Tips/advice please!

[Snappychap]

Hello all!

Just looking for some basic tips really, tomorrow I'm going to a detailing meet and there will be a couple of nice motors to look at!

Im going to bring my mtl5 and tl5b along with a couple of lenses. Would anyone be able to give me an idea of roughly what settings I should be looking at using in terms of shutter speed, what lens to use, f rating etc?

I've got the choice of a Carl zeiss 135, 2.8 wide angle or the standard 50mm. I've got a couple of rolls of Fujicolor 200 and a couple of rolls of Kodak profoto 100

Majority of shots will be outside in (hopefully) dry daylight/maybe slightly overcast

Any help or tips/advice greatly appreciated!

Snappychap

 

[VirtualAdept]

How long is a bit of string.
I'm afraid without knowing what sort of photos you're after, even advice on the lens to use is difficult. There's no point me saying, for example, use the wide angle if you're going to be a fair distance from it... Likewise using the 135 if you're closeish and want more of the car in shot is also a no no.

It might be worth you looking into the sunny 16 rule, it might give you an idea of what sort of settings you'll want to use given the conditions you're expecting.
Just remember the dof is bigger at higher aperture values... I took some photos of motorbikes wide open and they're fabulously in focus... For half an inch or so before everything else is blurred.

Does the mtl5 not have a meter in the viewfinder?

I think I saw a printable calculator based on the sunny 16 rule, I'll see if I can find it and link to it.

 

[Teflon-Mike]

Most car & bike shows I have ever been to, they are packed pretty close together, so you have to get up close to single out one subject, which suggests wide angles are most useful.

On 35mm Full-Frame 50mm lens is 'standard'; some makers fitted 44 or 55's though which are still conisidered 'standard'. Shorter lenses, 35mm, 28mm, 22mm, are the common 'Wide-angle" lenses. then you get down to 12mm or 8mm Fish-eyes. Going other way, you are into tele-photo's. 90mm, 135mm were common 'portrait' lenses or short tele's, then from 200 up you are into long range tele's.

For a motor-show; I would probably have used only my 28-70 zoom, on the Olympus, or using primes on the Sigma, been using the 29mm wide or 50mm standard. I mighty have got the fish-eye out for fun.

But Shiny things? Polariser, would have been on the front of anything on the camera. Reduce reflections, saturate colour.

And watch your high-lights and shaddows. gets pretty dark under car arches or in vents and grills, or under bonnets, but large expanses of waxed paintwork will reflect a LOT of light, & mid-tones can easily burn out to massed highlights.

Getting creative, I might have used a starburst filter to bleed highlights, or used a centre-spot to de-emphasise cluttered back-grounds.

But subject matter tends towards lower angle shots; which can mean a lot of bright sky in the top of the frame; may have used a grey-grad to tone that down some.

So probably more filter work than lens work, on the subjects. BUT, apart from polariser, I suspect most motor-show shots I have taken have been fairly 'straight'... think my biggest niggle has always been ropes or tapes! (Hand-holding and using tripod to lift rope up a few inches to save it cutting accross the frame, has been done a fair few times!)