Dogs and Cars

RKaiguin

I just purchased my D3200 a few weeks ago, and I am, of course, still getting the hang of things. I purchased Moose's cheat cards (and love them!), but I'm having trouble with a couple aspects of what I usually shoot.

My dogs are some of my main photo subjects, and most photos of them will be/are taken outside. I used the child outdoors cheats to get great close up shots of their faces, and I'm very happy with those. However, I want to get good, clean shots of them in motion. I tried out the sports/fast action tips, and got better photos this weekend than I did last weekend, however, they still look a bit grainy and unclear to me. I am assuming the sports cheat sheet is made up for indoor lighting. Does anyone have any tips on getting clean action photos of dogs outside in the sun?

My other main subjects will be cars - imports and exotics. These will also typically be taken outdoors in the sunlight, and since I typically take the photos at our local Cars & Coffee, the photos will be still shots. I'm not likely to be taking a lot of action shots of cars, but if I do, I'll cross that bridge later. So, alas, I am in search of tips for outdoor car photos, as well.

Thanks!

bruto

If your dog shots are grainy, it's likely that you or the auto ISO is setting your ISO higher than optimal, which is going to be an issue if you have to keep the shutter speed up. It might help if you can practice panning the dogs in motion to try to get them clear at a slower shutter speed. You also must make sure that the auto focus is hitting them right. Try continuous servo and dynamic area to get the best luck in tracking.

For cars you are probably best off experimenting, because light varies so much, but your main enemy is likely to be reflection and glare. If you are using the usual kit lens, unfortunately your best remedy for reflection will be difficult. A polarizing filter can help greatly, but it is dependent on rotation, and cannot be conveniently used with an auto focusing lens whose front element rotates, as the D3200's kit lens does. The primes, such as the 35mm f/1.8 and the 50mm f/1.8 are well suited to a polarizer. With it you can dial out unwanted reflection and glare. But with the rotating element lens it is annoying, because you must finish focusing before you adjust the polarizer, and cannot refocus after. So you will have to readjust the polarizer for every shot.

If you are stuck with reflection, try to find areas that reflect something that is itself interesting - mirroring something, or setting off a point of light that seems like part of the composition. Be careful to keep your viewpoint somewhat oblique so that you and the camera are not what is reflected.

The other thing I've seen in some of the more fetching car shots is that the photographers take fairly radical angles, and often concentrate on small details. If you're stuck with glare, getting close to glaring chrome bits may change it from an annoyance to a feature. Although perspective distortion is a problem in portraits and some things, it can be effective for some others. You might try going to your widest angle, and getting very close, for a different point of view.

Of course one ideal lens for this is one that I can't quite recommend, because it is expensive and utterly manual, and that is the old 35mm f/2.8 perspective control lens from film days. Not only can you put a polarizer on it, but when you shift it sideways, you can stand in front of a mirror and not be in it!

Nikon makes a 24mm shift and tilt lens that meters and has an electronic aperture, but does not auto focus. I can imagine that this would be a great one for the purpose (and many others as well). Unfortunately, it is jaw-droppingly expensive. Rokinon/Samyang makes a cheaper one, which is to say it's only shocking and not heart stopping.

Moose

Hey @RKaiguin - Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new camera! If you don't mind, post a link to a gallery or shoot me an email (support "at" cameratips.com) with a couple sample shots. I'll take a look at the image data and make sure you have everything inputted correctly and offer some advice for getting better results.

As for cars, it looks like @bruto gave you a lot of great advice. A true wide-angle lens, anything between 8-18mm, will give you a really cool perspective of the car. You can get up close to the grill or wheel and still include the entire car in the shot.

RKaiguin

Hey @Moose & @bruto ! Thanks for the warm welcome! I've always really enjoyed photography, but never really had the means to get a good starter camera. Now that I finally have one, I have discovered that the settings are a little overwhelming for a beginner!

I appreciate the tips as well! I had considered panning, but I worry about how steady I can keep it. I may try that out with my tripod this weekend, since it will turn 360 degrees rather smoothly.

As for the car shots, I do have a polarizing filter that I can use, and have used. I didn't realize what kind of trouble it could cause on the D3200. I'll have to play around with it some. I'm hoping to get out to Cars & Coffee again this Saturday to try out some different settings. The previous car shots I've gotten thus far were taken using preset auto modes. However, the extreme angles are some of my favorite shots, and I'm hoping to improve on those.

I do have a Flickr account with some photos uploaded that I would love to get some constructive criticism on.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136518616@N03

bruto

With regard to panning, you can practice freehand if you are tracking something that is moving at a steady speed. It takes a little practice, but when you get it, you can get the moving object at a somewhat slower shutter speed, and blur the background. Panning with a tripod can be a bit difficult to do fast enough. The "pan" function there is more for panoramic shots and convenience than for following movement.

The dogs look pretty good there, and the cars work best when you pull right in close and get low, I think. Try to keep in mind the sort of basic question "what is it about this car that makes it special? What about this car makes me want to trade in my station wagon?". The bathtub Porsche speaks for itself. The sporty ones later in the sequence benefit from the low point of view that emphasizes their aggressive look. Circumstances make it difficult, but anything you can do to de-emphasize distracting backgrounds, onlookers, etc. would likely help.