Question on Lenses for Car Shows / Museums

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Krush-Groove 5

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I've been taking photographs at car shows and indoor museums for several years with few stand-out results. As you'll be all to aware, one of the main difficulties faced is the limited space around stationary subjects compared to their size (especially for American cars). The compromises I currently make are undesired crops or having other cars in the shot (sometimes in front).

I was wondering whether using a wide-angle lens and getting close would allow me to focus the image on the subject.

Any advice and help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
In my limited experience a wider angle lens will maybe get more in the shot depending how you frame it, it wil pull in more to the sides and potentially give distortions, depending on the distance from the subject. A more zoomy lens from a larger distance would tighten the shot up relative to objects/other cars around it I would have thought but obviously this brings other challenges in tight indoor locations and light etc. Sorry if that's not much help..
 
I found a Canon 10-22 made it easier to get photos of cars when there was limited space or crowds, compared to a previous lens which offered 17mm at its widest length. You can get some distortion but it hasn't seemed that bad - just need to watch that you don't cast your own shadow over the car.
 
Thanks for the replies and help guys.

Unfortunately I've tried taking a step back and using a longer focal length but get the subject blocked by other cars. I would still make use of my current lens for taking shots of groups of cars.

My current Sony Alpha lens goes down to 18mm (actually 27mm, if I've got this right) and I've been okay with what little distortion it makes so far.

I think if I go for a wide angle lens, I'd try and get another zoom lens so I have some freedom.

I'd consider trying to get a Minolta AF 11-18mm. Would this give me 16.5mm-27mm? From your experience, would this be wide enough? Is there a wider angle Minolta AF that can still go up to 18mm.

Is it more important to not cast my own shadow on the subject using a wider angle, will it be much more detrimental to the image?

Thanks again.

:)
 
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Outdoor shows seem to be a little easier due to their being more space but at (indoor) museums I just wouldn't worry about getting full car shots. I went to Beaulieu (the national motor museum) last week and everything was really packed into the building to the point you couldn't get a proper look at a lot of the cars let alone take any decent photos.
It was also dim to the point that you'd need a really fast prime (in which case you'll have pretty much no depth of field) or image stabilisation of some sort (though I believe you'll have that as a feature of your body as you're a Sony user) and the light was uneven across even small areas. For example the GT40 had a spotlight aimed at one half of the bonnet so the difference from one side to the other was huge.
I tried to go for detail shots with longer focal lengths instead to minimise how much background would be visible.

If you don't like having other distracting stuff in the frame or having to do undesired crops wide is the opposite of where you want to be going as there'll be a lot more stuff ending up in the background. Longer focal lengths are better for isolating subjects but you're limited by how much you can back away from the subject.
 
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