Transcripts
1. Car Photography Masterclass: Shoot Like a Pro: Welcome to my course about shooting and editing
a car like a Pro. First of all, let me
introduce myself. My name is Pedro Tomas. I'm Portuguese. I have a vast curriculum
or portfolio with cars. It's my main occupation is shooting cars for
diverse range of brands. I've worked with
Mercedes Bands, BMW. I've worked with Porsche. I've worked with
oper several brands, so I have a lot of experience. This field. So that's me. This course will be four
medium and advanced levels, meaning beginners
will have a hard time comprehending me and
following what I'm saying. So this is more targeted towards medium and advanced
shooters that want to improve on their car photography skills,
necessary material. Of course, you're going
to need a camera, A modern camera will do, and then you will need
something to edit the photo in. The software I mainly work with is light room and photoshop, since they are interlinked, so that's the main software. You're going to need to
follow 100% what I'm doing. Doesn't mean that other
photo editing software will not work because the concepts will work not only in photoshop, but in other software. So it's okay if you use another software.
What are we going to do? We are going to learn how
to shoot a car properly. Some techniques, some tips, like the most common angles, some different angles,
but that work awesome. Some things that are necessary from what I've experienced, some things that are
really necessary, and some things that you will want to know
as a photographer to differentiate yourself from all the photographers out
there that shoot cars. So this is my intro. I hope you like this course, and let's do this.
2. The Art of Car Photography: Practical Shooting Tips and Tricks: Hello. Welcome to
my first lesson in shooting a car like a pro. So in this lesson, we
are going to learn about the actual
shooting of the car. Not the editing,
not anything else. We are going to learn
about shooting the car, which is the basis of all
our work from now on. So let's imagine we
have a car to shoot. Let's say Mercedes Benz or Porch or some kind of brand
that has contacted you. And ask you to shoot a car. Let's not dive into what
car it is at the moment, but they ask you to shoot a car. First thing you do, you
have to ask what the car is because it will define a lot of things or a lot of
decisions that you will take in this lesson to define
what you're going to do. For example, Porsche has asked
you to shoot a nine 11th. A 9/11 for those who don't know, which is weird because if
you are watching this, you love cars or you like cars, 9/11 is a sports car. We have now an idea of
what it should encompass or your shooting should show.
What do I mean by this? If you are shooting
a sports car, you will be shooting in I'm going to call
it a racing spot, something that looks like
a track or that could be used to drag race or
could be used to drift, or something that is sporty. So it makes sense to
shoot the car there. I'm going to give you an example that makes absolutely no sense, so you understand why it's
important to do this. Imagine you have the same 911, but you will shoot
the car in the sand. It doesn't make sense. You're
going to get the car stuck. It won't look right because
that car is not supposed to be there unless you are talking
about the 911 that car. But the normal 9/11, it won't make sense to see
the car in that environment. So we always define
the environment first. Of course, maybe
99% of the cars we should also have to
work as a daily driver. The 9/11 is a sports
car, but of course, can be driven in a
city or it can be driven in a park or
something like that. So we define the first
concept is a racing spot, and then of course, the normal spots where
you can take the car. Talking about this.
