Don great coverage, your makes mine look like poop. When did you take these as it looks like there is better lightening then when I was there. (What settings did you shoot these at?, maybe that was my problem). Where you there for set up? I am also curious as I noticed the lack of people and some of the cars such has the "Gable" had its top down and a few others had their hoods open that were not on Friday when it opened
I know I havn't had the nicest things to say about the show but those are great shots and it looks like you were there alone! D'Agostino's car looks great without the top on..... I wish I saw it like that. Super nice guy.
Great Pix, Don. You know your way around a camera. That Airflow kinda grows on me. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, I shot the pics at the default settings at high res of my digital camera. I was hanging out at the show all weekend but most of the pics were taken Thursday evening during set up. It was way easier to get good shots without all the spectators in the way and in some cases the ropes (weedwacker line) weren't up yet.
[ QUOTE ] Don great coverage, your makes mine look like poop. When did you take these as it looks like there is better lightening then when I was there. (What settings did you shoot these at?, maybe that was my problem). [/ QUOTE ] I think the other thing is Don was there at night time when the aritificial lighting really works. I'm not sure what the building is like where it was held, but most venues have quite a few windows and during the show, the display can look a little washed out because of the sunlight effectively cancelling out any of the spotlights etc. Another thing is to not use a flash. That way you will get a "softer" look to the photo and any lighting will show up much better. For example... Flash photo No flash
everything brootal said is spot on. the critical thing being, of course, that without the flash you have to be REALLY STILL. so either don is made of rock, or he carries a tripod... seriously don, do you use a tripod? your shots are really sharp...
I needed a tripod but I didn't bring one. I deleted more than half of the photos I took because they were too fuzzy. All shots were taken without flash. The only time I use flash when taking shots of cars is outside in the sunlight. The flash fills some of the shadows and makes for a clearer picture. Also since I'm taking pictures of cars where they're parked, I can't always get a good shot because the light is on the wrong side. Flash fill helps there too.
The Chrysler Airflow is a mind blower! The pro street vette is also striking... the paint is awesome... Thanks for sharing Don! Sam!
Great shots as usual Don.Am I right in thinking that the Ardun powered Deuce on page one is owned by John Ried at So Cal?I`ve seen some build up shots a while ago and I`m guessing that it`s the same car....any idea?
Great pix as usual,Don. ....And nice write up in Ego-rama in R&C. It's nice to read that they didn't forget ya'. You'll kill 'em this year!!!!
Don, You're pics are bitchin! I was there and I don't think I saw it as clearly as you and your camera. chuck
Don, thanks or sharing your photo tips.. Will help me take better ones in the future... Still trying to get a handle on the digital format vs. my 35mm....
There's a few other things I think that also help make Don's pics better than most. 1. Is his knowledge of his equipment. That little digicam he has takes better pics than it should because he's been using it a while and he knows what it can and can't do. I've watched him set his pics up and he pays pretty careful attention to where the light is and all the other imprtant criteria. 2. Not being afraid to waste a few frames to get the right shot. I dunno what it is but I've watched a lot of digicam users who are afraid to use the built in bracketing and even experiment for fear of not getting a good result. Who cares? The more pics you take the more likely you are to get that one stuning shot good enough for your favourite magazine. Film users I can understand, but then again I've never been afraid to 'waste' a roll in search of that one special shot. Funny thing here is, the more pics you take, the more good ones you get back. The other thing that I reckon makes Don's pics special, is perspective. His passion for the subject means he knows the right angles to get the car looking it's best. Too often I see great photographs ruined because the shooter didn't know how to frame the shot or understand the material enough to get the right background features etc. Then there's experimentation, something I'm still doing with digital pics, because of that white balance thing. Fact is the digital camera picture screen see's the shot completely different to how a 'film' camera sees it. I'm still not totally happy with the results I'm getting from my digicam, but one thing I've learned is to use the highest resolution available. You can always reduce it later for use on the internet etc. But you'll never get another chance to fix the pic that turnes out crappy just because you tried to get the maximum number on your memory card. I usually carry a spare 256mb card just in case since my digipics are usually at least 2 meg each. Brootal mentioned flash and some of the pronblems associated with using it. Not a trick as such, but the bigger the light unit, the better the result you'll get using flash. And the further away from your flashlit subject you get, the less likely you are to 'burn' light spots into your photo. This one for example was shot straight into those great big windows that had the midday sun streaming in behind the car. I probably could have reduced the aperture one stop more, but as it was a handheld shot and we were moving pretty quckly I figured it was OK. To get the detail I needed to pump plenty of light into the front of the pic and to avoid burning anything I used a diffuser and bounced it off a homemade white styrofoam reflector attached to the top of the flashgun. I think it worked OK and all the other shots are as good or better than this one. There's also some weird ones where 'the model' was moving or had a strange expression, but like I said, ya gotta waste some to get the good ones and when using a model the best shots are the unplanned ones, where the shutter goes at just the right time during rapid movement.
Yup, that's my little green Humpy at it's first official outing since Don helped me drag her home last Easter. here's a sample of slow shutter speed using a tripod. It was shot on Kodachrome 25 which is a slow film and not usually what you'd use for indoor photography. I like it cos it gives a very sharp image and the colours really pop, specially hot rod colours like reds and yellows. By using a slow shutter you can also close the camera's aperture right down which will sharpen your image even more. However, it'll also affect the depth of field, so again multiple shots and experimentation should be the order of the day to get that one great shot. Sadly this isn't that shot as there's too much of the polished wood floor showing and some of the people just stood there like stunned mullets, instead of giving my pic consistent movement across the frame. But you get the gist anyhow.
This one was shot using a small aperture at 1/60th sutter speed. Black cars are hard to shoot at the best of times and this was the darkest corner of the show so I had to really pump some light in there. I used a camera mounted flash plus infra red remote controlled unit mounted to a second tripod directly in front of the grille. Worked OK I think. Car works OK for me too.
Umm... that's great Carps... BUT WHERE'S THE BLOODY PIC!!! Do you need to send it to me so I can host it on my (dodgey) website??
Shit, I made em so bloody small you can hardly tell what the heck they are but they still don't upload. The message says they are 3.3 meg and my computer sez they are less than 70k. Got me rooted! There's a couple of CDs on way to you anyhow. The pics are all in folders telling what's inside.
Send them to me now and I'll upload them for you. Whoops.. there they are. Don't know why you have to get them so small. My pics are heaps bigger and still under 70KB usually. Resize them in MS Photo Editor, or Photoshop if you have it. Just drop the quality a little. I think it tells you how big the file will be.
[ QUOTE ] Send them to me now and I'll upload them for you. [/ QUOTE ] Here's some that Roy uploaded to the VHRA site. The first 18 are mine and the rest from Danny. http://www.hotrod.com.au/html/press_0.html [ QUOTE ] Whoops.. there they are. Don't know why you have to get them so small. My pics are heaps bigger and still under 70KB usually. Resize them in MS Photo Editor, or Photoshop if you have it. Just drop the quality a little. I think it tells you how big the file will be. [/ QUOTE ] I did already, think there miust be something in the conversion from the Mac where I photshop them and this IBM based piece of crap that I use for accessing the internet. We'll see what happens when I get my new G5 for the 'home office'. When that puppy arrives I'll even be able to properly edit the 3 hour videos and burn them to DVD.
The Jalopy Journal
