5 ways to improve your car photography

As car guys (and gals), we're proud of our machines and would want to take nice photos of them. You can find a nice spot, park your car there and just take a couple of photos on your smartphone and be done with it.

Or, put in just a few extra steps and you just might be able to take your car photography skills to the next level.

1. Get down or get high

One of the most common things people do when taking a photo is to shoot at eye level. Shooting at this angle might be natural for beginners, it's also the least flattering angle for a car. 

Experiment with high & low angles and see which works best for you. I find shooting at headlight level is a great place to start. 

2. Chase the Golden Hour

You might have heard the term ‘golden hour’ before, it's the short period after sunrise and right before sunset.

Shooting at this time will give your photos nice soft lighting without any harsh shadows.

Another factor to consider is the weather. Clear sunny skies are great, but I personally like to shoot on an overcast day. Because it is devoid of any harsh shadows.

I also like to shoot at night and sometimes in the rain too. It all depends on what kind of photo I want.

3. Use backlighting

You might think that the best way to get good lighting is to have the sun directly behind the camera.

But this will flatten the look of the car, making the overall photo rather dull. You can remedy that by placing the sun behind the car and in the background instead.

Start by setting your exposure so that the sun looks as you want it and the surroundings are not over exposed. Then open the photo in your editor of choice, bring up the shadows, lower the highlights a little and Bob’s your uncle.

It might not look as expected on your first try, but you know what they say, practice makes perfect. 

4. Go vertical

Most of us consume content on our smartphones nowadays, so why not add some vertical photos to the mix? It's the best way to maximise screen real estate on apps such as Instagram.

Shooting vertically also challenges you to find the best way to frame something that is overwhelmingly horizontal.

5. Grab a friend or two

A rolling shot can add the feeling of motion into your photos. While it's fun to do a rolling car-to-car shoot, remember to use some common sense.

Don’t do it on an open road with cars & pedestrians around, and don’t hang off the back of a Myvi without any safety harness. Shooting out the window from the back seat will do.

You don’t even need to go that fast — I find that the best speed for a rolling shot is between 20-40km/h. As for camera settings, a shutter speed of 1/40th to 1/60th is where you’d wanna be.

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