[ELD4AU6]

I still think the GTR is ugly.


Sti on the other hand has grown on me. I like it a lot now.

Nice photography

[evilSTi7]

Pics look good Ben! I guess that means your dad is getting rid of the Lotus Cup then?

[Hitman83]

That GT-r is just plain sexy. Awesome pics, thanks for posting

[RFFG]

Wow...

Thanks for posting Ben, awesome shots...

[VSGTS14]

the gtr looks soo good.
and the new sti in wrb looks awesome, i want the gray color but damn..that blue..

[Ben]

Originally Posted by evilSTi7

Pics look good Ben! I guess that means your dad is getting rid of the Lotus Cup then?

Out with the Cup 255 in with the 2 Eleven.


Thanks to rest of you for your comments! I'm glad you enjoyed the pics.

[evilSTi7]

Originally Posted by Ben

Out with the Cup 255 in with the 2 Eleven.


Thanks to rest of you for your comments! I'm glad you enjoyed the pics.

Sweet! Now we just need the 430 scuderia!

[Ben]

Originally Posted by evilSTi7

Sweet! Now we just need the 430 scuderia!

I think he's done with the Ferraris. He's a Lotus man now. It's really funny actually, as soon as he got his first Elise and took it to the track 2-3 years ago he pretty much lost interest in any other types of cars. The progression has been pretty good too:

2005 Elise -> 2006 Exige -> 2006 Cup 240 -> 2007 Cup 255 -> 2008 2 Eleven

[evilSTi7]

Originally Posted by Ben

I think he's done with the Ferraris. He's a Lotus man now. It's really funny actually, as soon as he got his first Elise and took it to the track 2-3 years ago he pretty much lost interest in any other types of cars. The progression has been pretty good too:

2005 Elise -> 2006 Exige -> 2006 Cup 240 -> 2007 Cup 255 -> 2008 2 Eleven

Yea, that is pretty good. Was your dad at Streets of Willow that week i was in LA? When i was leaving i saw a white f-150 with a lotus on the exact same type of trailer you had.

[xlsupreme]

Ben, great pictures. Thanks for posting them! You mind telling us neophyte photographers what lenses and setups you used? long shutter and low aperture? iso 200? i'm really interested in learning to shoot better.

[ec2k1gt]

OMG the gtr looks so sick in those pics. Cant wait till the show rolls through Chicago.

[Colombia28]

Great shots! Thanks for sharing them.

[V8Huntr]

Holy crap they finally changed the dead pedal!!! Why couldn't they have done that on an STi that I didn't hate!

[sneekyseven]

Originally Posted by V8Huntr

Holy crap they finally changed the dead pedal!!! Why couldn't they have done that on an STi that I didn't hate!

I've seen that one alot, an identical one was offered from somewhere... And while I'm posting in this thread let me say the Lotus is awesome! Get some action videos from your dad when it arrives please

[Ben]

Originally Posted by evilSTi7

Yea, that is pretty good. Was your dad at Streets of Willow that week i was in LA? When i was leaving i saw a white f-150 with a lotus on the exact same type of trailer you had.

I believe he was, yes. He's at Willow Springs or Buttonwillow about 4 times a month so chances are it was him.

Originally Posted by xlsupreme

Ben, great pictures. Thanks for posting them! You mind telling us neophyte photographers what lenses and setups you used? long shutter and low aperture? iso 200? i'm really interested in learning to shoot better.

Sure thing. I love helping out whenever I can .

The lenses I used for the show were the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS, and Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/2.8. Almost all of the pictures were taken with the 17-55, only a few (like the interior shot) were done with the 10-22.

All of my pictures have the full EXIF data showing on my gallery. If the focal length is below 17mm the picture was taken with the 10-22, otherwise it was taken with the 17-55. You can see these pictures at:

2007 LA Auto Show

You'll see that most of the pictures were taken at around f/5, 1/60, ISO 200.

