Car shots in pitch dark

[SLRdude]

I always thought that moon light gives out much better colors than the Sun, which tends to wash things out.

This was my first time attempting night time photography, and I shot those in pitch dark, around 8:30 PM, without using a flash.

I'm pretty happy with the results.

[JBHII]

I think you and I have different definitions of "pitch dark." Clearly these were taken in twilight conditions but well before sundown. I took this shot of my car just minutes before sundown:



Most professional car photography is done either early morning or late afternoon, evening to avoid direct sunlight.

[SLRdude]

I think you and I have different definitions of "pitch dark."

Pitch dark as in dark.
As in an hour after sunset.

It was dark enough to where I could not read the LCD panel on my camera, dark enough to where the camera would not focus properly, dark enough to where you could not read a newspaper without a flashlight.

[JBHII]

Pitch dark as in dark.
As in an hour after sunset.

It was dark enough to where I could not read the LCD panel on my camera, dark enough to where the camera would not focus properly, dark enough to where you could not read a newspaper without a flashlight.

My shot was hand held with a 400 ISO and less than one second shutter release, and the appeture was somewhere between fstop was around 10-15 on my L series 17-40 f2.8.

Even with a tripod, high ISO, extended shutter release, and considerable Photoshop work, the level of detail in the background of those photos doesn't appear to be consistent with the lighting conditions you describe. Nice layers work on the first "x-ray" shot of the hood btw.

[JohnR]

Great pics! I've tried to do that first shot before, but haven't quite had the success you did. How long was the shutter open on those pics? What ISO were they shot at? So is that shadow under the car from moonlight? For what I'm guessing is maybe a high iso, the car looks really sharp. Or maybe it was a 5 minute exposure at 100. :)

[SLRdude]

All those are a combination of two shots.
A short exposure one followed by a long exposure one.
I wanted the short one for the lights (around 1 second) and a long one for the car. (as much as 11 seconds).

After that, I combined them in Photoshop and changed the layer to Soft Overlay.
No color correction was done whatsover.

Let me put it to you this way. My car was 50 feet away and I could not see it. That's how dark it was. I started shooting around 7 30 or 7 40 PM and the last shot was around 8 30, at which point it was just useless because I needed 30 second exposures.

You should try it sometimes.

I used about 400 bucks worth of gear in today's value. (including camera, lens and tripod)

[JohnR]

All those are a combination of two shots.
A short exposure one followed by a long exposure one.
I wanted the short one for the lights (around 1 second) and a long one for the car. (as much as 11 seconds).

Ah, I was wondering how you didn't get the lights blown out with the long exposures.

[SLRdude]

Great pics! I've tried to do that first shot before, but haven't quite had the success you did. How long was the shutter open on those pics? What ISO were they shot at? So is that shadow under the car from moonlight? For what I'm guessing is maybe a high iso, the car looks really sharp. Or maybe it was a 5 minute exposure at 100. :)

Anywhere from 1 second to 15 seconds.
ISO 200. (my old D50 does not have ISO 100)
Auto WB.
Yup, the shadow is from the moonlight.

This was my first time attempting the transparent hood shot and I found it to be really easy to do.

[SLRdude]

Ah, I was wondering how you didn't get the lights blown out with the long exposures.

It got so dark that the cam would not focus.
My friend was wearing a white Tshirt and I had to have him sit in front of the car so the camera could focus. His 8 yrs old daughter was hidden in the driver seat pushing the brake pedal during both exposures.

[A.N.]

beautiful car, great pics :)
i think that the old shelby mustang in 'eleanor' guise is one of the most beautiful cars, along with the aston martin db5's, jaguar mk2 and the ferrari gto.