Beginner Tips for Car Pictures

I recently got a new car. Since i live in Alaska i wasn't able to get the car i wanted unless i special ordered it and waited up to 4 months for it to get shipped up here by a horse drawn wagon. There were several major things about to go wrong with my Ranger so i decided it would be best to get rid of sooner (as in: before winter) rather than later. So i settled for what was available, a 2012 Toyota 4Runner Limited.

It's the first time i have had a brand new car and since i'm a photographer, that meant it was more important to take pictures of it than to actually drive it. I really enjoyed most of the time i spent getting these images, which are as good or better than anything i saw at the dealership. The purchase involved quite a bit of frustration with the local dealership but instead of dwelling on that i thought i'd write up some tips on what i've learned the couple of times that i've taken pictures of vehicles.

Photography is often about subtraction. Although you may have all the HDR technology and flashes in the world to reveal all the detail in a dark scene, it doesn't mean anyone else wants to see all that detail. For a picture of the interior you don't necessarily need to see out the windows and nobody cares what the floorboards look like. If the floorboards or pedals look awesome, take a separate picture of them, or go ahead and ingeniously place that flash. Personally i had to overcome my desire with this shot to try and show the whole of the seats. I could never get the right angle, and eventually i realized this picture (one of the first, of course) was perfectly fine.

Location, Location, Location: The hardest thing in my opinion is finding the location. I look for locations all the time, and i really should take more time to make notes or mark the gps coordinates. Just pulling over at a scenic overlook is usually not enough. For a "luxury off road" vehicle you want to convey the fantasy of the vehicle communing with wild nature, or driving around in an unpopulated wilderness that somehow has nicely maintained empty roads. Having things in the picture like guard rails and street signs will significantly detract from the fantasy.

A Non-HDR single exposure. I'm hiding an awful lot in this picture, you'd be surprised what it looks like. On the other hand i haven't edited anything out of the image, except for some shrimp buoys that were annoying me because of their brightness and placement. Compositionally you might think there is too much space in the left foreground, but this is perfect for text in a clients ad. Consider bringing a ladder so you can get a slightly higher angle in case there isn't anything to stand on.

Be Careful With High Dynamic Range:  If you're the kind of person who get's an endless dose of dopamine the more you crank up the detail and contrast sliders in your HDR program of choice, then knock yourself out. These days I mostly fall into the camp of using HDR stealthily, partially, or not at all. I like it best when you can't tell if it's from an HDR or not. Some of the images on this post are from HDR sources and some are not. With the exception of the wheel and the close up of the grill below, I bet some of the images you would swear are from HDR sources are actually single exposures.

I'd like to take this again in a fat warm blizzard with a bunch of hot steam pouring up from the underside. And i could replace the shattered rocks in the background with some snow loaded spruce trees.

One of the differences on the Limited is better looking wheels. On the other hand the tires are thinner which i may not like on a rough road at some point.

Be ready to adapt: It's been years since i took any car pictures. I found out that several areas, including one where i took pictures of my old Ranger, are now blocked by large boulders. Times change. This season happened to be Fall, and i had the obvious idea to put the car in a fall leaves scene. Unfortunately i just lived through my worst Fall ever; nearly the entire season consisted of rain, windstorms and floods. By the time the weather cleared the leaves had mostly fallen. So i decided to go look for some kind of stream that i could drive out into, thinking i could get a shot of the vehicle on a gravel bar or something. It turned out that the streams were still at high water so that idea was out as well.

Undeterred, i drove to Whittier thinking i could drive onto the beach. Whittier was foggy and the beach was rather nasty looking at low tide at the only place i could possibly get onto it. Strike three.

Eventually I found myself on the side of a heavily wooded fjord full of fog that was breaking up under incredible light conditions. I had no idea it would look so nice. In this case reality turned out to be better than what i had envisioned in my head, so took advantage of it as fast as i could without making big mistakes.

You'll notice in car pictures there's not a lot of road, unless the picture is specifically "of the road" either winding away or stretching forward towards infinity. This location worked great at hiding all of the road except what was necessary. It was a steep downward slope coming off the main road as it went uphill. That aspect helps give the illusion that the car has more "off road" clearance than it really does.

Use Natural Light: There's nothing wrong with using one or several flashes (especially for urban shots) but I find that in the daytime it's certainly not necessary for a good image. Although i had two flashes available, and i used them, in the end i liked the images using natural light much better. You just have to remember the light source is stationary (the sun) so you have to move the subject into the right position.

Have a clean car: Sounds obvious but it's not so easy. Even if you plan on getting it muddy it's usually best to have the non gritty parts looking shiny. On the day i went to Whittier i washed the car on the way out of town. Even though it was 43 degrees Fahrenheit i still picked up a fair number of bugs during the 50 mile drive. I thought of that beforehand, bringing several towels. I got a bit lucky in that i had to go through thick fog which kept the bugs moist and easy to wipe off. Even better would be to wash the car on site or if you have the resources tow the car on a trailer with a cover. I had to wait a week after i got the car for a non rainy day, and during that time i drove it minimally and did not allow my dogs anywhere near the interior. Other items to consider are a spray bottle, bucket and sponge. Maybe a static duster, etc...
The picture above is from an HDR source file, although it doesn't look it. I took several compositions of the dash, and for the post here i had another that works very well and makes the display easier to read. However, i like this view, as if you are sitting in the back seat looking forward. In reality i was standing about 4 feet behind the car shooting through the open hatchback with a 180mm macro lens. That gave me the depth of field i was looking for.

To get pleasant lighting i opened all the doors and the sunroof. I parked the car, oddly, with the sun to my back. There was a huge bank of fog in the water to the left. The fog and the glaciated mountains above it were acting like a giant soft box while the sun at my back, which was hidden behind high peaks, came in as an ambient overhead source.

There's nothing to fancy about the interior of the 2012 4Runner. It does have a rubbery feeling textured upper dash that seems to do a good job of not reflecting in the windshield. I like that.

Pay Attention to the Interior for Exterior Shots and Vice Versa: I have messed up several pictures in the past by taking exterior shots but then not paying attention to the situation inside. I ended up with pictures of a car with only one seat up, or a single visor down against the windshield, or a big piece of paper reflecting around. You might be able to fix that during processing but it's FAR easier to just pay attention at the time of the photo.

Some shots don't require location. Nothing super attractive about the cargo area. I used my time in Whittier wisely. For this picture i just opened the back hatch in my driveway. I cut out the windows in photoshop and replaced it with a shot in the forest above Bird Valley i had taken a year ago on my ATV. It worked well because the trees around my driveway created the right color cast on the interior.

Not a great shot but i have never seen such a clean engine. It was so clean i could have stored my camera gear in it. Taking pictures of a tight, complex environment like in an engine cavity is something completely different. Maybe someone could share some tips with me about that endeavor.