Photographing a Car Show
Tips For Taking Digital Photos When Car Enthusiasts Show Their Toys
Car shows where proud owners display their passion are great places for photographing rare or unusual cars. Often they hide in garages, only emerging for special occasion
A great deal of effort goes into the presentation of the cars, and there are usually competitions rewarding the best-presented exhibits. This ensures the cars are looking their best for the camera. Here are a few tips and techniques for making the most of the opportunity with your digital camera.
Polarizing Filter
All those lovely metal curves kept in shiny condition by proud owners produce problems with reflections. This can vary from annoying objects visible on the car’s bodywork, to glare that masks the subject.
One solution to minimize reflection is the polarizing filter. This attaches over the front element of your lens. Most lenses will have a thread on the front of the lens for mounting filters.
The special glass element in a polarizing filter rotates to adjust for different angles of reflected light and produce the desired amount of glare reduction to suit each individual situation.
The variety of curves and angles in a automobiles body work present so many different reflective surfaces it is not possible to adjust a polarizer to eliminate all of them. Instead, take a bit of time and rotate the filter to minimize the major reflection on the car.
Wide Angle Lens
There are normally many participants at a good enthusiasts’ car show, where the social gathering is part of the attraction. To accommodate the numbers of participants organizers tend to park the cars close together in rows, making photography of individual cars difficult.
Using a wide-angle or short focal length lens allows the photographer to get close to a car while still fitting the whole car into the image. As the focal length gets shorter, there may be some distortion of perspective. However, this may emphasize of the shapes of the automobiles and so it is worth experimenting with exaggerated perspectives.
Explore all the angles.
Do not only take pictures from your normal standing position. Crouching down can make the car seem to loom above the camera, making the image more dramatic. Shooting from above can be difficult as the shows often take place in large open areas without any natural vantage points.
Reflections
Sometimes reflections are desirable. Polished chrome items on the cars such as hubcaps and headlight surrounds offer possibilities for interesting images. You can get two for the price of one. Not only do you get an interesting image of shape of the object on the automobile, but also a slightly distorted image of the surroundings.
Emblems and Details
Part of the attractions of the shows is the presence of iconic automobiles. The manufacturer’s emblems themselves may even more iconic than the car; for example, Ferrari’s prancing horse, that graces all the cars from Marenello. Other emblems reserved for limited edition specials also make an interesting item to document.
Patterns and Series
Turn the inconvenience of all the cars crammed into rows to your advantage by looking for patterns and series within the massed ranks of automobile sculpture. Organizers often group cars by make, type, or era raising the potential for repeated features in a row of cars.
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