Los Angeles Photography Help/spots

hawaiianeze · 08-16-2012, 08:31 PM

So I have a project for school to do, I'm located around Westwood/Pacific Palisades/ Santa Monica/ Malibu/ Beverly Hills. Could anyone give me some tips where some good spots are to do a little photo shoot of my car either at night or early morning. I need still and rolling shots please give me a pic or address of the place if possible. Always willing to take a drive though, thanks.
Here's the car, lighting can get hard at times.

HPFREAK · 08-17-2012, 12:56 AM

SPots are hard to find for sure, and you also need to get the right light and know when to be there. Summer time sucks because of all the atmospheric distortion caused by smog and inversion layers from the heat. Summer time light is good around the morning and early afternoon. After that it is far too harsh, then golden hour and just after the sun sets can give you great color in the sky and mountains to use as back drops. It also helps in the city scape shots around building that have all mirrored facades.

Try down by the DWP buidling at night if it is not under construction still. Can be a good back drop for some long exposure shots. Also the disney concert hall at night can be good. Daytime shots you could go through the canyons near malibu park or in the park itself. It takes a lot of driving around and looking. Bridges make some cool shots for rolling pics. Maybe try the bridge down in san pedro. Also long beach by the queen mary can be a good area.

What camera and lenses are you using? For rolling shots like the one you did you really need a car with soft suspension and a smooth road along with a wide lens that allows you to have the shutter down to 1/40-1/60th and get sharp shots still. Play with the F stop as well to get shallow or narrow DOF. They are hard to perfect. I personally have never taken a good one, then again I was trying in my ex GF mini cooper and those things are like riding in a car that has no shocks.lol

hawaiianeze · 08-19-2012, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HPFREAK

SPots are hard to find for sure, and you also need to get the right light and know when to be there. Summer time sucks because of all the atmospheric distortion caused by smog and inversion layers from the heat. Summer time light is good around the morning and early afternoon. After that it is far too harsh, then golden hour and just after the sun sets can give you great color in the sky and mountains to use as back drops. It also helps in the city scape shots around building that have all mirrored facades.

Try down by the DWP buidling at night if it is not under construction still. Can be a good back drop for some long exposure shots. Also the disney concert hall at night can be good. Daytime shots you could go through the canyons near malibu park or in the park itself. It takes a lot of driving around and looking. Bridges make some cool shots for rolling pics. Maybe try the bridge down in san pedro. Also long beach by the queen mary can be a good area.

What camera and lenses are you using? For rolling shots like the one you did you really need a car with soft suspension and a smooth road along with a wide lens that allows you to have the shutter down to 1/40-1/60th and get sharp shots still. Play with the F stop as well to get shallow or narrow DOF. They are hard to perfect. I personally have never taken a good one, then again I was trying in my ex GF mini cooper and those things are like riding in a car that has no shocks.lol

I have to use a 50mm and as for the other car I'm usually in my friends S2000 with the top down. I may do one on the santa monica pier and PCH. As for the rolling shots in the morning when sunrises, what settings do you suggest I use going around 50mph

HPFREAK · 08-19-2012, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawaiianeze

I have to use a 50mm and as for the other car I'm usually in my friends S2000 with the top down. I may do one on the santa monica pier and PCH. As for the rolling shots in the morning when sunrises, what settings do you suggest I use going around 50mph

50mph is a little fast for rolling shots like that. I think most people do it much slower like 20mph and then the shutter speed is around 1/40th-1/60yj usually. Honestly a lot of people go even slower than that and get great results but then again Pro's use mounts on the outside of the car with good suspension and a remote shutter release or lay down in the back of a pickup or SUV shooting out the gate with a harnes on them so they dont fall out. You could get good results shooting by hand and going slow like around 10mph and play with the shutter speeds. If you lens has IS then you can get away with a shutter speed lower than the focal length of your lens. The rule of thumb is you need to be shooting at or above the focal length of your lens to get sharp shots without IS. Most people say to shoot at a shutter speed that is double your focal length so in your case it would be 1/100th shutter speed. It really depends on your hands and technique. An S2000 is not going to give you the ideal platform to shoot from since the suspension is way to stiff unless you are on a very smooth surface.

If you search in google for rolling shoots you will find that some people are doing these great shots at only a few mph. trying to do it at 50mph is asking for blurry pics.

hawaiianeze · 08-19-2012, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HPFREAK

50mph is a little fast for rolling shots like that. I think most people do it much slower like 20mph and then the shutter speed is around 1/40th-1/60yj usually. Honestly a lot of people go even slower than that and get great results but then again Pro's use mounts on the outside of the car with good suspension and a remote shutter release or lay down in the back of a pickup or SUV shooting out the gate with a harnes on them so they dont fall out. You could get good results shooting by hand and going slow like around 10mph and play with the shutter speeds. If you lens has IS then you can get away with a shutter speed lower than the focal length of your lens. The rule of thumb is you need to be shooting at or above the focal length of your lens to get sharp shots without IS. Most people say to shoot at a shutter speed that is double your focal length so in your case it would be 1/100th shutter speed.
If you search in google for rolling shoots you will find that some people are doing these great shots at only a few mph. trying to do it at 50mph is asking for blurry pics.

