How-to: take moving car shots with a digital camera

Another tip is that if you know the car is gonna be at a certain point on
the road, focus on that point and get ready as the car enters the field-of
view. This way you can grab closeups. I did this at the Signal event and
managed to get a few good snaps (see my site for pics)…

And now, a bunch of pics of FrEaK and his buddy, tearin up their local
roads. A drift team in the works. My suggestion, “The Dirty Drifters”
(copyrighted) :mrgreen:

http://240sx.cubicdesign.com/images/misc/freak/freak1.jpg
http://240sx.cubicdesign.com/images/misc/freak/freak2.jpg
http://240sx.cubicdesign.com/images/misc/freak/freak3.jpg
http://240sx.cubicdesign.com/images/misc/freak/freak4.jpg

I think one major factor missed out by `Freak (and indirectly pointed
out by SHIFT_SR20DET) is the camera quality/res. All the pics on my
site are taken with my bro’s camera, a Nikon CookPix 995, which is a
3.2MP camera I believe. :slight_smile:

I think Freak wanted to show how to prepare for snapping that perfect pic.
Most important being timing and steadiness.

His camera is limited in power, hence the grainy/low-quality picture, so I
can’t blame him for that, but his technique is there, and guess practice will
only make it perfect.

And yes, I vouch to delete the useless posts in this thread.

ya iahve to agree, you can haev a great knowhow of what you need to do to take a good pic. but if your cam sucks ass then your results will only be so good. i want to try to take some pics with my cam and see how they turn out. i only have stills.

Kodak ls443

Look at the pics I took on my site. I’m no professional. All I know is to
point-and-click.

There is only so much you need to know to use a digital camera. Freak
sent me the original pictures (I cropped the ones I posted here) and they
look horrible. Surely it’s his camera.

I’m gonna be out Sunday takin some ‘drifting’ pics (well my buddy will be).
We’ll see how that turns out. :smiley:

The composition should be good even if the camera is bad.

my philosophy…

take as many pics as you possibly can and throw out the bad ones…

my camera is complete and utter poo… i paid $80 for it… and i only use maybe 10% of the pics i take. the rest never see day light.

but once in a while you snap a beauty with a bad camera, those are the ones you keep.

i cant wait to get a good cammy… perhaps for christmas…

i carry mine in the breast pocket of my jacket and wip it out all the time for picture fun…

i grab pics of nice cars on the street when they are driving by… people tend to be surprised that i happen to have my camera on me

Sure you keep camera in your pocket for those moments. :jerkit:

Heh, jokes aside, I have thought of keepin a camera with me in the car
for maybe same reasons as bing stated above, and in case, if EVER,
in case of accident, it would prove very useful (like to use in court and whatnot).

Posts deleted for being OT.
if you have any question or comments about the deletions please forward them to me.

DRE

one of the most important things to understand in photofgraphy is the importance of composition and placement of the focal object. These concepts ap[ply to all forms of design and imagery (photography, painintg, digital comps, layout etc…). There are tons of book sout there that will prove to be extremely helpfull.

Here’s some tips:

  1. Get close to your subject–avoid large background areas.

2.Use the Rule of Thirds–Divide the screen into a square with 9 equal boxes. Place a focal point (eyes, horizon line) about 2/3rds of the way across the vertical screen and at either horizontal line.

  1. Simplify the background–to eliminate visual noise. Watch for distracting objects in the background.

  2. Shoot up or shoot down, rather than at a straight on angle if you want some emphasis to your photo.

  3. Face your subject to the center.

  4. Determine appropriate lighting and make adjustments.

  5. Take lots of pictures!

One more thing, the beauty of digital photography is the it’s realy easy to adjust/ manipulate your images using a photo editor such as Photoshop or photopaint, but with low quality inages it’s very limited.

Also check out the following links for some great tips on action shots, also applies to cars.
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/digital/dlc/techniques/archive/action.jhtml

The trick with car photography is to capture the flow of the car, which is very easily done with drifting, because you know where the car is going to go. Try to capture the acr as it’s sliding into the picture, centre the camera onto the corner nad sanp away as the car enters, the best pictures are going to the be the ones that have the car off centre, either as it’s entering the FOV or lleaving it but still showing the whole subject.
Something like this:

http://forums.son240sx.ca/album_pic.php?pic_id=94
http://forums.son240sx.ca/album_pic.php?pic_id=92

Tire smoke or gravel isa great elemnt that can be used to caputer the motion of the car, and if you can get the trails of smoke as the car drifts it will really help defining the movement, especially for drift pics because a lot of times it’s hard to tell in which direction the car is moving.

DRE

yeah G, thats another reason i try and brign the cammy everywhere…

soon i want to have a better camera, nothing huge, but i would also like to be able to shoot video with sound.

i’ll keep my current poo camera in the car and the good one will be brought out on nights where we are planning some particularly photogenic events.

^^ That’s when you run em over in your next drift attempt and scare the
living daylights outta him. :slight_smile:

Also, some cameras have auto and manual switches very close together
so always make sure you in Auto mode (if you not good with Manual yet).

My bro has this on his camera and sometimes I forget it’s in M and when
I go to check the pics, they turn out all outta focus and blurry.