Car show photography is an exciting and fabulous event to get the opportunity of watching colorful and attractive cars in one place and meet so many people. If you are enthusiastic about amazing supercar photos, you need to attend these events to take your photography career to the next level. So, I will talk about Car show photography tips in this article.
As a beginner, you might feel a little bit awkward talking to people and taking pictures of your favorite car in between the huge crowd. So, just make yourself relaxed and enjoy the events.
But when you start to attend a couple of these shows, you will find yourself busy talking to people and taking nice snapshots. In this writing, I will discuss general business tips and technical tips for car show photography.
Car show photography — Explore the opportunity
A car show is a big event for all kinds of photographers, whether a beginner or expert, to meet with car owners and explore opportunities. Other than focusing on lighting, composition, background, camera settings, and angles, there are some other aspects that you need to pay attention to while you are present in a car show.
As you meet your potential customers in the show, you need to use your common sense as well as some interpersonal skills to approach your customers. Be nice and friendly with people and don’t irritate them when they are talking to others and busy with other matters. You need to be patient and find the time when to approach them gently and politely.
Bring your equipment and accessories
We all know that a nice starting is half done for any task. Selecting your camera and accessories for the show is an n overwhelming task but can make it easier in the real field. You don’t need to be fully equipped with all your tools for two reasons.
Firstly, it is most likely that you will not get permission to carry a huge staff and secondly, it will be difficult to carry so much gear with you all the time during the show. You can take a medium side bag or a backpack and fill it up with your stuff. You should preferably carry the below items:
- A camera, DSLR, or Mirrorless (With Body stabilization)
- A wide angle lens and a telephoto lens
- Lens cleaning kit
- A foldable tripod or monopod
- A polarizer and ND filter
- Extra battery and memory cards
You can take magnificent and eye-catching images of the car show with these gears in place. But you need to keep in mind that you don’t pose any problems for the movement of others or don’t give any scratch to any car by yourself or your tools.
Car owners are your customers, So You should not make them angry anyway. You can explore more about camera accessories in Best accessories for camera.
You need to use the tripod for steady shots and a lens cleaning kit for frequent cleaning of the camera lenses as they might get dirty with dust and sand particles when you move on the show. And you need to take Polarizers or ND filters to avoid unwanted reflections from shiny cars.
Attend the show early
There are many advantages of attending any event early, to take enough preparations, and car show photography is not an exception. Whether an outdoor car show or an indoor show, you need to be an early bird for the show for many reasons.
By reaching the place early, you can be familiar with the event, visit the car places and check the snapshot position as per the orientation of the sun. For an outdoor car show, you can check and find a suitable place for your photography.
If you talk to the car owner and gently request them to take the car to your sweet spot for photo shooting, they will not probably deny you. By going there early, you can get a good opportunity to talk with the owner as there will be few people at the beginning of the show.
For an indoor car show, it is hard to find an open space for shooting, so you need to take snapshots as it is by selecting the best angle and positions.
Meet the people and car owners(Best tips for car show photography)
Whether you are a beginner or an expert-level photographer, you should talk to the car owners and be familiar with them. As a beginner, it is hard to get opportunities but be patient and enjoy the show. Just roam around and find the cars for your shooting.
When you get a chance, approach them happily and politely. You can ask them about their likings and preference. The owners feel proud of their great cars. So, ask them about the car purchase, its features, the good and the bad. Build some intimacy with them and don’t be over-smart.
When you meet them, exchange your business card for future contact and the feasibility of individual car photo shooting. You can show them some samples of your car photography to make them more interested in you.
If interested, request the owner to move the car for more photo shooting in your selected spot. He might allow you to take interior close shots by opening the door or engine details or frontal dashboard shots of the gorgeous Lamborghini, a great Porsche, or the stunning Ferrari. Never start photo-shooting a car without the owner’s permission or consent. That makes some people really angry with red faces.
Remember that people are different in nature with their culture and practice and many people don’t like to talk so much to strangers. So talk with them about the topic they like and be friendly. If you find him irritated, leave him early. You need to get familiar with as many people as you can to enlarge your potential customer list.
Avoid the crowd and concentrate on business
This is importantly suggested by the experts to avoid the crowd when you are in the middle of a car show. Being in a car show, you get the chance to see some stunning and exceptional cars as well as photo-shoot them.
If you follow the crowd, your time will be wasted making yourself diverted from your main goal of meeting with the customers and taking snapshots of new cars. In a car show, there are some other events going on like music, announcements, prize distribution, and so on.