Why am I making this such a big deal because
if you have, let's say, land rover defender or
something like that, it makes much more sense to
put the car in the sand, put the car in mud if you're allowed to because some brands don't want you to. So you have to go within your limits to put the
car where they let you. Of course, again, a land rover defender
is also a city car. So you can take it obviously in the middle of
the city with the lights, if it's at night, et cetera,
et cetera, et cetera. But in my mind, you
always have to do the specific shots
for each type of car. If you know what I mean, Yeah. For example, sports car. I've already told
you a racing spot, if it's like a jeep, sand dunes, mud,
all of that works. If it's like Sedan, maybe make more shots in the city because it's
what it's meant for. If for example, a sports
car slash convertible, you can do like near the
beach with the top down. What is important here
is that the scenery makes sense with
the specific type of car you shoot
you are shooting. Second consideration
that you have to do is when are you
going to shoot? For example, let's
continue with the 9/11. What I was going to say is next consideration
is the time of day. For example, Golden Hour, as you know, as a
photographer, it always works. Yeah. I agree. I can't
disagree. I agree. But I have to say that
it works better with a sports car than with a normal sedan or
a minivan, right? A sports car asks for a dramatic shot a
sedan not so much. Asks for a more
sober, more elegant. If it's a luxury sedan, asks for a more luxury shot
and not such a dramatic shot with maybe clouds and the sun shining through a
very yellow environment, et cetera et cetera, et cetera. So not only the location
has to make sense, but also the time of
day has to make sense. At night, a sports
car makes sense. An makes sense. For me, an off road
vehicle, not so much. Not that I wouldn't do, but I would not focus my energy
on shooting it at night. I have done some shots at night with some off road vehicles
that are a bit out there, like the four by four
squared by Mercedes. But In my mind, they are still
a bit urban vehicles. So yeah, it makes sense. So you don't have to
justify to anyone. You have to justify to yourself if it makes sense or not, and Y. If you can say, Okay, this makes sense with this car, it will make a great shot. Then you just have to think
about it and produce it. And that's the next
part of this video. First thing, gear. For cars, you don't need
the most expensive gear, the most fast linens, the most megapixel camera.
It's not necessary. It depends on what your client wants to
do with the shots. And from what my
experience says, about 80% of the shots are
for social media usage. So a normal, I'm going to
call it normal camera, 24 megapixel. It works perfect. You don't end up
with massive rows that take up all your space. You can have a faster
shooting camera. Gear is not that important
when shooting cars. Of course, it has to
capture all details. But I'm going to
go ahead and say, lighting is more important, which is gear and editing the car to make all
those details pop. But that will be the next video. I hear we'll focus on lights. Lighting is important
not only in the night, which would make sense. But also during the day, because you want to emphasize certain aspects of your car. Maybe for example, that car has some very
defined side lines. For example, BMWs, recent
BMWs have very, very, very, very defined lines that make them I
say they stand out. I'm not sure if it's
a good thing or not. That's up to discussion, but they make very strong
angles in the car. What does that mean? That means that with the right
lighting, and editing, but in this moment,
the right lighting, you can show it more.
If it makes sense. You can make them pop. You can make them
stand out more. For example, let's imagine you have a crease in
the middle of the door. It comes like this and
then it goes inside. You can make them pop if you
have the light from top. It makes sense because
the top will shine, the bottom part will
be in the shadows, so it will make that crease pop. So it's all about
a game of lights, and this sounded like a
movie title. So yeah. But it is a game of lights and understanding where
best to put the light. I'm not going to go
into too much detail because this honestly
is something that I think every photographer
should try trial and error and learn what
works best for them. What works best for me may not be what you like
and vice versa. So I think this is a
part of the photography, which is the creative
This is what you want to show that is very
important and very personal. That makes you, the photographer
as you your name here. So this is very important
that you learn by yourself. You probably already know
how to work with lights, since this is a medium
to advanced course, but it's very important that you find out how to use
them with cars. Emphasize creases,
highlight certain parts, certain parts that not ty, but put in the dark, that make more
sense in the dark. So that's something you will learn with time to make
your shots better. Another very important thing is the use of a polarizer filter. Lot of photographers in cars love to use polarizer
filter. And what does it do? It removes the reflections
from your car, and it also enhances
a bit the color, nothing that can't be
done in post processing. I'm talking about specifically
enhancing the color, but there are some
photographers that love to remove the
reflections of the car. This is one of those
things that I was telling you that me
as a photographer, I don't use polarizer
filter. I do have one. I do take them in my
bag from time to time, I do use them very rarely, but I do use them,
but I prefer to control if possible and
when not possible filter. But I prefer to
control if possible the reflections that hit the car that I'm shooting.
