Taking good photos of your car

I thought I'd offer some tips on getting good clear photos of your wagons. Things like backgrounds, light conditions, and placement of the vehicle.
I'll keep the words to a minimum, and show some photos. A picture is worth a thousand words. I'll also tell you what I did wrong in my photos too.

In this photo, I found an oil rig that was unfenced and parked my car next to it. I climbed a small hill and waited for the clouds to be just right.
The blue patch of sky draws your eye to the subject, and I've used the rule of thirds. This means the subject is not centered, and is about a third into the photo.

 

Again, the subject is not centered. The foreground is clean and uncluttered, and for the most part so is the background. It does appear that there are trees growing out of the roof. oops.

 

Here's a photo that tells a story. There are enough elements here to get people chuckling.

 

This photo uses the dramatic late evening light to good advantage. The road leads your eye to the horizon, and I avoided getting my shadow into the shot.

 

Find a background that has a contrasting color to your car, or a neutral color. Try to position it so that nothing grows out of the roof. In this case, I could have used a small 2 step ladder to get a little height on it.
I also caught my own shadow here.

I'll add to this thread later, but I hope I've given some useful tips here. We all want good photos of our cars, and too often we take photos because the car is clean, and completely ignore the setting and background. Happy photographing!

 

I think photos 1,4 and 5 are really great photos, maybe even better without the car.

In the first shot the car looks like it's about to be hit by a giant hammer.

In the second, the lighting is dull and it has a high contrast with the sun reflecting in the glass and the black windows.

I like the humor in the third shot. I would also try a shot with the wagon parked perpendicular to the Smarts.

You found some nice settings to put the car in.
Most of my car stuff has them in parking lots, or up on a hoist...

 

This is not a wagon, and not my car. Here I stood back and let the lines on the asphalt lead our eyes to the car.

 

Another example of using the foreground to good advantage.

 

Love the one with the smart cars! That's classic!!

 

Excellent tutorial. Thanks.

One smart car probably costs more than yours did NEW! Well done!

 

Thanks for your help! once i get my wagon all cleaned up ill get some picks, using your advice.

 

Well I went out to see just how spring is a coming on Sunday and I took some pictures of some of my iron.

This is my 95 Taurous....



This is my 78 Mercury........



This is my 67 Mercury....



This is me Chev.........

 

Very nice! Now that is high quality photography!

 

Wait a minute that last one is a Merc...This is the Chev...



I must be loosing it....

Now these two are me 64 and 63 Oldsmobiles...



This Monarch has a nice sunroof...