Do your car photos suck? Let me help you

When I was new to the car photo game my photos weren’t that great, I mean cool what did I expect lol.

When I would go to shoot I'd be kinda completely lost. I’d be shooting all types of angles with the wrong camera settings (also take wayy longer than I needed to) and then be surprised when I don’t like how the photos turn out.

But today I want to go over some of the things I learned that helped me improve my shooting style.

Over the span of a few months, my photos went from this:

To this:

Not too shabby.

Assuming you’ve already (or barely) started your car photography journey, here are 4 basic tips to help you take better car photos.

Breakdown:

1. Take out unnecessary objects

2. Be mindful of the lighting (especially at night)

3. Know your angles

4. BACK UP

TIP #1: Take out unnecessary objects

Now we’re here to look at photos of CARS, not lamps, not fences, not cones. Less is more in this case. It’s less distracting and easier on the eyes.

So choose to shoot in a location with minimal distractions OR if you could, clean your photo up in post.

PRO TIP: the photo looks a lot cleaner when you edit out the dirt and smudges off the ground.

The objects in the background were taken out AND I cleaned the floor.

TIP #2: Be mindful of the lighting

During the day it looks more cinematic when the sun is perpendicular to you or like off to the side, and NOT directly behind you.

If you want a more natural look, let the shadows be dark.

PRO TIP: (you honestly should already know this but) ALWAYS shoot in RAW and ALWAYS expose for the highlights.

When shooting at night, it’s best to find a spot that is well lit, and no, a lamp post isn’t bright enough, sorry. Find spots like gas stations, drive-thrus, parking garages.

My most successful night shoot was at a drive-thru that was SUPER bright, like as bright as day.

EXTRA TIP: the car looks a lot cleaner when you reflect strips of lights off of it (e.g. the red s13 at the beginning of this post)

TIP #3: Know your angles

Become familiar with the 4 basic angles:

Ignore what you’ve heard, don’t shoot low (on the ground - low). Unless the car is slammed, I suggest you shoot around eye level.

PRO TIP: If you want the car to appear lower, shoot from a higher angle.

TIP #4: BACK UP

Lastly, back the f up. If you want the car to look natural (which you do) shoot from a distance in order to avoid distortion.

We naturally see at a focal length of 50mm so the wider and closer you get, the funkier it looks. If you can’t zoom in, back up and crop in, it’ll look better.

Conclusion:

Yes, this was a lot of basic stuff but these tiny tweaks can really make a difference (as you can see). This is also not a rule book; these are just guidelines that helped me take better looking photos.

To briefly review: take out anything that could be distracting and be conscious of your lighting, angles, and distance.

That’s all for this post, I hope you learned at least one thing that could help improve the way you approach car photography. :)

Feel free to leave a comment if I triggered any questions, and follow me on instagram to catch up on my latest work.

Thanks,

Antonio