first of, before you go ahead on knock on anything, i wanna say that i'm not claiming my friend is a super hot magazine model... personally i think that she's cute and looks good on camera...

so lets just keep the "she doesnt belong on that car" comments to ourselves... if you like the shots, compliment, if you dont, leave it off the thread...

what i do need help with is how to set the camera to make the most of my shots... i will be taking shots at night... you can see the color of my car on the pics and i want to highlight it as much as possible... i will be running a Nikon D40x... should i use a tripod or should i not?


let me know... so far, these are some shots that i took on my point and shoot... and i want these type of shots on an SLR... i need some tips

 

bro...your car look seriously sick and if anybody doesnt find her sexy, they need some stronger glasses!!

 

first advice, don't ever use a flash at night, use external light sources. 2nd, get a GOOD tripod, i dunno if its the camera or just the lack of tripod but the pictures aren't very crisp.

overall good job

 

nice..love the vizage =)

 

yeah i think its the camera... like i said, i used a point and shoot...

i have a tripod that i can use but as far as the iso goes, where should i set it at?

 

also you mentioned to use external light sources... what you mean? examples?

 

like flood lamps would work but most likely unneeded for this application, iso depends on how much light you have... the higher the iso the lighter the picture but the more grainy it will be. if you have a good tripod you can set it around 200-300 and then increase the exposure time.

 

she's cute

 

there were certainly some angles in which i felt like i needed more lighting bc of the way the shadows appeared so i was thinking of flood lamps to help but wouldnt i get reflection on my car from it?

if i do use floods, most come with bulbs that omit a yellowish hue... any other suggestions?

 

r u using a point and shoot camera? pics are horrible. but yes, u have a nice model and good lookin friend. i say retake your photos and use a tripod, SLR and practice

 

At these pics, I used a point and shoot cam to show what kind of pics I want but I WILL be using a SLR. So for sure, I will be retaking shots.

 

lower iso, and no need for flood lamps what so ever. There is enough "natural" lighting. I use natural loosely, there are plenty of lights around you, no need to add anymore than whats already there. You will need a VERY steady model, that can not move for up to a minute. I think a minute exposure from what I can tell will be way to long, but 15-30 second exposure should work just fine.





a point and shoot digi cam works just fine. just need to play with it enough to figure out how to work it for your setting.

 

she looks good but tell her not to to this with her arms:


crooked arm... cant stand it :D:D:D

ADVICE:

you need a tripod for night shoots
dont use flash.. NEVER EVER!
lowest ISO
usually i put the exposure to 1-6sec.. anything above that i use it only in pitch black
let me show you something:



exp was only 0,6 sec on both pics

 

HOT but yah pretty much same advice as everyone else. ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. once you get the d40x just take a pic, change something, look, and repeat until you get the desired effect. sometimes takes a long time to set up right, well for me but im very novice. and a tripod is a MUST.

 

She is pretty cute, your car looks good also

 

csocso, great night shots and use of natural light sources man.... love it

 

I dunno, but damn she's cute

 

ok, i went ahead and gone through part 2 of my 3 part series...

i took some shots last night... i am very happy with the shots... some came out blurry bc my model moved a bit but i think most of it turned out great for my first time with an slr...

i had the iso set at 100 and found that 1.3 secs of exp was perfect for her bc anything longer just made her look like casper

here's some shots, more to come later

 

First, get a tripod.

Second, the D40 has an automatic meter to show you if the shot is over exposed or not. Set the aperture to the highest setting possible (3.5 if you're using the standard 18-55mm lens). Set the ISO to the lowest setting, no need for the ISO to compensate for light if you're using a tripod, plus ISO = grainy pictures. From there, just adjust your shutter speed and you'll have sharp pictures every time. Only problem with low lighting and slow shots, is that it's difficult to get sharp shots of people, since it's hard to stay very still (usually for shots of 1 second exposures or longer). From the looks of the area, it's lit way more than enough to worry about that.

Just keep playing with the camera and you'll eventually learn what all the settings do. I got my D40 about 4 months ago and I only shoot with manual mode now.

And one more thing, take lots of shots. Take like 5 pictures for every shot you're trying to take, then when you finish, just go thru and pick the best one.

 

I had a tripod, it just got windy over at lake michigan... (they do call us the windy city)

also, i wanted to take pics of my car in front of one museum but the lights they had were just super yellow... is there any way i could set the camera to eliminate some of that yellow hue?