I did my first Business Man/Car shoot today

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

06/13/2013 07:21:08 AM · #1

So this young guy rings me up a while ago and says he ordered an Audi and wanted me to take some Pro shots of him in a suit and with his car. I thought he'd forgotten about me bc I hadn't heard from him, but he calls me today and said do I have time to do the shoot...well how could I refuse, I always like a challenge, so anyway here are a few I selected, just wanted to put them out there for critic, do they look professional enough? They haven't had much editing, just mainly contrast and highlights.

Thanks

Neat

Message edited by author 2013-06-13 07:24:49.

Apple iPhone 5

06/13/2013 07:48:38 AM · #2

Overall they have a professional look to them, I think he'll be pleased. A couple of nit-picks;

Strange colour-cast on this one:

I didn't like this blown highlights on his face on this one:

Loved this one:

Loved this one (best shot of the lot imo) :

06/13/2013 07:52:17 AM · #3

im going to be brutally honest, im not fond of them.

many are out of focus or not quite sharp, looks like camera shake or subject blur and its because you shutter speed is waaay to low, especially at the aperture you used. if you lens is wide open and your shutter is 1/30, you dont have enough light, bump the ISO up noise is much better blurred shots also stop the lens down a bit you will benefit from a larger DOF in these types of shots, there is no need for f1.8 in these shots.

i am assuming you used a 50mm, which isn't wide enough especially on a crop body for car shots. you only have one shot where you show the entire car and wasn't that the point of the shoot? also when you pose the car, take head to turn the tires in the appropriate shots, remove the license plate, try to get interesting reflections.

many of the images suffer from poor composition, they just arent interesting, re-shoot if you can after getting some feedback, some minor corrections in technique will benefit greatly.

this is the best shot:

but you cut the car off, you needed to use a wider lens.

i'll go though each on there respective pages and tell you what the major issue is with each image.

Message edited by author 2013-06-13 08:09:58.

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM for Nikon

06/13/2013 08:20:12 AM · #4

Ok my fave tv show is on now, will be back to see all you've written, in an hour or so :) That's my fave shot as well

, and I have a similar one with the whole car in, I just didn't post them.

ShaneBlake

Nikon D7100

06/13/2013 09:22:01 AM · #5

Second best...

Best...

I agree with 95% of what Mike wrote on the images... ( I happen to like that you shot through the passenger window in this one shot...)

Otherwise, and I may never say this again but, listen to Mike.

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

06/13/2013 09:29:17 AM · #6

I know Mike, I probably didn't post the best ones, I have a load of others images to choose from and most of them are sharper, I do need to get a wide angle lens, for my canon, I have one for my Pentax but don't like that camera as much now. I can change the comp's just by simple cropping anyway so that's not a problem. Above are more shots, but as I said I have many others, but thanks for the feedback, I do agree with what you said.

P-A-U-L

Canon EOS R6

06/13/2013 10:13:27 AM · #7

Great to see you are pulling in the business and what an interesting shoot. I bet it was stressful!

Message edited by author 2013-06-13 10:46:12.

P-A-U-L

Canon EOS R6

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

06/13/2013 10:25:57 AM · #8

This one reminds me of the Equalizer:)

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

06/13/2013 11:01:02 AM · #9

Neat, you've got a fine concept here, but it really would have benefited greatly from the use of artificial lighting - just a single gridded beauty dish (even just using a speedlight or two instead of a studio head) would have been a big help, and a few lights to build with would have been even better.

The problem is this: Bright sky / dark suit and car.

If you shot in RAW you can probably push the image a bit to get some better balance, and you can even manually HDR these if you need, but mostly a touch of light on his face, and a light inside the car (diffused heavily) would have pushed this to another level.

Hope that's helpful.

ETA: one more biggie - black cars are a nightmare to keep clean - I'd suggest telling him to hire a detailer to get rid of all those spots and blotches on his car - or at the very least, bring some window cleaning solution and a few soft rags with you to clean it for him.

