If you want a great photo of your car without the fuss then follow this 5 minute walk through and learn how to shoot like your car like a pro. We will run through the top tips and secrets used by professional car photographers, some example shots to illustrate the main points and a handy check list for your own attempts.

We also run through a list of the most common mistakes to avoid – a complete guide to taking a great shot in less than 5 minutes. As always please share this article on Facebook or Twitter if you find it useful.

When to take the photo:

Just after sunset when you have a clear, blue sky results in warm, low contrast light excellent for shooting vehicles. Slightly before the sun sets is best if there are some low laying clouds. Cars in sunlight don’t have to look terrible but it helps if you can move it to somewhere that will promote the reflections that you want to see in it. If you can find the shade of a building, hopefully one painted white, it will reflect and diffuse the light. Sunrise gives similar results except that the car will be cold. Alternative: wait for an overcast day and take advantage of that softer light.

Vertical light (when the sun is high in the sky) is BAD.

Horizontal light (rising/setting sun and reflected light) is GOOD.

Where to take the photos:

Try finding a large, open area to shoot your car. Even a road with minimal traffic or limited access will work, but a parking lot will do just fine. Preferably, you’ll have a large, uncluttered area behind you to minimize distracting reflections from the car.

How to Take the Photos:

Frame the shot; leave room at the front if the shot for the car to “move into.”

Use Force Flash. Forced flash aka ‘fill flash’ is perhaps the most photo-improving feature on your camera whether it’s a film or digital. Your “automatic” flash won’t work outdoors in the sunlight.  ”My camera decides when a flash is needed.” Not for car photography. Disregard “always on” and set your camera to forced/fill flash.

Use the reflections in the body to show off the contours of the design. If you take a shot in horizontal or low angle light the hard parts here are done for you as the diffused light glides along the metallic surfaces, dances into curves and bounces back from the ground and any buildings behind the photographer.

A few more tips: the larger and whiter nearby buildings, the more bounced-back illumination you’ll benefit from. Similarly, the lighter the road the more bounced-upward illumination you’ll get. Large plate-glass windows, especially an all-glass office building–and especially bronze-tinted glass windows–can provide even more spectacular bounced-light results.

5 Secrets from the professionals:

1. The Rule of Thirds.

(or Golden Section as it sometimes called) Imagine lines across the frame at intervals of a 1/3rd and centre the car in the third to the right or left of middle. This technique works equally well for automotive as it does for portrait or fashion photography, try to think about it when you have your camera in front of you.

2 : The Angle of Attack

Front three/quarter view, this is without a doubt the most popular angle to shoot a car for professionals. One of the reasons this angle is so popular is the fact that it clearly shows the design of the car. If you have a modern or recent model this will yield the best results.

3 : Get Down to Earth

When you see a car parked somewhere you are looking at it from eye level, this is how people will mostly see any given car all the time, so when you are photographing a car you should consider other options. Don’t just stand upright and take a shot, lower yourself to the headlight height for instance.

4 : Concept

You should think about your shot before taking it, that’s the concept behind your image, think about how you would like to show that particular car that’s in front of you. Think about what makes that particular car special, what is it about the design that sets it apart from other cars?

5 : Location

Your location should have an uncluttered background and it should contrast the car. A black car against a dark wall gives a low key shot, but put it against a bright wall at it jumps out of the frame, grabbing attention. This will keep the image of your car in the customer’s mind.

5 Most common mistakes.

1. Unnatural environments.

Cars belong on the road, not the grass. Cows, sheep and mud belong on grass. Tarmac is the natural environment for your vehicle unless one of your pupils has taken the scenic route.

2. Dark Shots.

This is a nice shot but it could be improved if there was a contrasting background that made car stand out from the castle a little more.

Colour photography is about light not shadow. Your camera needs more light to see your car than your eyes do. Lots of smooth, evenly-distributed, low-angle light is best.

3. Background Reflections.

Cars are huge, curved mirrors that reflect everything in sight including you, street sign and tree behind you.

4. Bad Angles.

Low-angle shots only look good if your car has the right stance. If the car sits high, or even worse, the front sits higher than the rear, you’ve got problems, both photographically and aesthetically.

5. Stand up and “shoot down” on your car.

Not good, and for several reasons. Are you listening? Don’t stand up and shoot down on your car.

Check List:

• Schedule your photo session very early or very late (just after dawn or just before dusk).
• Clean your car.
• Park your car on clean road, paving stones or concrete in a natural environment with an uncluttered background.
• Turn your wheels towards the camera so the wheels not the tyres are in the shot. Be sure not to turn your wheels too much, just a little bit is fine.
• Stand with the low, unobstructed sun at your back and with your car properly rotated so that the sun’s rays are bouncing all over the parts of your car facing your camera.
• The dawn or dusk sun should be directly behind you, warming your backside and illuminating all of the surfaces of your car facing the camera.
• If you’re going to shoot different views of your car then stay where you are with the sun at your back but “rotate” your car into the next desired position. Contrary to some folks’ expectations, you cannot walk around your car shooting photos and expect the sun to follow you accordingly.
• Beware of ugly shadows and reflections on the paint surfaces (especially, avoid the chaotic shadows of shade trees).
• Allow some room within the viewfinder in front of the car for it to “move in to”.
• Get down on one knee and shoot from waist level and back up a little from your car but zoom-in your lens so that your viewfinder is filled with the car (leaving room in front) but your shadow is no longer invading your photo.

If you follow this check list then even a very inexperienced photographer with an inexpensive camera can get an excellent shot of their car.

When taking your photos you could try and incorporate a local land mark which would help with local marketing. Something with an iconic building in the background will give added context to your shot and will also help it stand out in people’s memories. For example this shot with the Forth Rail Crossing in the backdrop helped tell the story of Low Price Lessons expanding our coverage.

Your best photo can be used to market your driving school in many ways but of course the best value and most effective way is by getting yourself a LPL profile. With plans starting from free and the LPL mobile app for students if you haven’t joined yet then you click here to do it now.

Cheese

Happy Snapping and if you have any tips or photos your proud of then link to them in the comments.

And as always please share this article with other ADIs on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks for reading.

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