Breaking The Rules

If you are a true car enthusiast you must have snapped a picture of a car or two in your lifetime, whether it was your own pride and joy or some fancy million rand racer at a track event. So you can point a camera and press the button, fine, we can all do that. I will give you a few tips on how to hopefully turn a good picture into a great one.

Have you ever taken a Sunday drive and stopped to watch the sunset, or even better yet, taken a picture of it? I do it all the time. As I love to shoot cars, a beautiful sunset isn’t complete without dropping a car in that picture. There’s just one problem. If you know a little about light and photography you will know that you should always take a picture with the sun at your back. This could be a problem if you’re trying to take a picture of a car and a sunset together.

If you are a true car enthusiast you will be used to bending the rules here and there. So here we go, let’s break some photography rules. It is correct, on a perfect bright sunny day, that you should have the sun at your back when taking a picture, but not today. When you are breaking the rules and shooting into the sun you will need to have your own light source, like a flash, or in my case, two. So mental note: If you are taking pictures of an object into the sun use a flash.

Using a flash is a must if you want a great picture. I have attached two pictures of the same car, one taken without a flash and one with. The fist picture is pretty average but the second one is just so much better. Now you have an awesome picture of a car and oh yes there’s a sunset too.

If I haven’t lost you by now, in my next blog I will show you more ways to use your flash. You can also follow me on Twitter here

Tags: photo advice, photo tips, photographic cars, photographing into the sun, photography tips