Car Photos with Rebel XS

Hey guys, i was wondering something. What setting on your DSLR are you using to take pics of the cars we detail? It seems the portrait setting will bring one section of the photo into focus while burring the other parts. Obviously its supposed to do this. I am struggling to focus on more than one of my seven points of autofocus. So any help would be appreciated. I am taking good portraits of people and things but am struggling to get a good car picture. Kit lens for now 18-55 IS

 

if you want more of the picture to be in focus, shoot in av mode and stop it down. And crank up the iso if you aren't using a tri pod.

 

Stop it down? lol sorry im really new at all this what do you mean? Even in full sunlight crank up the iso? Wont blow everything out?

 

stopping it down means changing the f stop to a higher number. I believe the fastest that lens will shoot is f 3.5 at 18mm. Try adjusting it to something in the 8's. The higher the number, the less light it will let in. That's why you need to raise the iso to make the sensor more sensitive to that light. You won't need to change the iso in daylight settings. It takes some experimenting to see what works given the current lighting.

 

Also be sure you WB (white balance) is set for Daylight or Cloudy. Sometimes if you dont have this set right, you'll have blue pictures.

 

Edit: i asked how to change the F number but i figured it out. It seems to be a big delay in my pics when shooting in AV mode..and no tripod right now so my images are blurry from what im assuming is camera shake.

 

when shooting in aperture priority (av) mode, just turn the dial by the shutter button. When you look through the view finder, you should see the number changing as you turn the dial.

 

what's your iso setting at?

 

the iso in full sunlight is at 400 or 800 I believe. The higher the f number the more the camera seems to lag before taking the picture..its hard to get a good one

 

Also try increasing your distance from the vehicle. That's one way to increase your depth of field.

I shoot at the lowest ISO possible.

Check out this guide for the basics of DSLR:

Ben's Newbie Guide to Digital SLR Photography - Canon Digital Photography Forums

 

Check this also

 

If you are taking the shot like a front corner angle, you confuse on the mid-point to set the focus, hold the shutter button halfway down to lock in focus, then move the camera to the front corner. On my Nikon, the focus point stays at the mid-point. As said above, be sure you are stopping down (higher f number, like f 5.6) to increase the depth of field.

Al

 

Hey Jordan, I would shoot pretty wide at 18mm or very near it and an f-stop of f/8 or smaller (f/8, f/11, etc) to achieve a better depth of field. At the same time, you'll want to increase your ISO, depending on the lighting situation, while not worrying too much about the speed it's shooting at (a tripod would certainly help here).

I'm not all too familiar with XS's but with my XSi I know you can change how the camera meters the objects it's shooting so that might be something you might want to play with as well. HTH.

 

If you don't have a tripod, you can always use a wall, or something else to rest the camera on. Keep the ISO low and put the f-stop on f/8 or higher. Good luck!

 

You could also look at a monopod but dont forget the ball head.

 

not an issue if you shoot in RAW... i am a believer that everyone who shoots a dslr should shoot in raw.

try using the "P" mode for a bit to get an idea for how the camera compensates for different f stops and exposures

 

Why do you think every DSLR user should shoot in RAW? :shead:

 

I think that if there's going to be any post processing, more can be done with a RAW image.

Raw is a lossless format, and when you compress that into a jpeg format, some pixels are lost.

I also think there is something abou tbeing able to fix overexposure if you shoot in raw, where you can't if you shoot in jpeg.

 

Yeah, I totally agree but I'm interested in hearing BMD's opinion. Not every DSLR user is savvy in post processing. I've shot in RAW before and I didn't like it due to the fact that I (currently) don't have the time for PP and I archive my pictures on my local hard drive and don't have other means to store those large RAW files elsewhere.

 

I'm the same way. I never process my photos afterwards, and none of my photos are printed off in larger than 5x7 size.