When choosing the aperture you want to consider how much depth of field you need / want. In this case I chose around f/5 so that the entire car would be in focus. Something like f/2.8 would have blurred the background better but would have blurred half of the car on the 3/4 shots. f/2.8 would have been fine for a side profile, but for anything else, f/5 was needed to get the whole car in focus (more depth of field). Rather than switching apertures a lot I was lazy and just left it at f/5.

I'll never take a picture above ISO 400, but ideally I try to take all of my pictures at ISO 100. I could have used ISO 100 here, but they'd have to be at 1/30 and while that is still hand-holdable (I can hand-hold 1/4 with decent results even), I was too lazy to deal with 1/30 that day. I'd rather shoot at 1/60 ISO 200 and never have to worry about a blurry shot since I was just running through the show and taking pictures quickly. Also, a lot of the cars were spinning on a platform so you have to take motion blur in to account as well.

Selecting the correct settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, etc) becomes second nature as time goes on. I don't think about it anymore. However, if/when you do think about it, this is how I would approach it:

Figure out what is most important to you:
1)Shutter speed: Is the subject moving? Do you want to stop the action or do you want to see motion blur? If so, shutter speed is most important to you.
2)Aperture: Is the background distracting? Do you need to isolate your subject? Are you shooting a landscape? Do you need A LOT of detail? If so, aperture is most important to you.

Once you figure out what is most important, you can then play with the remaining settings to properly expose your shot.

If shutter speed is most important, set the shutter speed first. Next, select an acceptable aperture. With those settings, can the shot be properly exposed with ISO 100? ISO 200? If you need to bump your ISO to 400 or higher, you might re-evaluate your aperture in this case. Will you still be satisfied with this picture with less depth of field (a bigger aperture)? If so, you can open up your aperture to let in more light, allowing you to use a lower ISO.

If aperture is most important, set the aperture first. Do you need a lot of detail in your picture? Set a small (bigger number) aperture. Is your background distracting? Do you want to isolate your subject? Set a big (smaller number) aperture. Next, select an acceptable shutter speed. Just like in the previous example, can this shot be properly exposed with a low ISO? If not, can you reduce your shutter speed to let in more light? If your subject isn't moving and you have a steady hand, the answer would be yes. However, it's never a good idea to reduce your shutter speed to the point where you're risking taking a blurry picture. A little ISO noise is a lot better than a useless blurry picture, so play it safe.

Finding the balance between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, as well as knowing which of those settings is most important to you, is the key to taking a good picture. Now, obviously, you need some compositional skills to go along with your perfect camera settings, but you get the idea.

Once you're taking pictures with the correct settings, the next important thing is post-processing. Little things can make a huge difference. To start, the most important change you can make (if you're not already doing so) is shooting in RAW. One of the main reasons to use a digital SLR is for the RAW format, so unless you just don't have time for post-processing your pictures, shooting in JPEG is a waste.

Taking pictures in RAW opens up a whole new world of options when it comes to editing your pictures. Quite frankly, a picture is rarely "perfect" straight off the camera. 99.9% of all the pictures you take can be made better with some simple post-processing. The RAW format allows you to make these changes without reducing the quality of your picture.

Here are just a few simple things you can do to make any picture better:

1) Exposure: Was the exposure perfect? Maybe you wish it could be a TOUCH brighter or darker. Just slide the exposure bar.
2) White Balance: Is the picture too warm or too cool? Again, just move the slider.
3) Contrast: A vast majority of pictures can benefit from a little boost in contrast. Don't go overboard here, but just a bit of extra contrast can make a big difference.
4) Clarity: This is a new setting in Photoshop CS3, but it can make a big difference as well. Again, don't go overboard because a small boost can make a big difference, but a big boost can make your picture look over-processed or "fake."
5) Smart Sharpening: Most pictures aren't perfectly sharp. Running a smart sharpen filter with settings somewhere near 100% @ 1.0 pixels can make a huge difference. This can be the difference between a "good" picture and a picture that makes people say "wow."


That's probably 10 times more info that you wanted, but I'll probably take some of what I just wrote and make a newbie guide for the photography forum or something. Anyway, if you have any more questions feel free to post here or PM me.