How To Do Car Photography and Editing

Cars are no longer just a mode of transportation they also represent the owner's status and freedom. The ability to travel to new places, explore the world, and make lifelong memories in luxurious vehicles. Since then, many car manufacturing companies have begun focusing on creating luxurious cars with the best car features to increase customer retention and brand value. Due to this high demand, car photography and editing have become skilled professional jobs for many artists.

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A lot of consideration needs to be done before taking a perfect car candid photo. Only an amateur can take a professional car photo with a professional camera. It requires a lot of skill and talent, and only someone with years of experience and a passion for cars can pull it off.

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Car photography and editing include numerous tips and tricks to make it appear appealing to buyers. What are these special tricks that highlight the car's best features to make it saleable? Let's have a look at the special tricks and tips required to achieve the ideally desired car photo.

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Steps in Car Photography:

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Preparation

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Preparation is the key factor when beginning car photography and editing assignment. Secondly, select the best time of the day. It should be a couple of minutes after sunrise or before sunset. Car photos should highlight the car's best features to make it more attractive and alluring to buyers.

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Remember to take some practice shots. Before heading for the actual photos, a car photographer always grabs trial photos to understand the car's details. It helps the photographer recognize the lighting and angles of the photos required for an excellent car photo.

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This helps to choose the best car photos from among all the options. Then use editing software to crop the photo and adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels for a perfect photo from all the tips and tricks of car photography and editing. 

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Camera Settings

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For taking a good shot in car photography, there are a few things you need to take into consideration. Firstly, ensure the proper camera settings in the wide aperture range of f/5 for a motion blur background effect.

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And f/8 for both cars and the background focus picture. The camera's aperture should be set to a low number so that the entire car is focused. Secondly, car photography uses a tripod for accurate height and focal length.

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It also eliminates the blurriness of the photos. Next, remember to find the best car angle and capture minute details such as headlights and tail lights. If taking a full-length photo, capture the entire car in a single frame for the perfect car photo.

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The Camera Settings that you may Consider in Car Photography are:

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Use a tripod

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Tripods are a must in getting blur-free photos. It also helps achieve focus and determine the perfect angle in car photography.

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‍Use a remote shutter release

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A feature in DSLRs that eliminates the need to touch the camera in photography by providing professional-quality photos of cars without any blur part. Set the camera to low ISO - Grainy photos are widespread when you capture a vast figure or structure photo. To avoid this, set your camera to low ISO for a professional-looking car photo.

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Use a fast shutter speed 

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This camera setting will help to freeze motion and avoid blurred photos to a considerable extent. Fast shutter speed works best with light and low speed in car photography.

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Use a wide aperture

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The wide-angle camera setting can create a shallow depth of field in photos and make them look more dramatic. Besides, with added efforts of car photography and editing, the picture will turn out to be detailed.

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Lightings

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The surrounding lights also play a crucial role in car photography. Especially when you're outside to capture a good photograph for your assignment; as I've mentioned previously, the photos are well captured when it is done before sunset or right after sunrise. An excellent professional photographer keeps his eyes open for this moment for a perfectly dazzling photo without any blur and imbalance. 

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Studio lightings are most commonly used in car photography. However, Why do you need to use studio lighting for Car photography? Studio lighting provides a consistent light source with a desired range and colors compared to natural light.

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The light source's consistency helps take car photos from different angles and provides a cohesive final product for car photography and editing. Studio lighting also defines the car features more precisely for its captivating appearance. It also makes the car look larger due to studio lighting than it might in natural light. Studio lighting provides many benefits that can result in beautiful, professional-looking car photos.

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Angles 

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There are 3 angles in photography straight, overhead, and three-fourth. The magnificent car photos are shot at a three-fourth angle only as it can capture the correct frames of the cars from that angle. Car photos look exquisite when taken at a lower angle. As a photographer, you may even need to lie on the floor to grab that perfect shot in daylight. Low angles are the best when shot appropriately by taking into consideration the vision of the final product. 

