Looking for tips at the Hot Rod Show

[Nieba]

I am going to the local Hot Rod Show in Pomona, CA this weekend and I am looking for any tips everyone can spare. I plan on going Friday late afternoon into evening to get some dusk shots and possibly night shots. Then hopefully I can go back on Saturday and get some day shots. There will be indoor and outdoor shots with cars and people.

All help is greatly appreciated. I am still learning my camera. I have a Canon XT with an external flash, the kit 18-55mm lens and a Tamron 75-300mm lens.

Thanks.

[Hill Country Hack]

Late afternoon into evening is great as is early morning before the sun gets too high. All that shiny chrome is difficult to shoot in harsh light. Shoot in the shade if you can. Keep the sun behind you or quartering over your shoulder. Indoors may be more difficult with your kit lenses. If you want to shoot at night, be sure to have a tripod and/or look for a location to set your camera on. Most of all have fun and change YOUR perspective. Kneel or lay on the ground, get on a chair. Avoid the built in flash as it is too harsh and flattens the image. Good luck, have fun and post some results.

Take a look in some car magazines or online for traditional perspectives.

The first and last shots were taken with my kit 18-55mm.

Find interesting accents to the vehicle such as this vette with the monogram


Play with DOF


A stock angle for a car is something like this

[Nieba]

I just came back from the Rodster show. The first set came out really blue. I must've had something not set right. It was when the sun had just gone down.









I started figureing out the indoors pretty well as you can see, but the shaking is still a problem. I had to dump most of my photos because they were too blurry.

[Nieba]

Okay, I went through over 600 photos and here are a few that I thought were my best.


This is actually a mirror reflection of the undercarriage.





What do you think?

You can see more photos at http://photobucket.com/Rodster2012

[Hill Country Hack]

I will guess the blueness is a white balance issue. Was your WB set at "auto" or some other setting. As for the shaking, that is due to the slower shutter speeds for the indoor shots. Open the apeture and bump the ISO to get an acceptable shutter speed. Or shoot in either shutter priority so you can set the desired shutter speed. You will have to check to be sure you will still get an acceptable image by checking the exposure needle in the viewfinder.

#2 and 4 may have more impact if shot one more step to the left and from a lower angle.

Not bad for a first try. Look are your images and the EXIF data. FIgure out what did and did not work to learn from your outing.

[Nieba]

I was getting tired when I got to those cars. There are many more where I did get on my knees to get better shots. Thanks for the tips.