripod for this one.