Many famous celebrities are present in the show. So, people have a tendency to gather in the crowd with attractive events. You need to avoid that crowd and stick to your plan for photography in the show. With some dedication, you can elevate your car photography to an upper level.
Have patience all the way
Photography in a car show needs a lot of patience. Car shows are mostly very crowded. So it’s hard to get a chance to shoot your selected car as it will be surrounded by people. The only important thing you need here is patience.
In the crowd, you cannot ask people to move aside as they are also distinguished guests and visitors. So you need to be extremely patient to get the desired snapshots. You will find many car photos that are ruined due to the movement of the people or your camera shaking. That’s why you will have to take more snapshots so that you can delete the spoiled shots.
Also when you will want to talk to the owners, they might be busy with some other activities. So again you have to have the patience to keep yourself waiting for getting the chance to talk with them. Many car owners will not let you take snapshots quickly after introduction; you have to spend some time chatting with them to make them friendly. So keep patience as much as you can all through the show.
Leave the place late
Come to the show early and leave the show late is an expert says. For car show photography, you have to follow the rule to get the most out of the show. To become successful in a photography career, you need to work hard with more practice and be punctual for any event.
If you stay late for the show, you will get the chance to take snapshots of most of the cars that you have planned. In the last hour, the crowd will be thinner and your chances for excellent car photography will be higher.
In the afternoon, the sun orientation will be reversed to let you take snapshots of some beautiful cars in the golden hour. Also, you can request the owner for moving the car for taking better snapshots. You can capture some rolling shots while the car is leaving. As a photographer, you should not miss any good or favorable moments for lighting conditions.
For indoor car photography, the lighting conditions remain the same during the Showtime. So you need to pay attention to choosing the right angle and your camera settings to get nice snapshots.
10 Tips for car show photography (how to photograph cars at a car show)
Take Snapshots at a low angle
This is one of the best tips for car photography. Any car photos at a low angle look excellent. In the middle of a car show, you will find many gorgeous cars for shooting. When you are ready, just sit on your knees to capture shots at a low angle. Move around the car, to find the best angle shots. You should also work hard to take some shots at an ultra-low angle. These shots give mind-blowing images of the car.
You need to watch out for distractions in such shooting as the car show is packed up with people and there are always some people passing by the car. If you shoot from a close distance, then you can avoid such distractions to a great extent.
Maybe you can find some elevated place to take high-angle shots with your telephoto lens to get nice images of the cars standing side by side. This will give you an overall impression of the cars in the show.
For outdoor car show photography, try to capture shootings at golden hour as it is one of the best tips for car photography. Also, you can use the tripod if you get some space for it and not block the passageway for people. This will give you more steady and clear shots. Tripods are not allowed at some events. So you need to rely on your camera and lens body stabilization.
As cars are very reflective, you may use polarizers with the lens to get crispy and sharp images. You should take as many snapshots as your memory card can handle. Then you can discard images that look bad or are spoiled by distractions.
Capture bokeh shots
You should capture many bokeh shots of the cars. You can use a wide aperture opening such as f/2.8 or so to lower the depth of field to produce bokeh images of the car. So you get a clear picture of the car with blurred background. This way you can minimize the distraction by the people around the car.
You can also take long exposure shots by lowering the shutter speed of the camera. This will help to gather more light from the subject car especially in a low light situation or in the evening time. However, you need to use a tripod or any stabilizer to get sharper long-exposure shots.
Take inner details shots
In order to take inner details shot of the car parts, you need to talk and take the owner’s consent to touch the car and start with. Don’t just move closer and start the shootings with cameras for car videography. We have discussed earlier how it is important to talk to the owner of the car at a car show.
Most of the owners will happily and proudly allow you to take inner details if you ask them to. Sometimes they tell you to wait for a while with patience. When you are granted permission, you can dive into the car inside to take snapshots as you like.
You can take Steering and dashboard images from the backseat position. Also take close images of Seat covers, bonnet, Car logo, inside the engine block, front and rear backlights, etc. Inner detail shots give a nice visualization of the car parts without which car images look incomplete even for expensive ones.
Use natural light and Low ISO
For outdoor car show photography, there is an abundance of natural light all over the place. So you don’t need to worry about light problems unless it is a very much cloudy day. You may need to use polarizers to avoid reflections from the cars.
In the event of indoor car show photography, you might need to use your flash to fill the shadows and get clear images although indoor shows are also provided with a lot of LED lights. You need to check carefully from which position you get minimum shadows on the car.
You should try your best to photo-shoot in natural lighting conditions. Also, try to keep your ISO within a certain limit to avoid image noise. You know it better for your camera, at what ISO it starts to give image noise. But there are situations when you need to elevate the ISO setting.
