About nine months ago, Josh Mackey and myself came up with the idea to author a book focusing strictly on how to digitally photograph cars. With how photography has changed over the years and the amount of people that are now interested in it, especially automotive photography, we felt that this was a great time to share a lot of the knowledge and experience we've gained over the years. The biggest advantages we felt that this book had is the fact that neither Josh or myself came from a photography-educated background. Both of us learned how to shoot cars out of interest and were able to turn it into a career. We just received our advance copies of the book which is
now available for pre-order on websites such as Amazon.com. I decided to take several photos highlighting each chapter in the book in hopes of garnering your interest to pre-order a copy. We would greatly appreciate the support and the more initial sales we get, the more willing the brick-and-mortar stores are willing to carry it. It'll be sampled at about 50 Barnes & Nobles initially and we would really like to see that number go up. So if you have any interest what so ever in digitally photographing cars, head on out and
pre-order a copy today please! More previews of the book and description after the jump.
The book starts off with a brief introduction about photography and how the digital era has changed automotive photography in general. Chapter 1 is titled "Choosing Your Equipment" and goes in depth about camera bodies, lenses, filters, tripods, rigs, etc. The differences between everything, what you need for what you're shooting, etc. There are 292 sample photos throughout the book with EXIF data provided for pretty much every single photo. This helps you know what was used and how it was used to obtain a particular shot.
Chapter 2 is when things get interesting and really is the start of the book for those that already have their equipment and want to dive straight into photography. The chapter highlights everything that has to do with Static Photography - location, lighting, positioning the vehicle, how to frame the shot, things to look out for, how to deal with particular situations, etc.
Here's a preview of some of the content in this chapter. We show off some photos with various locations and descriptions on what to deal with when shooting in those particular locations given the conditions.
We also touch on shooting with lighting and provide several examples with lighting setups from strobes to normal flashes. There is also a huge comparison throughout the book between Josh Mackey's photos and mine. The majority of Mackey's photos received the Photoshop treatment while I just left mine untouched in RAW when submitting. We figured this offered a good contrast between what can be obtained straight out of the camera and how much better a photo can be once it's properly post-processed.
There is indepth information on how to shoot engine bays with or without lighting and the differences between the two. Engine bays are often difficult to shoot given the dark nature, and the majority of work you ever see online are mostly exterior shots of the cars. Not many people share engine bay photos and we provide several examples on how we shoot them.
Interiors is similar to engine bays where it isn't exactly the focal point of the shoot but is still very important. Again, we provide plenty of samples of with and without lighting, different locations and general tips and tricks on how to expose the interior of a car.
Chapter 3 is on Action Photography - quite possibly the most difficult part of shooting any car. We touch on different forms of motorsports, settings and how to properly do car-to-car motion shots.
The chapter starts off with car-to-car motion photos and this is where providing the EXIF data proves invaluable for a starting-off photographer. We describe possible scenarios, what to do when, etc.
Then we go into drag racing and how to shoot each portion of it from burn out to staging to launching to high speed towards the end of the track.
Drifting is next - and we go into how to capture the art of going sideways while preserving the actual "action" part of the photography. Many people shoot drifting going for clear sharp shots but as a result get what looks like stills and miss out on the action. We point out the differences between a fast and slow shutter speed and how it plays an integral part in setting your work apart from the rest of the crowd.
There's also brief touches on road racing, track events and rally photography.
Chapter 4 is on Insider Tips & Tricks where we share a lot of the stuff we have learned over the years. We start off by showing off a rig setup from www.automotiverigs.com.
This chapter has a lot of rig sample photos; some with the rig still left on them to show off how it was done. Most importantly though is the EXIF data that's provided with these photos so people understand how to properly expose a rig shot.
The last chapter focuses on Post Processing and takes a look at the tools that are important to editing automotive photography.
There is a lot of step-by-step tutorials from how to clean up photos, properly using the clone stamping tool and even how to drop in backgrounds. We also go through each and every tool available to you including when you bring in a RAW photo into Photoshop.
Well there you have it - and we really hope that you can support us by
purchasing the book. We really feel that there is something for everyone in there and we really hope it helps make the world of digital automotive photography better. If you have any questions please feel free to leave us a comment on this post!
Source: dpMotiv
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