.
we have done it at 50 with my friends 350z and we have tried it with my car at about 20 or 30. My car came out slightly better, but pch isn't the best place to go that slow. I've also tried panning at like 10 mph but It doesnt come out as well

HPFREAK · 08-19-2012, 05:16 PM

ya you need a smooth road and go slower or else you need the special mounts for the car or be laying down in the back of a truck. Pro's get paid good money for great rolling shots because they spent the money on the equipment. It is pretty hard for a casual shooter to get thos magazine shots hand held while sitting in a sports car. You are using the wrong camera cars. S2000's and 350z's are not going to cut it. They have terrible suspension for it. Then you have to balance the vibration in the car witht the shutter speed so it takes time to nail it down. find some smooth roads to practice on first and look into camera mounts that can go on the door. They are not cheap though. the GoPro cameras are good and cheap but I am not sure they do still shots. It is best to invest in a wider lens so you can use lower shutter speeds. I do not think the pro shots are being done with 50mm lenses. Also if you are using a crop sensor camera you need to remember that the 50mm is not actually 50mm. It is more like n 80mm in crop camera. I dont know what type of DSLR you have but it shoudl have come with a much wider kit lens like an 18-55mm with image stabilizer. Use that instead. at 18mm it is more like a 28mm on a full frame sensor camera so you can use those lower shutter speeds for the wheel blurr but sharp focus on the car itself and blurred background.

eazyefromli · 09-10-2012, 05:24 AM

If you want decent rolling shots, you need to either do high speed smooth highway shots, or very low speed city street shots. The speed really doesn't matter at all. A very fast exposure on a bright day will give you a shot that makes the car look like it's standing still, and a long exposure shot at 5mph will look way too blurry. Shooting rolling shots in the dark is very difficult, but not impossible, even for a novice. It takes a lot of balancing the camera with your hands and compensating for bumps, and definitely shooting a LOT of pictures, as a lot of them will not come out great. Play around with your exposure, ISO, and aperture until you get the results you want. Whatever camera you are using, don't be too discouraged. I've taken/seen some great shots from amateurs with point-and-shoots, and not so great shots from great photographers with 5D's. Use the door to balance yourself and if the road is bumpy, shoot between bumps and take as many pictures as you can.

A few tips:

The deader the place, the better, unless you are looking for a busy city background. It sucks going back to check out your sweet highway rolling shots and realize there's a beat up old camry in the background of every photo.

Be careful of the sun. The sun in the background can blow out the image and cause a lot of glare. The sun behind you can cause some annoying reflections and glare off the car itself.

Again - Take a LOT of photos. You're shooting with digital, so go nuts. Give yourself as much to work with as possible. There's a good chance a lot of your shots will come out blurry, have annoying glare, have annoying cars in the backgrounds, etc. I usually take at LEAST 100 photos in a basic shoot to make sure I end up with a few that are perfect.

This should be obvious: But make sure the car is clean. I've seen way too many shots that would be great, but the car was filthy.

Make sure the driver doesn't look like an asshole - Like the dirty car, so many otherwise great rolling shots are ruined by a driver who looks like an asshole. Cut it out with the leaning back, one hand on the top of the wheel garbage. When was the last time you saw a great rolling shot in a magazine with the driver trying to look gangster.

Be careful - You won't get great shots unless the camera is outside of the car, you don't want mirrors and door frames in the shot. Be sure your strap is on the camera and wrapped around your arm/wrist so if the wind blows it out of your hand it doesn't go disintegrating on the highway. I've watched this happen, and as you can imagine, it sucks.

Also a quick note trying to get a decent shot with the santa monica pier in the background, good luck. I've tried a few times and never was able to get anything decent.

Good luck!

