Borrowed a camera - Opinions Please

one thing alsways makes pictures look more pro, getting the background out of focus, that involves playing with F numbers unless your camera has a "portrait" setting on it, that often does the same thing.

pics look to be good quality, just fiddle about with settings and effects and see what the cam does, have a play about with it, lots will come out looking curse word, but you will find some that come out really well and look ace, trial and error really

try the camera on an angle too, sometimes looks cool and have a go at more shots looking down the "flanks" of the car and have the background showing through more, like the one down the drivers side but with the cam on an angle, examples(more for angle as these are from a phone):







also have a look at car mag photos to get ideas for angles and things

I know nothing about cameras (I've tried, but it's too complicated), but it does look like the focus is out a bit. It looks like it's sort of in the middle of the scene, instead of in the foreground (the car). I've found manual focus is the best way of doing this. I think aperture has something to do with this as well? I haven't a clue.

They're all pretty good dude! I'd be happy with those. I've been having a go my self recently and it aint as easy as it looks! There is a good thread "teach me: Shooting a car" quite near the top, although i think it's page two now. I've found lots of good tips in there.

This is my fave. Composition is 99% of the effect. OK, maybe not, but it can make or break.

In this shot you have an interesting composition and the background is slightly blurred. You can increase this effect by setting the lens to its widest aperture (the lowest F number) - you may need to tweak the focal length to get the best apperture for your shot. usually you find that this is at the least amount of "zoom".

On your (borrowed) Canon you will need it in AV mode to do this.

Pick the manual focus or set the camera so you can pick the focus point. Then focus on the part of the car which is closest. In this shot that would be the extreme left of the shot, probably on the bumper.

Not sure how shallow depth of field you can get with that lens (it sounds like the one I have as my lit lens) but if you have access to a decent prime lens you could get that really sharp on the car, soft on the front wing and fully blurred on the background.

Helps that you have something worth photographing there too...

OK, I trust you'll forgive a little playing with your pics, in the name of constructive criticism.

I thought this one was a good shot, very nearly, I like the way the car stands uneven , it looks like stored energy, like a tiger waiting to pounce...

However, this nice composition can be improved a little.



I prefer a close crop to the subject, so I have made the car as close to the edge of the frame as I think looks good. I have tweaked the light levels and such a little too.

If I had photoshop or knew how to use Gimp or something I could doubtless make the background blurred using a post processing effect. But I don't so I didn't.

I think you have maybe some camera shake here, the background is not properly focused but its not nicely blurred. If it were me I would shoot this at about 24mm and f2.8 (or wider, I think that's the limit on that kit lens though?) This should give a bit of blur to the background and this will make the car stand out more in the shot.

I am not the best photog on here so maybe not the best to be saying, but that's how I'd go about that shot.

All above intended in the constructive vein.

Course i don't mind Will thanks for improving it!

Akku, all points taken on board dude. You are quite right when you mentioned camera shake, part of the reason ive never got into trying to take decent photo's and getting a proper camera of my own is simply down to me not having very steady hands never thought it would be worth spending out on decent gear when i'll never get a decent shot

Steve

One cheap answer

And this

A less cheap answer

IS will help a bit. Depends how shaky you are. Generally if you have shaky hands get the shutter speed up as quick as you can even if it means ratcheting up the ISO. A good SLR will support huge ISO numbers without appreciable noise.

With shaky hands you need somewhere to balance the camera. Try tucking your elbows into your gut to make a kind of man-brace.

Look for walls, posts, barriers, anything you can put the camera on.

Use the timer if you are clumsy with the shutter button or get a remote button on a lead. The IR ones are a bit useless IMO as you have to be in front for it to "see" the remote. The one on a cable is much better.

I think i understood some of that............

Cheddar could be on the cards then, could everyone pray for a dry day please ;D