Thanks Cano, Rick, TVR/FF and Giles.
Cloth roof of the Gallardo was black - the textile picked up the orange lighting making it seem brown. Was matte black really an option from the factory?
But tell me, where are the pictures of the black 997 behind the white Ferrari? where are the pictures of the Maserati with custom wheels? come on, you bike away to shoot cars! do so!! you just cant let such chances go.
Time. I didn't want to be out all night shooting somewhat mundane cars when I know they'll be there any time I go through the neighborhood. Yes, I realize that calling 997TT's and modified Maseratis makes me jaded, but that night I got bored of counting even F430s - they're chump change up in that area. Grabbing a handful of each photo to get one good frame takes a while, multiply that several times for different angles of the same car, times several cars, times 2 for processing the image after it's been snapped, add 2 seconds per photo for the shutter timer to avoid body movement affecting the sharpness, then add in mistakes for trow-away shots and waiting for traffic (it's a busy area) and you're looking at well over an hour for 6 presentable photos.
Considering I have absolutely zero say in where the car is positioned, the main thing with the three cars I posted is the empty space around them. The Maserati and Porsche 911 were parked up bumper-to-bumper. When it's harder to isolate the car with depth of field at night (again, time), the clear surroundings are what made the shots in all cases.
on the other hand, I saw the biggies posted up there... man, what ISO setting are you using or wtf? they are really heavy on noise! specially the Mercedes. You really should pick up a remote shooter too, it'd serve you well for those night shots.
Again, time. Every shot was pegged at ISO 100, but a combination of long exposures and a CCD that's showing its age at 14,000+ frames, noise still comes through. Post-production rarely helps, as shown in the R8 set from a few weeks ago. I just don't have the time to be out there, bracketing to get the right exposure, then grabbing another set after that of shots to experiment with what produces lower noise. Shooting RAW might change things, and I've got Noise Ninja, but haven't taken it for a whirl yet. If anyone's got any suggestions, I'd like to hear 'em!
As far as the remote shutter, that would only help my back from bending down to press the shutter - I always shoot with a 2 second shutter delay to avoid unwanted movement. Any budging at night is atmospheric and out of my control.
EDIT - eesh those day shots are
really noisy, especially at ISO 100. I'll have to keep an eye on that and work it out as soon as possible. I'm thinking it's the dark levels that when played with really lose value. I'll have to start comparing exposure with what I chose to edit and see what's worth it before and after. Giles also mentioned some programs deal with these alterations better than others. Regardless, it's something that has to be addressed if I want to do anything with my photos other than flickr 'em.
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