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Wide angles also work best in car photography and editing of photos. You must find the best angle to work perfectly with your car model. Experiment, experiment, and experiment with a different angle to figure out the perfect angle for your car photography and editing.

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A wide angle captures a broad view of an object which is highly beneficial in huge figure photography. The angles also depend on the shot you want to capture in car photography. Is it a rear view, front view, or side view in car photography? Experimenting with different angles, focal lengths, and close-ups will determine the preferred outlook in car photography. 

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Automotive photography is a famous brand technique for stunning, breathtaking photos. Automotive photography is a specialized form of photography that focuses on capturing the beauty and essence of cars and other vehicles. This type of photography often involves taking photos of cars in different settings, including on the road, in the garage, or in the showroom.

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Factors to Consider for Perfect Automotive Car Photography :

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Choose the perfect location and time for your advantage - Some photos turn out extremely extraordinary when the perfect time of day is picked, such as sunrise or sunset. The location also plays a crucial role in acquiring the best photos.

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It can be in the middle of the forest, snowfall zone, highway roads, banks of the river, or a fantastic rainy weather pathway. An automotive photographer studies this location and time of the day to get the best results.

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Using a long lens

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Helps you capture a wide angle of the photo by providing a focus on the required object and blurring the background of the photo to create a center of attention. 

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Polarizers 

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Polarizers are often placed in the camera's front lens to reduce the natural light reaching the camera, which helps add in-depth colors to the shot by eliminating the harsh lights due to reflection, beam, or sun. High-angle or low-angle shots are trendy in car photography as they capture the details with wider shots.

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You can capture the headlights, wheels, or side view of the cars with extreme details at low angles. High-angle photos are also getting extremely popular nowadays as they define the car's look at a location. It lays out a sneak peek of the car in high-scraper cities, roads, or a racecourse track. 

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Pay attention to the background and clean up the clutter 

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The photo's background is very important in car photography. Avoid a buzzy background of a crowded street, messy roads, and cluttered spaces. The photoshoot space should be broad, and the background should be attractive enough to blend with the car's features. Combining all these features will emphasize the overall car photography and put its best details into the spotlight. 

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Pick the best driving shots 

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Driving shots flaunt the car's speed. A moving car shot is not so easy to capture. You need to drive another car to shoot your projected car moving. Although, you need to hire a professional driver while doing so. So that you can capture great photos of your car that will present the brand's hallmark and quality. 

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Go the extra mile

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Sometimes, you need to explore your creativity as a photographer. Think about what can make your car photography stand out from the rest. It can be anything from shooting in the forest, a ray of sunlight falling at a deserted place, or a car on a runway track. You have to go the extra mile to get the extraordinary photo that will increase profit margins for the brand and also peak your career as a car photographer.

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There are countless locations to capture the quirky photo. I loved this photo taken by a car photographer of a Bugatti car in Paris. The Eiffel Tower signifies power and is a unique symbol for the people living in Paris. The Eiffel tower in the background emulsifies the car's brand that empowers the symbol of love for the city of Paris so effortlessly. 

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Position your car in a way that accentuates its beauty

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The car's position matters a lot. You need to avoid shooting at eye level in car photography as it will not create winning photography and will depreciate the brand value. Position the car vertically, which will put a spotlight on the car's features. As previously mentioned, it can be a rear view, side view, or closer view, whatever works for you. I recommend taking all the position shots as it will guide you in selecting the best one in editing.

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Natural lighting in the background 

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Natural lighting works best, especially when you're a beginner in car photography and editing. As I've mentioned, there can be various forms of natural lighting in car photography, and the sun's rays are the best and easy ones to look out for.

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However, other forms of natural lighting can work like magic apart from that, as the small sunlight rays falling on the car in an enclosed area such as in a forest or parking area shown in the below image. It showcases the calmness and power of a perfectly divine car in the beauty of nature. 

