Indoor car show

[Wanabphoto]

well i guess this is my first official post. i am going to be going to an indoor car show this weekend and was wandering what would be some settings should be. i know you wont be able to tell me exactly, thats something i will have to mess with. from past events i have been to in this building the lighting is low. thanks for the help on the new question.

[JerInTheBox]

I found the lighting was pretty good, everything is nice and shiny and reflecty, lots of ceiling lights. Make sure you white balance because you never know what color you'll end up with in there. A nice wide lens is your best bet, there's not really enough room to use a long lens.

I went to the SEMA show in Vegas in November and had some time to shoot some cars, here's one of my favorites. I did notice a lot of photographers there using a diffused off-camera flash in their left hand to light the cars, and I think that would allow you to expose for the car and darken the background. One of the problems in the other pix in my set is that the backgrounds tend to be too busy, and I think the off-camera flash would solve that.



Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 400

[Loose_Canon]

My best advice is to use a tripod or monopod if allowed, and use Custom White Balance. That will prevent the color casts you get from these indoor venues. For example, the photo above has a slight pinkish cast. Custom White Balance would prevent that. There is no preset white balance for heliarc lamps.

And no, you can't always fix the colors in Photoshop. Much easier to get it right in the camera. Check your owners manual for Custom White Balance or google "Custom White Balance".

Good luck w/ your shoot!

[wulf]

It is difficult to give you a list of settings to use. What you need to learn is not a premade list but what those settings do and what effect they have. As noted, white balance may well be important. Learn how to set it yourself and do pay attention to changes in the lighting from stand to stand.

Your other main options are:

Aperture: wide is probably better - more light and the clutter in the background will be less distracting. However if you go too wide, you will only get part of the car in focus so you will need to experiment.

Shutter speed: higher means less problems with camera shake but also less light.

ISO: high will make it easier if the light is low; keep the picture well exposed and it shouldn't look too grainy.

Learn how to change all of those things quickly so you can experiment.

Finally, if you can take a tripod or find a place to rest your camera, here's an idea. Turn the ISO all the way down, stop down to a narrow aperture and then adjust the shutter speed so it is very slow to let in enough light. If conditions allow you to get down to five or ten seconds, you might find that people walking past become invisible! Worth trying, especially if you are getting frustrated with people in the way.

Wulf