Car Photography Guide

4. Photographing Your Car
Whether you want to sell your car or frame it, try not to diminish its appeal with a snapshot. Here are a few simple tips that can seize your viewer's admiration.

Step One:
Wash your car. It sounds ridiculously rational, but just look at Used Car magazines and see how many of the cars displayed aren't gleaming. Make sure there aren't any water spots. Make the paint seamless, the chrome dazzle, the tires sexy.

Step Two:
Be fastidious as to where you shoot your car. Make sure the background is complimentary to the subject not a distraction (i.e. telephone poles, ungainly buildings or structures, trash and debris, etc�) For example, if you use a building as a backdrop, find a reflective building or one where its colour contrasts with the car's hue. Don't shoot a modern vehicle in front of an old building (unless it's a retro car or motorcycle). Finding the ideal setting may seem like a hassle, but the intention is to capture your viewer's imagination.

Step Three:
Avoid the temptation of just taking the picture from eye level. Shoot from a ground-up, 45-degree angle to give the proportions of the car more impact. Otherwise, a lateral angle slightly above the vehicle, especially if it's a convertible, giving the car copious grandeur. Shoot about 15-20 away from the subject.

Step Four:
Use a polarizer to prevent glare and reflections. It also increases colour saturation to magnetic lushness (See E-Type Jaguar) and can improve contrast.

Step Five:
Like a landscape shot, lighting will effect the composition and character of your car dramatically. The best lighting conditions are usually right after sunrise or just before sunset. The light is generally warm, seductive and forgiving - the complete opposite to mid-day sun that has a tendency to burn-out top surfaces, cause murky shadows in the lower regions and thoroughly bleaches-out cockpit and engine sections. Use flash during warm lighting conditions. It is also advisable not to photograph the car from the shadow side unless you compensate with flash.

Step Six:
Finally, when you're shooting, turn your car's parking or headlights on if it's just before dusk to add a little drama to your photos.

A car is a big investment and you want a good return for it, so be patient, follow the six steps and, above all, have fun composing the perfect shot!

Click on thumbnails to view sample photos.

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Recent work was a series entitled Ottawa Then & Now, commemorating Ottawa's 150th Anniversary. The series was exhibited on behalf of the City of Ottawa at the Hilton Lac Leamy Hotel drawing 500 guests. Clive's floral photography was exhibited at the Ottawa International Tulip Festival in May while his Focus On Flowers article will be released in a national gardening magazine this year. Canada Post and the Yellow Pages purchased several of Clive's images for various 2007 projects. His travel articles and photography have been published in numerous national and international magazines and e-magazines. Clive lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario.

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