Use reflections for art
People want to avoid reflections from the car which make the images look hazy. That’s why you need to use polarizers for photo shooting of cars. This is very prominent for car photography on an intensely sunny day. You might need to use polarizers even for indoor car show photography.
However, reflections on the chrome surfaces of the car may be used as an artistic visualization. You can see many reflections of the surrounding scenes on the car surfaces. If you change the angle, reflections are changed as well. If you have a good artistic sense, you can materialize this thing in your snapshots to produce some exceptional pieces of art.
Photo-shoot at nice spots or locations
This I think is the best outdoor car show photography tip. In many car shows, it is possible to move the car to a good location for photo shooting. If you get the chance, select a nice spot that looks perfect for your snapshots. You have to find the place early with a little practice as you will not get enough time to experiment with your camera once the show starts.
If you are lucky, you can find a place and ask the owner to move the car at the end of the show or when possible. Then you can take a huge number of snapshots until the memory card is full. It is already mentioned that you need to carry extra memory cards as you need to do a lot of shooting in the show. Taking a lot of images is essential to find some extraordinary images.
Fix camera before the shootings
In most cases, you will not get enough time for shooting a car as it is a crowded event. So you need to get prepared in advance with your camera and accessories. It is suggested to keep the camera ready with a proper car show photography lens and settings before you start taking pictures of the car.
This is applicable for shooting inner details of the interior decoration of the vehicle as the owner will not let you stay inside for longer. So, you can get prepared with everything while you are waiting.
Make some rolling shots and video
Cars are made for motion. You should take rolling shots of the car to visualize its motion and speed. By taking rolling shots, you can produce many eye-catching images with the subject car in focus and keeping the background blurred to display the motion.
You can set the camera settings before doing the rolling shots. You can find a great spot near the exit way and place your tripod and camera for the desired photos. Then you can do it while the cars will start to move towards the exit.
For further details about rolling shots, you can check “rolling shots of car”
Include people in some car shots
You can include the people around the vehicle in some shots to display the car show event. Although Cars will be your prime focus, you can include the proud owner of the vehicle to stand beside the car. Including the crowd will let you showcase the car show in your photographs.
Do post-production work in Photoshop
With the advancement of technology and software, it is possible to work on the images a lot after it is captured. With Photoshop, you can edit your image to edit and remove the background, edit lighting effects and improve your image properties to give desired results.
That’s why you need to give a lot of emphasis to post-production works with Photoshop for photo editing. Expert photographers also use the software for editing works in a variety of situations.
For further information about laptops, you can visit Best budget Laptops for Photo Editing.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What settings should I use for car photography?
For still car photo-shooting with the background blurred, you can use a wide aperture (f/5 to f/2.8) and a low ISO setting to take Bokeh shots. To keep background scenery in focus, you may use a low aperture (f/8 or more) and a low ISO setting. Take snapshots at shutter speed like 1/50 to 1/80 seconds.
You can use a wide-angle lens for taking nice close shots of the car and its parts. You may use zoom lenses or telephoto lenses (70-200 mm) to focus from a distance to capture snapshots of several cars in a car show or racing.
How can I stand out at a car show?
You need to be proactive in displaying your vehicle for the show. You can follow the below tips-
- Clean your vehicle before attending the show
- Fix any problem that you know for the vehicle
- Keep the interior condition clean and shine
- Ensure the engine side is in good working and cleaned condition
How can I make my car look good in pictures?
Cars look good in pictures only when it is cleaned and all the chrome parts are shining. So cleaning is the first thing that you need to ensure for your car before any photo shoot. So it’s better to take it to the service station before attending the show.
After cleaning and drying, you can polish your car to make all the chrome bright and shining. Also, you should fix any problem or any broken parts in the vehicle.
What makes a good car show?
A good car show needs to have many features related to participation by people for their enjoyment and fun. So you can find many arrangements for the people like live music, dancing, food and coffee shops, some games, prize distribution, and other extra activities.
Conclusion
So, I have pointed out some general essential business tips and 10 technical tips for car show photography in this article. Not to mention that car show photography is a golden opportunity for the rising photographers to meet people and potential customers for further shooting with beautiful cars. Hence, they should think about attending the car show or exhibition in a prepared and graceful manner.
For the expert photographers, car shows are kind of routine events to participate in and discuss with old and new customers to enlarge the business. Attending car shows will certainly enhance the business skills as well as the technical skills of the car photographers. Hope that this writing will boost your knowledge and thinking about the important aspects of car show photography.
So if you have some experience with a car show, you can share it in the comments section.
If you have any questions, feel free to send the query by mail.
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