What does this mean? For example, let's say you are shooting the
car from an angle, that you can see the
reflection of a window, and I don't want to see the
reflection of that window. I can move the car, I can move
my point of view shooting. I can do several
things to remove that window from the reflection without needing to
use the polarizer. And that's my preferred
way of working. Of course, using the polarizer
as nothing bad to it. Some people argue that
adding glass in front of your glass from the lens
decreases quality by a bit. Honestly, I can say that I find that it's
true. I'm sorry. T all the photographers
that think so. But if the filter is clean, the lens is clean,
there's no smudging, there's no dust,
there's nothing. I don't see why it should decrease the quality
of your image. Of course, there are
other considerations to have when dealing
with this because of the diffraction and refraction and stuff ending in
action to do with glass. But from my experience,
if it changes, it's so so little that
it makes no difference, and what you gain
from the filter, it's much more important than what you lose,
if it makes sense. So that's the gear necessary. Now, setting up the
car, there are some basic medium and are
setups for a car? I will say it this way. I think it's more correct. Some basic and
medium things will be like, are the wheel straight? Do you want them straight? Maybe you want them turning?
What are you going to do? Are you going to shoot stop? Are you going to not moving? Are you going to
shoot a penning, meaning you are stopped, the photographer is stationary. But the car is moving. Are you going to
do rolling shots? The photographer is moving
along with the car? Be it in another car or
something like that, that's what you got to
think about when doing your shots because
in some situations, you can't do them. For example, the
most obvious one is if I'm shooting
on the highway, I can't have a car shooting on the highway stop or stationary, at least in Portugal, it's a crime, so we can do. If I'm shooting on the bridge, I can't have the car stationary on the bridge, it's illegal. So unless the city has given you access and to do
those kinds of things, it's illegal, so
you can't do that. So you got to think
about, if you want the car stationary, maybe take it to a car park, maybe take it to somewhere
that makes sense, and should there the
stationary shots. Maybe the panning shots you do, and this is a personal tip. Always have the
photographer yourself. Inside the corner, not outside. It's much easier to be
stopped inside the corner and the car going around you
than being on the outside. Why? Because the car will
move much less in terms of distance to the photographer when it's doing the
corner around you. If it's doing the corner
and you are on the outside, the car will be changing
distance to you all the time. So it's much harder to do a
panning in that situation. So always try to be on the inside of the
curve. Rolling shots Maybe the road allows
it. Maybe it doesn't. I've been in spectacular roads, that you can't do rolling shots because you can't have
the cars side by side. For example, you want to do a rolling shot of three
quarters of the car, you can't or the
side of the car, you can't because
there is no space. I remember a specific road
that I would love to shoot, if some day they'll allow me. Injurs north of Portugal, that I'll call it a
single direction road, that it's very tight, but it's green on both sides. The road is new. Would look awesome, doing
some rolling shots there, but unfortunately,
physics doesn't allow it. So yeah, you got to
think about that. Then also important the angles, Which angles are you doing? Me, personally, I love
doing low angles, sitting on the ground and
shooting the car upwards. So I have a stand to the car. It makes the car more important, let's say, than
shooting from up down. I also love shooting. Up down. But my preferred
angle is from the down up. It's it's one angle
that I always do. And then you have
the basic angles, let's say, shooting the
rims from straight onwards. Yeah. You have shooting
the side of the car, shooting the front of the car, the back of the car, and shooting the three
quarters of the car. These are the basic ones that
I never miss in a shoot. The other ones, it's kind
of based on feeling. For example, if I'm shooting the Mercedes
four by four squares, it's a very tall car. It's awesome to sit low on
the ground or put your camera on the ground and shoot up
it's awesome to see the What that shot will show you
and the size of that car. If it's a sports car, maybe low down isn't as much impactful as in four by
four square, of course. But I will still do it. It's a very nice angle to
put some stands on the car. One especially important
consideration to have is, if you're shooting the front, the size, three
quarters of the car, keep in mind something. If you are shooting a little bit from above or a little
bit from below, you will always have kind
of a distortion to the car. You want to avoid that
distortion at least in the basic essential
shots. So what do you do? For example, let's
imagine the car as 1.2 meters in height. I'm not measuring the cars
when I'm shooting, of course, but it's just for
explaining purposes. Let's imagine it as
1.2 meters in night. What you do is shoot from
60 centimeters innit, meaning you shoot from half
the height of the car. Why? Because that way, you won't have any
distortion of the car, and it will look right. It won't look like it's
been stretched in any way. So it's very important. At least the closer you are, the the more important
this tip is. If you're shooting, let's
say 24 millimeters. It's very important. If you're shooting at
300, maybe not so much. But if you are close to the car, it's very important that you put the camera in the middle
of the height of the car, so it doesn't look
stretched or bent or something like that because lenses tend to distort
near the edges. And if you shoot
something from an angle, it will distort that it makes sense to
our eyes because we, as people understand
photography, but it doesn't make
sense when it's for use on a social network or maybe even print or
something like that. Then you after you have those essential angles
that I've talked about, the side front back and three quarters for me,
are the essentials. Never do a session
without doing those, then you can let your creative side flow and
all the angles you want. I try to always make up angles
every new session I do. So in the next one, I remember Wow, that angle
worked last session, so let's do it again. So yeah, this is the lesson about shooting cars like a pro. And yeah, I hope you liked it. I hope it was helpful
for you. Any questions? Any doubts, don't forget,
leave them below. Next lesson will be about editing the shots you
took in this lesson, by learning what you
learned in this lesson, by doing what you
learned in this lesson. So next lesson, editing. So see you then.
