been out this morning with my new camera

Car looks superb! Hope its as fun to drive as it looks. Your doing the right thing by going out and paying with the new camera and learning about it. I'm no great photographer but I do a small bit.

What modes are you using? Try switching to manual and playing about with settings and begin to learn what goes well with what lighting etc and just generally try everything and gain experience and get to know your camera.

Have a read through this for a few good tips.

autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_0931/article.html

my camera is a Fuji s5600 www.fujifilm.co.uk/digital/cameras/s5600/index.php?page=press_reviews&body_link=yes

i have been playing with the settings today with good and bad results. the light was bad today to hopefully it will be brighter tomorrow

thats the same camera as i use at work - nice to see it can take good photos of cars too!

they're really good photos. i'd be very happy with them if i'd taken them.

as jason says, the best way to learn how to use your camera and take good pictures is to just get out there and experiment.

cracking motor also

Looking good! That's one tidy motor.
As said, you'll learn a heap about photography by just messing about with the various settings.

Car photography isn't my particular area of expertise (for the moment), but there are some general pointers that will help:

IMO, if the background isn't that interesting, it looks better to frame tighter on the car. DSCF0538.jpg is one of my favs because of this. The car is definitely the focus of the image. DSCF0575.jpg would also be very nice if cropped a little tighter, and without the gate in the background.

The natural lighting at dawn or dusk is generally more dramatic and 'spills' over the car very nicely. You may need a tripod though, as shutters will be longer.

All in all, just experiment! Digital is great for that. Post up the results, too - I'd like to see them.

Is that the finepix range?

thanks for the comments and advise I will keep it in mind the next time I am out with the camera.
what makes a good back ground ?

photoshopped

Good pictures, it's clear you've put a bit of thought into them - which is exactly the thing to do. Get out there and keep experimenting!

Good effort, like rmad says practice is the only thing that will help you improve. Search out some pictures that you like and try and identify why you do, it's often a good start point to developing your own style.

There are loads of things that make a good picture just that, but if you start paying too much attention to them often you'll miss a genuinely good shot.

Here's some quick and obvious pointers going by what you've posted.

Avoid nature in the background especially on open topped cars like yours. As then there's no profile to the car, which very simply means it blends into the background. To combat this in the location you used, I'd recommend getting well away from the car and using the maximum telephoto setting, thereby limiting the focal plane (what's in focus) this 'drops' the background out.

Oh yeah, and avoid stuff sticking out of the profile shape too, like telegraph pole and gate, although I would say you've lined them up perfectly to coincide with the profile... So it looks like it's sprouting them!

Like others have said, shoot lower and just enjoy yourself. We always look for locations that have no greenery or people in them, or fancy buildings and the like. Multi storey car parks often work well.

Oh, and unless you really have too, avoid camera mounted flash and use available light, reflected or otherwise. And watch out for relections or shadows messing with what you're shooting.

Right, I'll shut up now. There are actually two professional car photographers registered on here that I know of... ;D