Message edited by author 2013-06-13 11:03:52.

nygold

Nikon D5000

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

06/13/2013 11:27:55 AM · #10

I see what Cory means it looks like he spilt coffee out of the window.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

06/13/2013 02:54:33 PM · #11

My only nitpick is that the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car.

MarkB

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

06/13/2013 03:15:33 PM · #12

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:

My only nitpick is that the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car.

Easily fixed in photoshop, just mirror the image.

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

06/13/2013 03:17:43 PM · #13

Originally posted by MarkB:

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
My only nitpick is that the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car.

Easily fixed in photoshop, just mirror the image.

but then the car will be upside down.

Asainz320

Canon EOS-650/T4i Rebel

06/13/2013 05:45:06 PM · #14

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by MarkB:

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
My only nitpick is that the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car.

Easily fixed in photoshop, just mirror the image.

but then the car will be upside down.

LOL. There are two ways you can mirror the image, why would you chose the one you end up with an upside down car? Instead of flipping in a horizontal axis, flip in its vertical axis and it would look like the steering wheel is on the correct side (for US that is).
Something like this:

Message edited by author 2013-06-13 17:52:40.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

06/13/2013 06:18:22 PM · #15

Originally posted by Asainz320:

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by MarkB:

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
My only nitpick is that the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car.

Easily fixed in photoshop, just mirror the image.

but then the car will be upside down.

LOL. There are two ways you can mirror the image, why would you chose the one you end up with an upside down car? Instead of flipping in a horizontal axis, flip in its vertical axis and it would look like the steering wheel is on the correct side (for US that is).
Something like this:

Still looks like he puked on the door. ;)

MinsoPhoto

Canon EOS-7D

06/13/2013 07:06:00 PM · #16

The white balance and color cast needs work, a pretty easy fix. And it needs pop.

Hope you don't mind.

06/13/2013 07:09:38 PM · #17

Originally posted by Cory:

Originally posted by Asainz320:

Originally posted by Mike:

Originally posted by MarkB:

Originally posted by Art Roflmao:
My only nitpick is that the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car.

Easily fixed in photoshop, just mirror the image.

but then the car will be upside down.

LOL. There are two ways you can mirror the image, why would you chose the one you end up with an upside down car? Instead of flipping in a horizontal axis, flip in its vertical axis and it would look like the steering wheel is on the correct side (for US that is).
Something like this:

Still looks like he puked on the door. ;)

All this flipping around, I'm not surprised.

06/13/2013 08:47:59 PM · #18

Thanks everyone, I know I have a long way to go, it was kind of short notice, I think even if he likes
15 or so that's ok, after all he only wants them for his social networking sites.
Also most are unedited so I realise the colour cast was not crash hot.

Josh Loved what you did with that edit, looks way cool!

Cory I only have one softbox ATM, and there was no way I could of brought that to the shoot, no-
where to plug it in, I don't have all the fancy gear yet, bc I'm mainly shooting in the
day, and almost always towards sunset, but he chose 3pm due to work restrictions and it was still very
sunny!

Also I was disappointed with that spill on his car, maybe a car wash gone wrong, and I didn't have a rag to clean it up, but that can be cloned out anyway!

Message edited by author 2013-06-13 20:54:51.

06/13/2013 10:03:53 PM · #19

2 edits

using tonal contrasts in CEP.

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

06/14/2013 06:30:03 AM · #20

with these types of shots, IMO its best to keep the processing simple. this isn't DPC where you are trying to win votes. let the image it stand on its on. you shouldn't have to apply heavy tonal processing, you should be able to create it with proper lighting at the time the capture. then when you process, all you do is massage the RAW so the subject(s) looks its best.

dont get me wrong, there is a time a place for heavy processing and creating art but i dont think these images are that time.

with these two, the first image is good (although the car is cut off again :) ) but the second is too far over the top. the contrast in the lighting is way too dramatic for the background. it may look good on quick glance, but the more you look the more it looks like a gimmick. it has an HDR feel without having an HDR sky so it looks odd.

