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This is just a real simple and quick photography tips to help you get better photos of your car. I talked with Forte5, and he thought it would be beneficial for me to post this.
Cell Phone Camera is Okay!
Most people are going to be taking photos with your phone, and that’s okay. You don't need a high end fancy camera to get good photos. In fact, all of the photos in this post of the car were taken with an iPhone. It’s not the camera, but the photographer that makes a great shot. In ideal light (explained later), a phone is capable of taking photos just as good as a professional camera. The only thing about taking photos with your phone, 99.999999% of the time, you should be taking your photo in landscape mode.
Clean your lens.
If you are choosing to take photos with your cell phone, be sure to wipe off any dust and fingerprints that have accumulated on the glass covering the photo sensor. If you don’t, your photos will come out hazy looking.
![Automotive lighting Camera lens Lcd projector Gadget Automotive exterior]()
Dirty vs Clean
Don’t take boring shots.
An eye level shot is boring because it is what we see every day. To give your photo more appeal, try taking a knee or finding higher ground so that the viewing angle isn’t something you would experience just by walking by the car.
Ideal Lighting.
Ideal lighting for photography is behind the camera (meaning your camera is pointed away from the light source (usually the sun)). There are some notable exceptions to this, such as taking a photo of a sunrise or sunset, but for the best photos of your car, make sure that you are facing away from the primary light source. If you don’t then the camera will set the exposure for the light, and the subject of your photo, your car, will be underexposed and appear too dark or grainy.
Rule of Thirds.
The rule of thirds in Photography states that a photo should be divided up into three areas in both the horizontal, and vertical axis. Always try to make the subject of your photo fall under one of the four areas that the vertical and horizontal axis cross.
![Wheel Tire Vehicle Car Window]()
To help your remember to use this when taking your photo, you should be able to turn on a feature called ‘grid’ in your photo app settings. This is what it looks like on an iPhone.
![Rectangle Tile flooring Font Pattern Flooring]()
Clean Up.
You’ve got your photo, now it’s time to make it look even better. There are a variety of ways you can go about this. Programs like Adobe Lightroom are going to yield the best results, however there is a bit of a learning curve. Also, the built in photo app on your phone will give you some decent results.
I made copies of the photo and edited it in Adobe Lightroom, on the iPhone’s Photo app, and I also gave the built in Windows 10 Photo editor a spin (better than I thought it was going to be BTW). For arguments sake, I decided to just do a quick edit in each application to prove the point that it doesn’t really matter how you go about doing it, as long as it gets done. The first photo is the original photo, unedited other than cropping.
![Wheel Tire Vehicle Car Window]()
Original
![Tire Wheel Car Vehicle Window]()
Edited on iPhone using built in photos app.
![Tire Wheel Vehicle Car Window]()
Lightroom
![Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Automotive tail & brake light]()
Windows 10 built in photo editor
As you can see, there are some differences in the photos, but over all, they all look better than the original, and that is the point.
How I go about doing this, is to open the photo you want to edit, and when you are editing it and just start adjusting things. Adjust each thing little by little until you think it looks better to you, then go on to the next setting until you are satisfied with the photo. I suggest trying all of the settings at least once so you know what they do.
*Will probably update this with more later. Hope you find it useful. Feel free to ask questions.
Cell Phone Camera is Okay!
Most people are going to be taking photos with your phone, and that’s okay. You don't need a high end fancy camera to get good photos. In fact, all of the photos in this post of the car were taken with an iPhone. It’s not the camera, but the photographer that makes a great shot. In ideal light (explained later), a phone is capable of taking photos just as good as a professional camera. The only thing about taking photos with your phone, 99.999999% of the time, you should be taking your photo in landscape mode.
Clean your lens.
If you are choosing to take photos with your cell phone, be sure to wipe off any dust and fingerprints that have accumulated on the glass covering the photo sensor. If you don’t, your photos will come out hazy looking.
Dirty vs Clean
Don’t take boring shots.
An eye level shot is boring because it is what we see every day. To give your photo more appeal, try taking a knee or finding higher ground so that the viewing angle isn’t something you would experience just by walking by the car.
Ideal Lighting.
Ideal lighting for photography is behind the camera (meaning your camera is pointed away from the light source (usually the sun)). There are some notable exceptions to this, such as taking a photo of a sunrise or sunset, but for the best photos of your car, make sure that you are facing away from the primary light source. If you don’t then the camera will set the exposure for the light, and the subject of your photo, your car, will be underexposed and appear too dark or grainy.
Rule of Thirds.
The rule of thirds in Photography states that a photo should be divided up into three areas in both the horizontal, and vertical axis. Always try to make the subject of your photo fall under one of the four areas that the vertical and horizontal axis cross.
To help your remember to use this when taking your photo, you should be able to turn on a feature called ‘grid’ in your photo app settings. This is what it looks like on an iPhone.
Clean Up.
You’ve got your photo, now it’s time to make it look even better. There are a variety of ways you can go about this. Programs like Adobe Lightroom are going to yield the best results, however there is a bit of a learning curve. Also, the built in photo app on your phone will give you some decent results.
I made copies of the photo and edited it in Adobe Lightroom, on the iPhone’s Photo app, and I also gave the built in Windows 10 Photo editor a spin (better than I thought it was going to be BTW). For arguments sake, I decided to just do a quick edit in each application to prove the point that it doesn’t really matter how you go about doing it, as long as it gets done. The first photo is the original photo, unedited other than cropping.
Original
Edited on iPhone using built in photos app.
Lightroom
Windows 10 built in photo editor
As you can see, there are some differences in the photos, but over all, they all look better than the original, and that is the point.
How I go about doing this, is to open the photo you want to edit, and when you are editing it and just start adjusting things. Adjust each thing little by little until you think it looks better to you, then go on to the next setting until you are satisfied with the photo. I suggest trying all of the settings at least once so you know what they do.
*Will probably update this with more later. Hope you find it useful. Feel free to ask questions.
