What is the best time of day to take pictures of car? So the color looks the most vibrant..etc?
You can take a photo of a car anytime during the day, or night even. It all depends on the look you want to achieve. Shooting under a blue, slightly cloudy sky is great for closeups of details, especially chrome, since you can get dramatic reflections.
If you want the most accurate color posible, shoot under shade. This will keep unwanted reflections that can change the look of a car to a minimum. Park your car on a light colored surface. This will make your tires look darker and help underlight the carriage. Also park away from anything, such as light posts and signs, that will put weird reflections on your car. Depending on how you want your car to look, you might want some sky reflecting off the top of the car as this will accent the curves. The point where the top of a building stops and the sky starts looks great when reflected on the fenders.
Check out http://www.jw-photo.com for ideas on the set up. Notice almost all the photos were shot in the shade, but they use light and reflections to exagerate certain parts of the car.
Car photography is all about using reflections that exagerate the curves of your car, and blocking the reflections that make your car look bad.
Any time of day, shoot indoors with tons of softboxes.
If you have to shoot outdoors, do it in shadow or when the sky is overcast so you only have soft shadows. Works great for flower photos also.
References :
Camera Club Educational Coordinator
Professional Photographer
Photography Workshop Leader
The "golden hour" as its typically referred to in photography is always good. When you have just enough light to avoid using your flash. All details can still be made out, you don’t have glares, the shine seems…shinier! Colors more vibrant.
References :
Take several at different times….pick the best.
References :
i like karl’s answer. it is what i would have said.
References :
After it rains. Water makes the colors more saturated.
References :
I was also going to say after it rains or simply on wet pavement, because it looks so much better. Take the picture on a cloudy day when the ENTIRE car is in shade. Add saturation in post processing if you need it.
References :
You can take a photo of a car anytime during the day, or night even. It all depends on the look you want to achieve. Shooting under a blue, slightly cloudy sky is great for closeups of details, especially chrome, since you can get dramatic reflections.
If you want the most accurate color posible, shoot under shade. This will keep unwanted reflections that can change the look of a car to a minimum. Park your car on a light colored surface. This will make your tires look darker and help underlight the carriage. Also park away from anything, such as light posts and signs, that will put weird reflections on your car. Depending on how you want your car to look, you might want some sky reflecting off the top of the car as this will accent the curves. The point where the top of a building stops and the sky starts looks great when reflected on the fenders.
Check out http://www.jw-photo.com for ideas on the set up. Notice almost all the photos were shot in the shade, but they use light and reflections to exagerate certain parts of the car.
Car photography is all about using reflections that exagerate the curves of your car, and blocking the reflections that make your car look bad.
References :
I’ve been doing car photography for over 25 years, so let me give a few bits of advice. Some people might not agree with all of it, but hey, I’m not an advice expert, I’m a car photographer. Here’s a few things I’ve learned, about more than just the time of day…
1.Shoot at twilight (dawn or dusk). This time of day, especially when there is a nice, orange glow in the sky, makes for some awesome body line highlights. I like to have the sunset at about a 45 degree angle to the car, and I always shoot with the driver’s side and grill showing (the left front corner closest to me). The sunset looks awesome on the car, but make sure to not have any other reflections like other cars or people or trees.
2. Don’t use direct light (coming from camera’s direction). It’s best to use reflected light to light darker areas like the grill.
3. It’s best to NOT use a flash if at all possible.
4. Try to get all 4 tires/wheels in the shot, even if you have to get super low. In fact, low pics ALWAYS look best. (I never, ever shoot a car pic standing up, I kneel down).
5. Use the cars parking lights, day or night. In the evening, even the headlights look cool.
6. Roll up the windows! Open windows look sloppy.
7. Don’t get too close and use a wide-angle lens if you can help it. In fact, I prefer to stand back and use a zoom. The wide-angle lenses used up close tend to distort the shape of the car.
References :
Sunrise, sunset, bright overcast.
References :