Don't rely on gimmick processing, rely on proper lighting, composition and focus.

Message edited by author 2013-06-14 06:30:22.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

06/14/2013 09:50:42 AM · #21

Originally posted by Neat:

Two thoughts:

The first is that you really can go cheap on the lighting and get some good stuff - How about a Neewer Flash for $40? Pair a few of those with some Yongnuo radio triggers and a few mods, and your ability to craft lighting in the field goes way up. Softboxes are fine in the studio, but umbrellas and beauty dishes are field gear.

The second is the fact that the dirt on the car wasn't at all limited to that spill - there were tons of water spots on the post behind the window, and elsewhere I'm sure.

Not much you could do about it - but I've learned that people generally don't understand what cleaned, prepped and staged really means - especially when I'm doing Real Estate rental shoots - 3/4 of my time is usually just cleaning and staging.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+, S21 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

06/14/2013 10:27:35 AM · #22

Originally posted by Cory:

I've learned that people generally don't understand what cleaned, prepped and staged really means - especially when I'm doing Real Estate rental shoots - 3/4 of my time is usually just cleaning and staging.

Amen to that. I'd go so far as to say 75% or more of a professional photographer's work, in the field or in the studio, what we euphemistically call "shooting time", is actually spent in prep time. That's why the big boys (and girls) use so many assistants. It's a bad mistake to believe that "professional photography" is ABOUT photography skills or "vision" -- it's more about attention to detail, disciplined workflow, defining and meeting specific goals in a timely manner, and so forth. The photography skills are *baseline*, in the sense that you're assumed to have them.

So, basically, you don't go on a car shoot without the necessary materials to detail the car, and you build enough time into the shoot to do just that, to whatever level it's required. If you don't know HOW to detail a car, you bring somebody who does. Ditto for model shoots: you're either ready and able to do makeup, or you bring a makeup artist. Fashion shots? If you don't have a wardrobe assistant, you're probably doomed unless it's a specific area of expertise for you. Food photography? Hell, 95% of that is prep and professional food stylists utilize an amazing bag of tricks.

Bottom line; in architectural photography, I rarely worked without at least one assistant who was a jack-of-all-trades, a guy who knew how I liked to light interiors and who had a hgood eye for dressing a room.

06/14/2013 10:33:01 AM · #23

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by Cory:
I've learned that people generally don't understand what cleaned, prepped and staged really means - especially when I'm doing Real Estate rental shoots - 3/4 of my time is usually just cleaning and staging.

Amen to that. I'd go so far as to say 75% or more of a professional photographer's work, in the field or in the studio, what we euphemistically call "shooting time", is actually spent in prep time. That's why the big boys (and girls) use so many assistants. It's a bad mistake to believe that "professional photography" is ABOUT photography skills or "vision" -- it's more about attention to detail, disciplined workflow, defining and meeting specific goals in a timely manner, and so forth. The photography skills are *baseline*, in the sense that you're assumed to have them.

So, basically, you don't go on a car shoot without the necessary materials to detail the car, and you build enough time into the shoot to do just that, to whatever level it's required. If you don't know HOW to detail a car, you bring somebody who does. Ditto for model shoots: you're either ready and able to do makeup, or you bring a makeup artist. Fashion shots? If you don't have a wardrobe assistant, you're probably doomed unless it's a specific area of expertise for you. Food photography? Hell, 95% of that is prep and professional food stylists utilize an amazing bag of tricks.

Bottom line; in architectural photography, I rarely worked without at least one assistant who was a jack-of-all-trades, a guy who knew how I liked to light interiors and who had a hgood eye for dressing a room.

well said Robert, very sound advice to us all.