Event Coverage Hot Rod Photography in Central Texas

the key to good photography is to take a bunch of pictures and delete the bad ones before your friends see them.

 

Photoshop is your friend...

 

I've had people standing in front of a car looking around look right at me, then turn their head and keep looking around without moving out of the way. It's like "hello! can you please move?" How effin dense can you be?

 

@seadog is a damn fine photographer his self, and has helped me with some tips. Thanks!

 

Here's some of my shots. I need to learn that trick about deleting the bad ones .....

https://imgur.com/user/hasserl

 

@Jpeg1971 you are doing a great job. Here is a link to my last LSRU thread (https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...17-photos-from-another-awesome-event.1057706/). I have a lot of threads here for that and other events. I also have tons of car event and art pictures on my regular site (https://pbase.com/dlgphoto)

 

Are you a:
Art photographer?
A journalist photographer?
What would you like to happen to your images?
The photographer above this post is an amazing Art photographer
I consider my self a Journalist photographer.
I am taking a reach here, an art photographer looks for the perfect setting and perfect lighting
A journalist captures a moment a piece/second of time, that might not come again.
What happens to images?
A Journalist looks for the proper placement
An Artist might share with any and everyone
We all want someone to say 'nice images'
I am in a niche market, I shoot and share with the Land Speed Crowd, I don't shoot shows and I love to shoot people. I have been told many of my customers love to look back and see the changes in people and cars.
Good Luck!

 

Hello J,
Your basic photography is really good. The more you read about photography, experiment with everything it has to offer, use various photo programs other than what is on the latest hi def phone, then your ideas and skills are the only thing holding you back. Digital cameras make it a lot easier to focus on what is important. But, one tends to forget, despite all of the fancy stuff on the camera, it still gets down to the photographer and his/her skills.

Taking photographs with film was fun back in the good old days of 35mm and 120mm film. Developing each variation, controlling the exposure, and then doing creative stuff on prints was extremely fun. These days of digital photography makes it easier and faster to do things in photography. It may not be the best for most people’s fast way of life. Things get overlooked simply because there is not a lot of time to do everything.

Sometimes it takes time and energy for that right moment in photography. But, one thing digital photography does, is that it allows anyone to make mistakes and correct them right away, whether it is on the camera or at home in a photo program.

Jnaki

It will take time and patience for that right shot. You may not get that shot every time, but practice does not hurt. Composition is still just as important in digital photography as it was in the film camera days. Digital is cheaper and film did cost money, so most of us took our time in trying to get the best shots during the walk around, planning stages of a photo shoot. Most people with digital cameras take enough photos, so something should or will look right. Why not just compose the photo scene or hot rod they way you see is good for you…

Hey Q,

Nice photo of that yellow coupe. With a little alteration, the sneaky guy disappears, with minimum errors. There are plenty of photo programs not called Photoshop to do that simple technique of eliminating and filling in what they think is in the photograph. It is a pretty accurate thing. It is always a …“With a little bit of help from my friends…”

There are so many programs that have the one thing that will eliminate the intrusive object in a good photo. So, you will have to see which works for you. Most photographers that do digital photography have their favorites. But, something new usually comes along that is easier and gets the same results.
Check them out...

Jnaki
That is a sneaky way of a copyright marker. If looked at quickly, it looks like it is painted on the lower edge of the hot rod.

 

^^ Thanks. Cropping it down was out of the question for me. I didn't want to
lose a bit of the car. I look at a photo and think of how it would look matted. I
need to have some space around the car. Of course, there are exceptions to the
rule.

 

Dan, Thanks for showing me those. Your photographs are fantastic! I'm especially impressed by your color theory and the composition you chose... your photographs "have room to breathe" if you don't mind my saying so. I've been shooting for maybe six years, but really only got formal training in the last year. I feel like I jumped into a far deeper pool than I realized when I started, but that's where the fun's at. There's a long way to go, but no rush to get there if you know what I mean. If you (or anyone reading this for that matter) ever feel like there's a critique that'd help me along I'd be real happy to hear it. Thanks for contributing to the thread!

 

Ha... I feel like you "found me out" (which is a good thing)! I'm in photography school as we speak, and it's heavy in the art photography camp. For now I'm basically trying to get a "perfect" (I know there's no such thing) photo with every click. My favorite photographer is probably Sam Abell and I try to construct my photo's in a fashion mimicking his approach... background first, work forward toward the subject and wait. Look for things to happen in the construct I've made, look for things to "articulate" and click. I'm taking a studio lighting class now so I don't know how I'll incorporate that into my future shooting and I'm also "building a brand" so to speak at the moment, "j-tex photography" and I have honestly NO idea to what end. I DO want to hear "great photo" and right now that's enough, especially if it's the car's owner or builder who's happy. But I'm pushing 50 and think about maybe spending my retirement years traveling to shows across the country, shooting and I think it'd be very cool to be published one day. I know I'm not there yet but I know I'm gonna keep shooting and I believe I will be one day.

 

Man you’d hate my wheels on my Buick! But I respect your opinion, strong passion = strong opinions.


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if you are thinking of taking artsy craftsy pics at car shows you need incredible patience and photo editing software.
I have gone so far as to take several shots over a few minutes so I can piece all the pics together and get a shot without people in the way. most times I just wait with my camera at my eye and watch people look right at me and walk in front of me... it's OK though, they squat a bit as they walk by ruining a photo.

 

Truth is it’s what I like about shooting at car shows. I have time to compose my shots. Its rapid changing conditions that gives me fits at this stage


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the "traditional" way of "photo editing" happened in the darkroom. do you really think that guys like Ansel Adams got those great photos by taking the film to the local drug store for developing?

gotta have a good eye of course, my good eye says take a shitload of pictures and edit the best of them on the computer. the most popular event photo person here on the HAMB edits every picture they post. the artistry of it all is that nobody even knows what they did to get those incredible photos.

photo editing software is not a "trick". you can have professional grade photo software and it will not make any difference if you do not have the eye for cool photos.