08-16-2012, 08:31 PM	#1
hawaiianeze Major Pain 162 Rep 1,260 Posts Drives: LCI E92 335i Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Los Angeles iTrader: (0)	Los Angeles Photography Help/spots So I have a project for school to do, I'm located around Westwood/Pacific Palisades/ Santa Monica/ Malibu/ Beverly Hills. Could anyone give me some tips where some good spots are to do a little photo shoot of my car either at night or early morning. I need still and rolling shots please give me a pic or address of the place if possible. Always willing to take a drive though, thanks. Here's the car, lighting can get hard at times. __________________
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08-17-2012, 12:56 AM	#2
HPFREAK Lieutenant Colonel 63 Rep 1,884 Posts Drives: C6 ZO6 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Socal iTrader: (8)	SPots are hard to find for sure, and you also need to get the right light and know when to be there. Summer time sucks because of all the atmospheric distortion caused by smog and inversion layers from the heat. Summer time light is good around the morning and early afternoon. After that it is far too harsh, then golden hour and just after the sun sets can give you great color in the sky and mountains to use as back drops. It also helps in the city scape shots around building that have all mirrored facades. Try down by the DWP buidling at night if it is not under construction still. Can be a good back drop for some long exposure shots. Also the disney concert hall at night can be good. Daytime shots you could go through the canyons near malibu park or in the park itself. It takes a lot of driving around and looking. Bridges make some cool shots for rolling pics. Maybe try the bridge down in san pedro. Also long beach by the queen mary can be a good area. What camera and lenses are you using? For rolling shots like the one you did you really need a car with soft suspension and a smooth road along with a wide lens that allows you to have the shutter down to 1/40-1/60th and get sharp shots still. Play with the F stop as well to get shallow or narrow DOF. They are hard to perfect. I personally have never taken a good one, then again I was trying in my ex GF mini cooper and those things are like riding in a car that has no shocks.lol
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08-19-2012, 05:16 PM	#6
HPFREAK Lieutenant Colonel 63 Rep 1,884 Posts Drives: C6 ZO6 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Socal iTrader: (8)	ya you need a smooth road and go slower or else you need the special mounts for the car or be laying down in the back of a truck. Pro's get paid good money for great rolling shots because they spent the money on the equipment. It is pretty hard for a casual shooter to get thos magazine shots hand held while sitting in a sports car. You are using the wrong camera cars. S2000's and 350z's are not going to cut it. They have terrible suspension for it. Then you have to balance the vibration in the car witht the shutter speed so it takes time to nail it down. find some smooth roads to practice on first and look into camera mounts that can go on the door. They are not cheap though. the GoPro cameras are good and cheap but I am not sure they do still shots. It is best to invest in a wider lens so you can use lower shutter speeds. I do not think the pro shots are being done with 50mm lenses. Also if you are using a crop sensor camera you need to remember that the 50mm is not actually 50mm. It is more like n 80mm in crop camera. I dont know what type of DSLR you have but it shoudl have come with a much wider kit lens like an 18-55mm with image stabilizer. Use that instead. at 18mm it is more like a 28mm on a full frame sensor camera so you can use those lower shutter speeds for the wheel blurr but sharp focus on the car itself and blurred background.
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09-10-2012, 05:24 AM	#7
eazyefromli Enlisted Member 2 Rep 33 Posts Drives: 2010 135i Coupe Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Los Angeles, CA iTrader: (0)	If you want decent rolling shots, you need to either do high speed smooth highway shots, or very low speed city street shots. The speed really doesn't matter at all. A very fast exposure on a bright day will give you a shot that makes the car look like it's standing still, and a long exposure shot at 5mph will look way too blurry. Shooting rolling shots in the dark is very difficult, but not impossible, even for a novice. It takes a lot of balancing the camera with your hands and compensating for bumps, and definitely shooting a LOT of pictures, as a lot of them will not come out great. Play around with your exposure, ISO, and aperture until you get the results you want. Whatever camera you are using, don't be too discouraged. I've taken/seen some great shots from amateurs with point-and-shoots, and not so great shots from great photographers with 5D's. Use the door to balance yourself and if the road is bumpy, shoot between bumps and take as many pictures as you can. A few tips: The deader the place, the better, unless you are looking for a busy city background. It sucks going back to check out your sweet highway rolling shots and realize there's a beat up old camry in the background of every photo. Be careful of the sun. The sun in the background can blow out the image and cause a lot of glare. The sun behind you can cause some annoying reflections and glare off the car itself. Again - Take a LOT of photos. You're shooting with digital, so go nuts. Give yourself as much to work with as possible. There's a good chance a lot of your shots will come out blurry, have annoying glare, have annoying cars in the backgrounds, etc. I usually take at LEAST 100 photos in a basic shoot to make sure I end up with a few that are perfect. This should be obvious: But make sure the car is clean. I've seen way too many shots that would be great, but the car was filthy. Make sure the driver doesn't look like an asshole - Like the dirty car, so many otherwise great rolling shots are ruined by a driver who looks like an asshole. Cut it out with the leaning back, one hand on the top of the wheel garbage. When was the last time you saw a great rolling shot in a magazine with the driver trying to look gangster. Be careful - You won't get great shots unless the camera is outside of the car, you don't want mirrors and door frames in the shot. Be sure your strap is on the camera and wrapped around your arm/wrist so if the wind blows it out of your hand it doesn't go disintegrating on the highway. I've watched this happen, and as you can imagine, it sucks. Also a quick note trying to get a decent shot with the santa monica pier in the background, good luck. I've tried a few times and never was able to get anything decent. Good luck!
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