3. Transforming Car Photos: Advanced Editing Like a Pro: Hello. Welcome to the
lesson about editing your shots that you learned
on the lesson before. And by now, you should know how to shoot a car like a pro. Now let's edit like a pro. First consideration, it depends on what your client wants. There are clients that require that the
colors are perfect. So in those types of shots, you can't mess with the colors. You can enhance them a bit, make them pop, but you
can't change the colors. There are those clients or
those types of shots that the client doesn't really care if the color is right or not. Because if you are talking
about color being right, if a person has an iPhone and a person has
a Samsung phone, and the other person sees the same shot on
their LG screen, and another person
sees on their tablet, which is an Azure or ***, all of those people will
see different color. Y, not different colors, but different shades
of the same color. Why, because not all monitors or not all screens are
calibrated the same. So it's almost, I would say, impossible to have
the right color on the photography, right. I can have red. I can have the screen
that shows more red. I can have a screen
that shows less red. I can have a screen
that takes a bit of yellow and makes
it more orange. But I can't control that. So I can't control where people will consume
my photography. So there is amount you can edit without changing
the color on your side, of course, and you can color
correct it, and all of that. If you shoot with
a color checker, it's easy to have the
real color in your shot. But the consumer watches that on a screen that
is badly calibrated, he will still see
the color wrong. So it's kind of important. But what I'm telling you
is in this part, editing, and keeping the color red or editing the car
and make the color, for example, more
orange because you edited the photo to make
it look like a sunset. So the car is a bit
more orange than red. So yeah, there are those
two types of shots, and that is something you have to know before you
start editing, talk to your client
and ask them and try to understand what
they want from your work. Now, let's not touch on the
color side. That's done. Is important when editing
a car like a prom. What are the elements that
make a difference in a car. If I say, I have
two of the same c, I have two Volkswagen golfs
side by side, same color. What makes a difference
from one to another? I immediately think of Rams and maybe if it has a spoiler
or something like that. What I mean by this is, you have to know what
makes a difference in a car so you can
enhance those features. For me, Rams are essential. They always change the
look of a car completely. If you have a car
let's say a sedan, which is a normal car, not a sports car.