 

That’s always gonna be a debate in this hobby! I agree that editing is part of the process, but I also think there’s an overwhelming trend of “get as much data as possible now, make the photo in post processing later” which isn’t my preference. It’s SO much easier to make the image in camera and maybe mildly tweak a thing or two in post processing. I don’t want to spend hours editing but that’s only my preference, meaning it’s all about the image at the end of the day IMO, we’re all “real” photographers.


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"I eagerly await new concepts and processes. I believe that the electronic image will be the next major advance. Such systems will have their own inherent and inescapable structural characteristics, and the artist and functional practitioner will again strive to comprehend and control them."
-Ansel Adams




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Please hold off on editing any of your photos so they look NOT NATURAL. A few others on here go heavy on the "effects" making them, in my opinion, strange looking.

The other problem with editing (not so much for me mine will never look good) is several "famous" or infamous well known shots using film were first thought to be mistakes and if they were edited or discarded rapidly they would never have been seen.

 

Thanks, glad you like what I'm doing, and yeah in hindsight I should have titled this thread something else. I only meant that I'M in central Texas but I didn't think that one through.

 

well it came from a camera, that makes it a photo. what it is not would be a "snapshot" or other similar name.

as for assembling a photo from a myriad of shots, the only one who knows would be the one who took the photos.

example: at Bakersfield I was shooting from the stands at the starting line. there was 4 or 5 photographers in my shot, as well as crew. I took my shots @ 3 frames per second, probably 10 shots per car, then took all the people out. so rather than a interesting but poor photo with a bunch of people in the way I had a great shot of a smokey burnout.

I could post 10 pictures here and have 3 with major editing and no one could pick the edited ones.

 

found the burnout thread and all that is there are red X's now. Photofuckit strikes again.

 

^^ Have it your way.

 

Here's an example of something I'm using photoshop for currently. The lighting, the composition, the color theory etc are all in camera. That light post though... to MY standards of my own work, the first is a snap shot, the second is a photograph. I don't know that I've made great art but I feel like I did that car and it's owner/builder as much justice as I'm capable of by taking out the poll. I honestly get that it's not for everyone, about half my class argues passionately against doing that.

 

^^^ a little bit goes a long way sometimes.

 

I agree with all of this. I'm sure if Ansel were alive today, he would not have a problem with and would probably enthusiastically endorse the use of editing software. I think that images made from multiple photographs are still photographs, just not unedited right out of the camera images. I use HDR and tone mapping quite often and that often requires the use of more than one image taken with a different exposure and then blended together. Ansel probably would have loved this since his goal was to get a wide range of tones with great contrast. I also agree that there are filters that once applied to an image it really has strayed very far from being just a photograph even if it originated as one. An example would be making an image look like a painting and so forth. I am not against that kind of thing either and do it when I feel the final image will be something I like. Editing software for car show images is kind of a necessity unless you are willing to settle for very few decent images or images that still look like snap shots. At the very least, there will often be miscellaneous people and other things you need to remove. Content Aware Fill and other tools in Photoshop are well worth learning. Tony (@typo41 ) was right in his definitions above. Car show photography is actually a bit more like photojournalism in that only rarely do you have control of the situation. It is actually pretty fast moving and the window of opportunity to get the right picture is often only a few seconds. I admit that I am definitely more into it with the goal of creating something artistic, but do plenty of journalistic work too. Ultimately, the person who has to be the most happy with your images is you. I think you are off to a great start. BTW, although I have been taking pictures since I was 10, I didn't really start doing the car show thing seriously until I was 53. If you have any questions or I can help you in any way, please don't hesitate to message me.

 

BTW - your before and after example with the silver 54 Chevy is exactly what I mean.

 

Not an expect but hate stuff behind car distort/takes away from car... post gone is great. Try & lose paint strip & replace cars on left with greenery from above them. May help???

 

Go real nuts & take out shadow??? I got to learn photoshop but never have any time

 

Hey J,

In those early photo journalist days, we spent hours trying to get a good location that did not have trees or poles sticking up from any part of the car. Then, it was walking around looking for the best angle to showcase the cars or motorcycles. Editors required it as well as, it is just good photography to compose your shot. If I could get the owners of the hot rods to go to the beach, cliff side or water side, that seemed to be the best without poles, people or homes. But, not all owners live near the beach, but in mountains, cities and country sides.

So, if the pre-planning did not involve location selection, the owners came up with what they thought were good photo shoot locations. Then, it was up to me to still compose the shots so nothing took away the eye of the hot rod or motorcycle. Forests gave us the most problems. The streams and views were pretty great, but we had to worry about the massive grouping of trees everywhere.

Finally, we decided to use the mass of trees as a photo backdrop, so they gave the hot rod a natural photo frame. We had time to pre-plan or at least take the time for composition. There is nothing worse than to sit in an office with the editor criticizing the photos, etc.

These days most people that have digital cameras or even dreaded phone cameras, take shots just because they can. Whether or not composition is in their minds, at least in their eyes, they got the shot. Every bit of composition makes the photo better. If the shot is so valuable, then there are the photo programs to alter the digital images to make it better. Half of your class is wrong in this case. But, I can see the other half saying it is up to the photographer to compose the shot, so the poles and trees are not growing out of the hot rod or model’s head.

Jnaki

We all learn by mistakes and experiences. Not all photographs are magazine quality despite the angles and fish eye lens effects. Those critical editors were getting paid to make sure the photos presented to the public in a national forum (magazines) were always top quality with minimal side effects.

 

Keep on doing it. So far they look good.