Two questions for the resident snappers

[LeVeL]

Completely unrelated but I figure this is better than making two separate threads.

1) Shooting on grass (not the kind you smoke )
If a car you're photographing is parked on a lawn, doesn't the green grass throw off the color balance, so to speak? And contrast? I've been thinking about this and then flipped through some Evo issues and noticed that they have almost no shots of cars on grass. Any advice for this situation?
I think such shots would look better if you could turn the saturation of the grass down a bit. Then I looked at some of syf0n's pictures http://www.motographer.net/fqc/ and they all look fantastic. That's my grass-shooting inspiration basically


2) Details
Is it okay to cut small details off, as opposed to either including the whole thing or excluding it completely? This is the best way I can phrase the question right now so here are some examples:


Would it be better to include the entire headlight instead of cutting a part of it off on the left-hand side?


Why not include the tail-light in its entirety?


Why not include a little bit of the wheel well all the way around? Why cut it off at the top?

When shooting I've always assumed that I shouldn't cut things off like that but then I started paying a bit more attention to this in magazines and noticed that they do it all the time, hence a mild state of confusion.

Thanks!

[Cosworth]

1. Don't shoot on grass.


Ever.


2. There is no proper answer to that TBH, every car, every shoot, every focal length, every height and every distance will give you a different answer. You'll soon find out what works and what doesn't.

[LeVeL]

Originally Posted by Cosworth

1. Don't shoot on grass.


Ever.

What if I have no choice? eg going to a car meet/show where everyone is parked on the grass?

[SileNceR]

programs like photoshop, lightroom etc can often let you adjust saturation on a single colour range.

Lightroom is the best for this from what i've played with, and provided the car isn't green, getting rid of the green from the grass is easy... It can tend to make grass look a little dead however which might not be a better solution.

Basically, if you have control of the situation, just don't shoot on grass - if you don't - shoot in RAW and play around later - but there's not much you can do.

[rootrider]

Originally Posted by Cosworth

1. Don't shoot on grass.

Ever.

Originally Posted by Cosworth

2. There is no proper answer to that TBH, every car, every shoot, every focal length, every height and every distance will give you a different answer. You'll soon find out what works and what doesn't.

agree 100%

I actually really like cars on grass if it's done well... and if the car doesn't completely clash with the grass. Some of my favorite shots... both from my camera and from other people.. were done on grass. Maybe I'm completely wrong or just really weird though

I'll agree that it's definitely hard to get the color of grass looking right though. It can show so many different colors at different angles and under different light.. and, iirc, sRGB isn't exactly the best color space for greens either.



notice the difference in color between these two shots:




I think it can be done.. but it's certainly not easy to keep colors consistent. I do like it when it works though

[SileNceR]

It's got to be well cared for grass also. Poorly kept/weedy grass and it gives the car that abandoned look. The primary reason mag shots aren't on grass is that it's pretty much an unwritten rule - in most mags the only time you will see cars on grass is in the reader's rides sections

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally Posted by rootrider

"Never on grass" is a fairly solid guideline, but excellent shots like this blow it out the window. Everything has to be right, but it can be done.

[Cosworth]

Strangely, the only cars I've ever seen look good on grass are Volkswagons, other than that avoid at all costs. You wouldn't photograph a ship on a runway or plane in a harbour ...

Fair enough at shows and stuff it can't be avoided, but I wouldn't be too upset about that, its to be expected. I've always classed photographs from shows and stuff as records of an event rather than for portfolio work ...

[Plarf]

Originally Posted by Cosworth

You wouldn't photograph a ship on a runway ..

something deep inside me wants to see a battleship parked on a runway for a photo shoot with a plane next to it for size comparison...

on the subject of grass...yea don't..unless there is grass on either side of a strip of asphalt and your car is parked on the asphalt hehehe.

[LeVeL]

Ok, I took one of CrazyRussian's photos and played around with it a little bit. Here's what I came up with:

Unedited:


Edited:


What do you think?

[rootrider]

I think it was too washed out to begin with and the white balance and contrast wasn't there to come up with a good shot afterward. The grass just looks weird in your 'after' shot.

But what Cosworth said is correct... this isn't exactly a photoshoot.. it's more like photojournalism. You're taking photos of what's happening rather than setting up a shot that you have control over.

[rootrider]

Originally Posted by Cosworth

Strangely, the only cars I've ever seen look good on grass are Volkswagons, other than that avoid at all costs. You wouldn't photograph a ship on a runway or plane in a harbour ...

Fair enough at shows and stuff it can't be avoided, but I wouldn't be too upset about that, its to be expected. I've always classed photographs from shows and stuff as records of an event rather than for portfolio work ...

agreed...

oddly enough.. I mostly shoot volkswagens