Car – How to Photograph Cars

Enter the best car images of 2017 competition

How to Photograph Cars is launching a brand new car photography competition to find the best images of 2017.

Open to all amateurs of any ages there are two categories that you can enter. ‘Static’ and ‘Action’, one image per category per person.

The overall winner will receive a copy of my Lamborghini: 50 years of the Supercars’ book worth £50 with the runners up in each category receiving a copy of the latest edition of ‘How to Photograph Cars’.

So start editing all your images you took at the race track, car club summer events,classic rallies or motoring festivals . You might get some ideas on how to pick your best photos from this website or the maybe check out the How to Photograph cars YouTube channel .

Your photos don’t have to have been taken on an expensive DSLR , they might have been snatched on your phone or compact camera…just send them them in to win some great prizes.

Image Guidance : Entries should show good use of technique and creativity and be photographed in the calendar year of 2017. Please write a caption for each image including a short sentence about how you took it. Add your full name and address and please list your age if under 18 years old.

The How to Photograph Cars photo competition is only open to UK residents.

Send your entries to info@howtophotographcars.co.uk in jpeg format at no more than 5MB at 72 dpi or 30cms / 850pixels wide by Weds 20th December 2017. Please title your image with your name and which category you wish to enter.i.e: Smith: Action

Winners will be notified by Weds 10th January 2018.

By entering the competition you agree to allow How to Photograph Cars to publicise your images on social media. You will be credited and retain your copyright.

Top 10 places to shoot action at Goodwood Circuit

The hugely enjoyable Goodwood Circuit Revival and Members meetings have become some of the best classic motorsport events in the world. At the Revival meeting I met a photographer who had never been to the circuit before and was faced with the daunting prospect of not wanting to miss anything by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ideally it’s a good idea to walk the circuit to spot the best places to shoot from before the event but if you don’t have time here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

There are many great ways to cover the track at Goodwood but I’m going to pick out by top 10 places to shoot action if you are an accredited photographer. We’ll start at the very beginning, as they say it’s a very good place to start, with 5 places to shoot the start.

This view of the start on the pit straight is hard to get anymore as the Motorsport Association who govern the safety at race meetings have deemed it a ‘Red’ area but you can still shoot it from over the fence .

This view looking across to the clock tower is another option from the same place as the first.

Goodwood-start-w — Goodwood-start-70-200mm f11 1/125th second

Looking the other way towards the control tower panning the camera as the flag drops.

From the roof of the Race Control building, the one with the clock on it, this long lens image flattens the perspective drawing the elements together.

Goodwood start turn 1 -70-300mm f5.6 1/640th second

Looking back down the start straight from the beginning of turn 1, Madgwick, is a dramatic place to shoot the first few laps .A fast shutter speed is essential with the cars coming towards you at over 100mph and jostling for position.

Top 5 tips for photographing at a car show

Get to the car show early or on press day when it is quiet
Use a tripod , higher ASA and longer exposures for greater depth of field and fill in the foreground with flash
Shoot a mixture of single cars and whole stands so your images don’t look too similar
Photograph the info’ board so you can remember what the car is
Ask to remove barriers, stop turntables if necessary to improve the shotToyota 94 C-V Le Mans car at the Autosport Show : 17-40mm f8 1 second
HSCC stand Lola and Gurney Eagle :17-40mm f8 1/2 secondJaguar C -X75 : 17-40mm f5.6 1/5th second