Porsche 944 Street/Track Car – Photo Shoot

In my posts 944R Revealed and 944R Goes to VIR, I put up a number of photos of this very photogenic car. The car made taking photos easy. The VIR photos were taken by a professional photographer and I think the results show it. Conversely, I am not a professional photographer nor am I even an avid amateur but I think my 944R Revealed photos turned out rather well.

There are many sources that discuss car photography. One recent one that I recall can be found at Bring A Trailer here:

http://bringatrailer.com/bat-photography-10-tips-for-making-better-photos-of-your-car/

Several of the tips that I think are important are as follows.

1. Take your photos in morning or evening light. I took my photos in the morning, right after sunrise but before the sun had cleared the trees to the east of my house. One big advantage is that there aren’t any annoying shadows to deal with. That includes shadows from the car and shadows of the photographer in the foreground. When you photograph in this type of light, you’ll need to find a setting on your camera that is accommodating. You will in effect be “opening up the aperture” of the camera lens. In particular, I find it much easier to photograph interiors in this scenario, since the camera is not adjusting its exposure to the bright sunlight outside the car.
2. Choose a background that does not “steal the show”. I really want my car to be the main attraction, not some attractive scenery. For this blue car, I choose the white garage doors as a good background. For my white Etype, I did a shoot in front of a red brick wall. See the shot on my home page.
3. Rotate the car, not the camera position.  Once you have selected an appropriate background, you will most likely have to rotate the car to keep the background consistent. Also, if you are breaking rule number 1 and shooting in direct sunlight, you can rotate the car so as to keep the shadows on the far side of the shot.
4. Overhead shots are interesting.  I used a stepladder to get some nice overhead shots.
5. Shots from very low to the ground are interesting.  If you aren’t getting dirty, you aren’t trying hard enough!
6. Wash the car. This should have been rule number 1. But! Do not allow the wet wash area with hoses and buckets to be in your shot.

And that’s it, as far as I am concerned. Of course, that isn’t really it as this is a very complicated subject that folks has spent much time over but for me, following the above rules result in a nice photo shoot for 944R. You be the judge.