I'm not much of a photographer....

[herr_oberst]

But, jeez, a decent camera on a tripod with a remote can make even a hack like me look pretty good!

Natural lighting, f@2.8

[Noah930]

On the Sauber C9, what's the little silver scoop north of the rear view mirrors?

[masraum]

On the Sauber C9, what's the little silver scoop north of the rear view mirrors?

That's the pencil sharpener.

[Scott Douglas]

Try stopping it down to f5-6 or so and let the camera determine exposure time. You'll get a little more depth of field so more of the car will be in focus.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Noah930

On the Sauber C9, what's the little silver scoop north of the rear view mirrors?

Cockpit air? I don't know, it's just glued onto the plastic window...

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

Try stopping it down to f5-6 or so and let the camera determine exposure time. You'll get a little more depth of field so more of the car will be in focus.

Thanks for the tip. I definitely was playing around with the fstop this afternoon. Here's a couple more examples; f2.8 with the focus on the rear wheel and f8 with the focus on the front.
(This is the best, most complex camera I've ever had; - Canon G12 - lots to learn, but cool to see how changes in aperture and exposure affect the image, just like the books say it will. When I downloaded the images of the C9, I was pleasantly amazed when I zoomed in on the caliper and was able to read 'brembo'...)
White balance, staging, lighting, all those things will need time to learn, but the results I got today while I was just goofing off with the new tripod were very satisfying, and make me want to make some more images....)

[Scott Douglas]

I did a whole series of pictures of some of my cameras with a manual focus lens on my D7000.
I set it up on the tripod, set the ISO so it was a looonnnggg exposure time, then varied the f- stop with each succeeding picture. It was interesting to see how the lens back focused a bit as the aperture changed.
The most fun was using a flashlight to high light certain parts during a 34-sec exposure.
Have fun and post some more pics as you go.

[herr_oberst]

Most everything I shot this afternoon I just let the camera set the exposure time; I experimented with the fstop and tried to get decent white balance.

Funny you should say that about flashlights, I used a hand held penlight on these shots to open up some shadow areas... Not quite what I hoped for, but the potential is there...

[Scott Douglas]

I like that engine shot.
Pen light may be a little too 'spot beam' for what you're trying to get.
I used one of those Harbor Freight give away LED flashlights. Gave it a blue effect but wasn't a hot spot light.

[herr_oberst]

Thanks for the encouragement!

[Scott Douglas]

Here's a 30 sec f16 shot with the flashlight highlight.

You'll have fun because you can shoot as much as you want with digital and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to see the results.

[herr_oberst]

Nice camera! It looks brand new...

I like the way the flashlight beam allows you to see the interior of the lens. Very cool

[Don Ro]

Instead of a remote trigger, I'll use the timer.
Nice pics, BTW.

[Steve Carlton]

Your white balance is a separate setting. See what it's on and try a setting that matches the situation- incandescent, florescent, etc. Better yet, use your flash and flash white balance setting if you have one. Natural light scenes tend to look warm if the white balance is set to auto. Do the colors look accurate with respect to the table and wall? Where's your ISO? The lower, the better.

[Scott Douglas]

Thanks, it was my grandmother's camera and has traveled the world.

Staging makes a really big difference IMHO. I think your car would look really nice against a black back round.
Here's the same camera in a different setting.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Cockpit shot looks like a ray of light shining in through a break in the clouds.

Engine shot rocks. Nice work!

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Your white balance is a separate setting. See what it's on and try a setting that matches the situation- incandescent, florescent, etc. Better yet, use your flash and flash white balance setting if you have one. Natural light scenes tend to look warm if the white balance is set to auto. Do the colors look accurate with respect to the table and wall? Where's your ISO? The lower, the better.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts.

ISO on all shots this afternoon was 100.

I tried lots of white balance, but the AWB worked the best in most instances, (with a bit of exposure compensation) The colors are the tiniest bit cool overall, but I could never get consistency when I tried to use the evaluative white balance feature. I don't think I know where to point the camera at the white card when I evaluate..

I used many flash settings, first shutter, second shutter, low, medium high; none were to my liking; no flash and long exposures were more satisfying to my eye, but I'm learning.

[Bill Douglas]

Ha too modest. Good photos (and GREAT models) thanks for sharing.

I'm a great fan of slow shutter speeds. It seems to give a good "warmth" to photos too. I took one of the nicest photos of the sistine chapel ceiling I've seen. I laid the camera on it's back on the floor and gave it three quarters of a second shutter speed and the pic was outstanding.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

Cockpit shot looks like a ray of light shining in through a break in the clouds.

Engine shot rocks. Nice work!

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Ha too modest. Good photos (and GREAT models) thanks for sharing.

I'm a great fan of slow shutter speeds. It seems to give a good "warmth" to photos too. I took one of the nicest photos of the sistine chapel ceiling I've seen. I laid the camera on it's back on the floor and gave it three quarters of a second shutter speed and the pic was outstanding.

Thanks, guys. This is all new to me. I bought the camera a good while back, but was intimidated with all the features. I took another look at it a few weeks ago and decided I either need to sell it or learn how to use it, so I've been reading a good book on the features and controls, tips and tricks, and now I've got a tripod, so it was time to buckle down and experiment.

[Steve Carlton]

How's this look vs the actual scene? I used a color correction/contrast filter that often really helps or looks good. The colors feel right to me in this adjusted version- the silver is more silver and less yellow. I'm usually a big fan of contrast. Kind of like salt on your food.

[herr_oberst]

Is that a photoshop filter?

That looks pretty good, but the background has become even cooler, and is moving too far away from the actual color.
I would probably mask the car and neutralize it to greyscale, then open up the highlights and midtones just a bit to make the contrast pop, finally, just a bit of high pass to give it some overall unsharp masking...