It's a normal car. Let's say you have a sedan. You have 17 inch rims, and then you change them
to nineteenths or 20s. The look of the same
car, same color, same everything, just with different rims, will
change everything. That's why people spend
thousands of dollars on rims. RMs are one item you definitely have to
highlight or make pop. Another one, and I've stoked
this in the video before is the creases and
the angles on a car. You, if you know how
to edit portraits, you know about Dodge and Burn, and there are other things too, but if you know Dodge and Burn, it's a great way to
highlight creases. The part that's in the shadow, you make it a little bit darker. The part that's in the light, you make a little bit
more bright, let's say. That way, you will enhance or
make that crease stronger. You won't change the car, but your photography will show that crease in a different way. It will pop more to your eye. You understand So that's a
second consideration to make? Then what more is very, very important on a car. And from here, you can say, Oh, the grill is important. Oh, the brake lights
are important. Oh, the head lights are
important. All right. What I want you to do
is as a photographer, pick the spots
that are important to you that make a
difference to you. And focus on them. Try to make them pop in my view, or in my opinion,
Rams and the creases, the angles of the
car are essential. And then, personally,
I like to highlight, not highlight in
terms of lighting, but make pop the headlights, brake lights, and
depending on the car, if it has a wing, let's say, like AMG, GTR, Black series, it
has a massive wing, so you have to make
that pop more. Yeah. It has a massive
front diffuser, so you have to make
that pop a bit. What I mean a bit
is don't overdo it. Don't make like the car
is only about that. Yeah. I have to you have to go to a limit
where it makes sense. If you go over that limit, it makes the car weird. So you have to always keep
that in mind and make sense of the dole car as one unit and not as a separate pieces that you
are doing here and there. For example, carbon fiber. If you shoot it, depending
on the sunlight, of course, but it can be grayish black, and you can see the wave. That is something that it's very important to see the waves, especially in brands
that go to the trouble. Trouble of matching the waves. So that's very important, and that's something
you have to highlight. Maybe you make it pop by increasing exposure,
by increasing clarity. It's up to you, but you have to take into account that
it's very important. If a brand spends maybe millions of dollars to make sure those
creases are aligned, you as a photographer, have to make sure you
show that to your client. So that he can then show that to the people
that are consuming your work via sharing or their catalog or
something like that. So that's very important. Interiors are very important. Maybe specific parts of the
interior are very important. It kind of depends on the car. For example, a sports car, maybe as quad tail pipes, that's important, maybe a Jeep as special suspension,
that's important. It depends on what
you're shooting and what your client wants. Of course, every
single thing that I'm saying here has to be
talked about first. What I do is always
go to the client. Even if I have driven the car, even if I know the car, I have in one situation, owned a car and they asked
me to shoot that car, and I went to the
client and said, and ask what is what are the important features that you want to highlight
in this car? What is important in this car? And they said, Oh, this has a special vinyl to commemorate
the 50 years of something. It has a special badge. It it has special rims, or simply I like the grill, or I like the tailpipes, or I want to ilight this or that let them give you some pointers on what's
important to them. It's very important that the client is satisfied
with your work. So it's very important
that you listen to them when it's time to highlight
this, that. I like that. You don't want to
highlight the old car, because if you light the
whole car as a unit, you won't highlight anything.
Does that make sense? If I light No, I have a model here that
I'm going to show you. If I highlight this model car, all of it, I won't highlight the rims and I
won't highlight the wing. I have to highlight
certain parts so that they pop when they are in
conjunction with all the rest. It pops because you
have done something to it that separate separate
it is not the right word, but separates it visually
from the rest of the car, and you want to have some
things, not everything. Everything will
look like a mess, or it will look like you
haven't done anything. You have just spent time
highlighting a whole car, and that just makes it
look like the whole car was brighter or you increase the clarity
on the whole car, so you don't make
any difference. I can give you some
practical examples. I have shot several
may bags at this time. One of them, it was a
special edition may back, only 1150 in the whole world. And that's that particular one. I'm I'm not sure the
other ones that, but that particular one had a special glass to drink.
That came with a car. It was I'm not sure the process, but it was engraved with a
special symbol of the car. So Even if you are
shooting a car, sometimes you have to shoot something that
is not the car. Don't make sense.
I have to shoot. I think it was copper or gold. I don't want to mess it up. I have to shoot a glass
that was engraved. I have to make sure that
the engraving showed, which is another
avache, but it did. Thank God. You have to make sure that is important
for the client. I didn't ask the client
what was important to him, I would never have
seen those glasses. Why? Because they were stored. The car was for sale, obviously. But they were stored in I'm
calling secret compartment. They were not put
on the fridge yet. Does that make
sense? So the client wanted the glasses to be seen but they were not yet in
the fridge of the cars. So we had to talk, we had to put them, set up the whole
thing and should. So, yeah, it's very important
you talk to your client and ask what are the
important things. And then those are the things that you should make
pop up in your edit so that your work goes according exactly to
your client's needs. So yeah. That's it. Of course, everything
takes a lot of time, takes a lot of work, but I'll
try to condense it a bit. Any questions? Feel free to ask and thanks for watching. I'll see
you in the next one.
Pedro Thomaz, Pro-Photographer
