Today’s Post by Joe Farace
TIP: Ask owners to remove any placards that are placed under their windshield (windscreen if British) wipers.
One of these days to be car show season again, although the monthly Vehicle Vault Cars & Coffee events continue through these Winter months. While Cliff and I have put our video series on hold, I am going to try to attend to shoot either one of my new film cameras or one of my new wide-angle lenses.
If you get to any show early and you should placards may not have already been placed under the windshield (windscreen if you’re British) wiper and the added benefit to being an early bird is that it’s also less crowded so people won’t walk into your shots. Most owners can talk for hours about their cars because there never was a restoration project that didn’t have some interesting twists and turns. While chatting ask them to also temporarily remove any show placards placed on the dash or under the windshield wiper. Don’t do it yourself! Always ask the owner before touching any part of his or her car! It’s best to have them to remove any show placards, so ask politely
This Nissan-powered hot rod (above) was photographed at the SEMA auto show in Las Vegas—with the hood up! (Sometimes you can’t always get what you want.) Exposure with a Canon EOS 5D was 1/40 sec at f/4.0 and ISO 800.
You don’t have to be an expert on a particular marque or even cars in general, but you should be curious and polite when inspecting a car that might make an ideal photographic subject. If you see the owner, ask them a question. People who own interesting cars often have interesting stories to tell about their cars before it reaches the state where you would want to photograph it. If the owner is not around and the light is perfect, just shoot it as it is and try to select and angle that minimizes the placard or makes it easy to remove using Photoshop later in the digital darkroom.
This Allard above was captured using a Canon EOS D30 that had been converted to infrared-only capture by LifePixel. Exposure through an eBay purchased Russian-made 16mm f/2.8 lens was 1/160 AT F/16 and ISO 200 in Av mode.
I’ve found that Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and they have done most of my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix G-series mirrorless cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.
My book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography is available from Amazon for $41.99 but used copies starting around nineteen bucks as I write this. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available from Amazon for $25.40 with used copies start around two bucks, less than your next cup of joe at Starbucks.