Mobsteel Taurus SHO

[LittleMichael]

I believe he is talking about blacking everything behind the grill. The bump core, hose, wiring, etc. I know I posted this tip after realizing I could see some un-wanted things behind the grill.

Cool, thanks. Yeah i was thinking of doing that using rustoleum or something. Is rustoleum a bad choice?

 

[Billm0066]

Thanks for the advice, but i'm not sure what you're talking about on the grill. What am I missing??

Behind the grill and down you will see a thick bar that runs across. I believe it's called a crash bar. It painted the same color as the car. I just took a rattle can of flat black and gave it a nice coat.

I'm a pretty avid photographer myself If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing the HDR for? I honestly don't find them that cool for car photos unless you have a city / night scene background. They also are good for LED lighting schemes.

I would get closer to the car and bring your FSTOP down to where the car is in focus, but the background is blurred. Maybe put it on a tripod around the height of the headleights at an angle off the side of one of the headlights, like maybe 15 ft off? I like your angle. I always use geometry when doing my shots. It's like you were drawing a triangle, and one line goes from the camera to the far headlight, while the other line goes from the camera to the rear of your car. The middle line (where you are shooting), goes to the closer headight, and that would be your straight shot. The farther back you go, the wider the angle. It looks sweet! Also, if you switch sides or reposition the car, you may be able to get the guard rail out of the photo.

Check out this shot. Notice how the bridge is blurred a little in the background. I wanted to try some more shots, but it started raining! I wanted to blur the bridge even more.

I love HDR photos. I have it set on my function button just to see how it would turn out, but I knew it wasnt going to look good with the background. I did a couple more test shots at a local park with a better background, but I wasn't happy with how all of those turned out. The camera has an HDR function built in, and it does a decent job, but it only takes two photos. I think the pros take three and merge them with software.

Basically for this shot, I parked the car, jumped out, and snapped off about 6 really quick pictures and jumped back in my car, all in about 20 seconds. I liked the road, but the spot I chose probably wasn't the best because of the power lines. I was in a hurry because I was afraid of a car coming down the road. I actually live about 30 minutes away from this spot. I had to take photos of a house on the street (for work), but decided to grab some pics.

Amateur wouldn't begin to describe my photography skills. I owned a D40 before my D5100, but I always shot that in automatic mode. With the D5100, I have been using the scenes and special effects dial, but I have also been messing with A, S, and M as well. If I had more time I would have made some adjustments and tried to blur the background a bit. I think that's what the A (aperture) is for right?

Cool, thanks. Yeah i was thinking of doing that using rustoleum or something. Is rustoleum a bad choice?

Rustoleum is probably fine. I just took a generic flat black paint and used that. You are covering paint, so the worst that can happen is the black will chip off. Just cover up the sensor on top of the bar before you paint.

 

[mjhpadi]

All the shots look really nice. I think if you did that bridge shot with a star filter on the lens it would really look awesome, the car in the foreground with all the lights on the bridge in starburst. The star filter isn't very expensive and can really add to photos with lit lighting.

 

[LittleMichael]

Behind the grill and down you will see a thick bar that runs across. I believe it's called a crash bar. It painted the same color as the car. I just took a rattle can of flat black and gave it a nice coat.



I love HDR photos. I have it set on my function button just to see how it would turn out, but I knew it wasnt going to look good with the background. I did a couple more test shots at a local park with a better background, but I wasn't happy with how all of those turned out. The camera has an HDR function built in, and it does a decent job, but it only takes two photos. I think the pros take three and merge them with software.

Basically for this shot, I parked the car, jumped out, and snapped off about 6 really quick pictures and jumped back in my car, all in about 20 seconds. I liked the road, but the spot I chose probably wasn't the best because of the power lines. I was in a hurry because I was afraid of a car coming down the road. I actually live about 30 minutes away from this spot. I had to take photos of a house on the street (for work), but decided to grab some pics.

Amateur wouldn't begin to describe my photography skills. I owned a D40 before my D5100, but I always shot that in automatic mode. With the D5100, I have been using the scenes and special effects dial, but I have also been messing with A, S, and M as well. If I had more time I would have made some adjustments and tried to blur the background a bit. I think that's what the A (aperture) is for right?



Rustoleum is probably fine. I just took a generic flat black paint and used that. You are covering paint, so the worst that can happen is the black will chip off. Just cover up the sensor on top of the bar before you paint.

I started off with the D40x. I moved up to the D90, and now I have the D7000 and the D90 as my backup. The D7000 has HDR built in as well. I love the cameras.

I also started off with just auto mode, then I moved into the dial. I now do everything with manual settings. Metering and exposure locking are important skills to pick up; they make a huge difference. When trying to learn auto made, I did 'A' (aperture) setting first. This allows the camera to figure out the shutter speed. This will allow you to learn how to change the focus length, i.e. making the background blurred vs keeping the entire field in focus.

Some things that make the biggest differences are little (rather cheap) enhancements. You can get a good flash for like 200. Some of the filters are even cheaper. I have a whole slew of nikkor lenses, and my best one is the 28mm-300mm. It's AMAZING, but rather large. I also have the 60mm macro lens. I usually keep on my 18mm-105mm, which is what came with the camera. This is good for most of my shots.


PM me if you have any questions as we are getting off topic here (Sorry Moderators). I love talking photography, and would love to share stories/hints, etc!

 

[LittleMichael]

All the shots look really nice. I think if you did that bridge shot with a star filter on the lens it would really look awesome, the car in the foreground with all the lights on the bridge in starburst. The star filter isn't very expensive and can really add to photos with lit lighting.

I totally agree. I don't have a star filter, it's the one i've been meaning to get. I was in such a hurry b/c a thunderstorm was moving in. I had like 3 mins to take this shot. You should see this bridge at night time!

Here is a good example of ones I took of the bridge at night or near sunset

Once again, Moderators, sorry for going off topic. It seems though that many have just used this thread as a general discussion for the SHO beyond just the mobsteel grill.

 

[Crash712us]

Cool, thanks. Yeah i was thinking of doing that using rustoleum or something. Is rustoleum a bad choice?

no, that will work just us flat black, or black primer.

 

[Crash712us]

Great photo guys, I dabble a bit myself. Which makes me wonder why haven't busted out my D70 and take my car some where and shot some nice pic's of.