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Permission to take pictures‍

Sometimes, it is necessary to take permission to do car photography and editing on private property such as an airport runway, land owners, beaches, and so on. You may even be asked to pay a certain fee to use the property for a while after acquiring permission from the owner. It is necessary to do so to avoid getting in trouble and also for the safety of an unknown property area. 

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Car Photography and Editing Tools :

One of the extraordinary car photos needs the finest car photography and editing skills. Besides, you also need to do the best editing to overcome all the obscure faults and lighting inaccuracies. The best editing can be achieved only with the help of Best Car photography and editing software. Let's check out some of the Top editing software available in the market -

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Editing software 

Editing in car photography can make an average photo look truly stunning, but Photoshop isn't the only option. There are tons of options at the moment you can try your hands on.

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Erase.bg

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Our tool is also used for the background removal process in car photography and editing. You don't need to correct pixels in the editing software, which is a lot more time-consuming process. To avoid this lengthy process, erase.bg tool is used. It adds a white or transparent PNG background to photos—a great alternative to replacing the messy and clustered background in car photography and editing.

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CyberLink PhotoDirector 365 

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Cyberlink 365 is a great photo editing tool, even better than photoshop in some interfaces. It is not complicated software, and even a beginner can grasp it quickly. It has also introduced an AI-powered tool that works seamlessly with the photograph on the board.

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It provides many AI-generated options to make the photograph look even better without requiring a trial and error check. You'll quickly get the hang of it as it is easy to understand and a budget-friendly option compared to all the car photography and editing options in the market.

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inPixio Photo Studio 11 

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inPixio photo editing tool is another excellent and easy option. Also, it has an AI tool with a photo maximizer, sky editing, photo enlarging, and sharpening options. It also includes RAW editing tools to define the picture. A budget-friendly option for a beginner to work on your car photography and editing skills. 

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Luminar Neo 

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Luminar Neo has a simple interface with fast editing capabilities. It also has three AI-powered tools to improve the software's editing. Remove the powerlines tool, Sky renewal, and AI crop tool. 

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Tips for Car photography and Editing 

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1. Adjusting brightness, contrast, and saturation

In photo editing software, adjust the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels that will effectively amplify the car photo image.

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2. Stylizing car photos 

Stylizing means adding red, blue, and green colors to the photo frame manually. Captured Photos even usually lack the curvature and depth of field. So, to enhance the primary colors in the photos stylizing is done for more professional car photography and editing output.

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3. Use presets ‍

It is in one tool and has extensive features in Lightroom. Here, you can adjust many settings, such as basic tone, effects, white balance, and lens corrections. Sky replacement or adjustments - You can change the depth of colors in the sky by vivid adjustments from budget-friendly photo editing software such as CyberLink, inPixio, and luminary.

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4. Remove shadows 

Many times, shadows form in car photos, especially while capturing a close shot. To remove the unwanted shadows, you can use an adjustment brush.

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5. Stop over saturation ‍

The saturation of too many colors can lead to bright colors after the car photography, and the editing process is finalized. It will create an unrealistic image that will make the buyers run away due to unpleasing colors.

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‍6. Landscape car photos 

A polarizing lens works best when shooting a landscape photo to keep the background in focus. It creates a dynamic, uplifting photograph that will grab the audience's attention and will create a high-spirited connection. You need to sharpen the edges in car photography and edit to highlight all the details.

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Once you learn basic car photography and editing tips, you can scale your photography business or your next car photography assignment. Remember to do complete research on the assignment to capture the perfect car photos. So, avoid making a mess in your car with photography and editing tasks.

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Conclusion

Automotive photography is a complex art requiring great precision and care to capture the product in the best light possible. Professional and finest-looking car photography helps to convey the brand's message and power to the customers. It makes the car look desirable in every sense.

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To be a professional car photographer, you must develop the necessary skill sets to get all the brand deals and get ahead in your career. Yes, it will take a lot of trial and error, but you will surely learn as you proceed.