How to Digitally Photograph Cars: Tips, Tricks, Static & Action Photography, etc. 9781932494990

How to Digitally Photograph Cars: Tips & Tricks, Static & Action Photography, Equipment, Location, Lighting, Composition & more

How to Digitally Photograph Cars: Tips & Tricks, Static & Action Photography, Equipment, Location & more

♦ The advances in digital photography have made it a much more accessible and affordable hobby.

♦ The focus is on digital automotive photography, with heavy emphasis on post-processing techniques. Other books in this subject deal exclusively with obsolete film.

♦ All photos in the book have EXIF data included in the captions.

The introduction of the digital camera brought about one of the biggest changes in the photography industry. Film slowly began to fade away, and with it, many of its antiquated styles and procedures.

Digital photography was further revolutionized in 1991 with the release of the first digital SLR. Coincidentally, one year prior, in 1990, Adobe released the groundbreaking photo-editing software Photoshop.

Fast forward to present day and it is obvious that the digital SLR market has exploded, with manufacturers fine-tuning their technology and making them affordable to everyone.

How to Digitally Photograph Cars is a how-to book on digitally photographing a vehicle the professional way, with techniques and secrets from professional photographers. It features in-depth, post-processing procedures and teaches you how to achieve professional-quality photographs.

This book includes tips on panning, car-to-car motion, shooting engine bays, using an automotive rig, controlling lighting, and more. The book even has strategies for selling your finished work to automotive publications.

It also offers extensive information on using Photoshop for post processing your automotive images, including Photoshop's essential tools, contrast and color adjustments, working with RAW files, layers and multi-layering, dropping backgrounds, clipping photos together, filters, resizing, and more.

Table of Contents

Dedication
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction

CHAPTER 1: CHOOSING YOUR EQUIPMENT

Determining a Budget
DSLR Camera Bodies
Megapixels
Crop Factor
ISO Speed Range
Auto Focus
Frames Per Second
Lenses
Focal Length
Zoom vs Prime
Lens Aperture
What We Use
Filters
Clear/UV Filters
Polarizer Filters
Neutral Density Filters
Tripods
Automotive Photography Rigs
Flashes, Strobes and Lighting Equipment

CHAPTER 2: STATIC PHOTOGRAPHY

Finding Your Subject
Time and Weather
Location
Positioning
Photo Composition
Camera Settings
Metering
Aperture Priority Mode
Shutter Priority Mode
Manual Mode
ISO Setting
White Balance
Lighting
Engine Bay
Interior
Details
Inclusion of Models
Car Shows and Events
Studio Work

CHAPTER 3: ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY

Equipment Settings
Car-to-Car Motion
Panning
Drag Racing
The Burn-Out
Staging
Launching
The Run
Drifting
Track Events
Rally

CHAPTER 4: INSIDER TIPS & TRICKS

Using an Automotive Photography Rig
Selling Your Work
Protecting Your Work

CHAPTER 5: POST PROCESSING

Essential Photoshop Tools
Other Tools
Layers
Editing RAW Files
Multi-Layering
Filters
CMYK vs RGB
Resizing and Saving Tips
Conclusion

About the Authors

Jason Siu is the former West Coast editor of Modified Magazine. While working there he wrote and photographed cars for more than 200 different articles. He is also the author of CarTech's How to Rebuild the Honda B-Series Engines.

Josh Mackey began photographing cars in his spare time and exploring basic elements of graphic design with various pieces of new software. Josh's automotive photography has been featured in more than 40 magazine spreads covering various tuner cars, eight of which were cover features. His work has been published in magazines worldwide.