Okay so I've been taking pictures of cars since around this time 2013. I didn't upgrade from my phone to a point-and-shoot until April 2014 and I made do with that until last month when my Canon Rebel SL1 came in. I don't know what it is but I can't seem to get angles that I'm happy with. And I must admit I get jealous when I see some of y'all nail even some of the most basic of car angles. It's like when I see a car that I really like I blank out and don't quite know how to take pictures of it. I can take like 20 pictures of a car and only like about 2 of them and even then they need a lot of editing for me. It's just never come natural to me to position myself right and get the best angles. And for a long time I thought it was the gear. Well I've finally got a decent DSLR and a polarizer and so there's kind of no excuse, I've seen people take way better car photos than me with an iPhone.

I'm learning how to get the exposure right but I still have trouble with angles so got any tips any of you?

Couple things I've learned through trial and error over the years:

Don't shoot at your eye level. Instead, try to shoot at the subject's eye level (in this instance, the headlights or taillights). There is a time and place for pics from your eye level, but they will generally be more generic than something at the subject's eye level.



Alternatively, you could try shooting from above your eye level, as this can make for some unique angles.

Look for elements of the car that stand out. The easiest to spot would be something like front wheels turned in one direction, and these are very simple to capitalize on. Make sure to get some pics from the opposite side of the car that the wheels are pointing to because you want the wheel face to stand out.



Also, try to find something distinctive to implement into the image. It can be something as mundane as an azalea bush, but find creative ways to implement it!



Didn't want to advertise my pics, but I thought they would serve as okay examples.

Additionally, if you're having trouble getting the exposure right, make sure you're keeping an eye on the light meter on your camera (should be implemented in the viewfinder). It will be set up like |- - - - - x+++++| or something like that. You want the light meter to fall right in the middle, so adjust the exposure as needed.

Keep in mind that not every shot someone takes is good. People show thier best work, and of 20 shots only 2 may work out. Sometimes your camera or the setting just WONT give you the shot your looking for. However, here are my tips for getting great pictures, and keep that ratio up:

-Look at Pinterest / Instagram and see what is popular. Try to base your angles based on things online that you like and others do as well.

-Try to shoot away from the sun or source of light so the object is lit.

-Know your camera settings very well. Watch YouTube videos about YOUR camera. This will adjust the lighting accordingly to get the best angles of the car, because every car and setting is different.

-Check the car and its surroundings. If I see a white car, I don't want to take a picture of it next to another white car, try to keep darker backgrounds. The angles of the car is the boarder of its body, so try to contrast it with the outside.

-Similarly, look at lines both in the picture and the car design. These draw the eye and if the car has a sharp pillar or whatever then emphasize that.

-When your editing, do selective editing and sharpen the angles of cars.

A few that haven't been mentioned yet;

You said you have a polarizer but do you really know how to get the perfect angles of rotation with that polarizer? Study based on what kind you have and the clouds really tell you as an easy cheat.

If you shoot moving cars a lot, practice panning a lot. You can practice with the normal cars driving by your house even (if you live in a good area, I almost got shot by a redneck when I took a photo of his truck).

If the car is in a parking lot and someone is next to him, try getting that whole car in the shot too even if it's a normal car. Half cars in the background look weird.

And the ground makes for great stabilization and a cool angle depending on the car.

Also, you said you take about 20 photos per car. There's nothing wrong with taking more than that to get those perfect photos. Experiment with weird angles, items around the car, bright and dark settings, bringing stuff to photograph with the car, etc. When I first got my camera I was taking about 250 photos per car.

And forgot the most important one... RULE OF THIRDS

Most important technique in photography but study it online to really get an understanding. There's more to it than people think.

Thanks guys! There's a lot of great information in here and I'm going to try a lot of it out. In the mean time here's one of the first photos I took with my polarizer:



I edited it in Photoshop Express (can't afford Lightroom atm) and I'm not sure I'm happy with it and maybe the car it a little too tilted. Thoughts?

I already uploaded this photo to IG but I was thinking to make it look better would be to bring the highlights down as well as the temperature and tint (I really hate that purple tint it has) and then up the defog.

Like Sam said, the Rule of Thirds is one of the most important "rules" of photography. Quotes since it doesn't always have to be followed. I try to use it as much as I can, simply because I like how it makes a photo flow; like incorporating the subject and some background to help portray a scene.

Right I was just saying that as an example. I take more than 20 personally

As many others said, implement the rule of thirds, it leads to pretty decent results. I tend to go for a longer focal length (85mm+) but that's my taste, as I don't favor getting up close for shots with minimal focal length but instead shooting at a distance with a decent amount of zoom (thankfully my len's aperture doesn't change when I zoom so shallow depth of field all the way) and that leads me to my second point, shallow depth of field whenever possible. It makes the subject pop with the strong background blur. And my third point is I try to implement as minimal ground as possible, and focus my background and foreground more on the subject and the sky and background above it, rather than have the subject be dead center with lots of ground (which I crop out) and little sky so to speak, so basically more focus on the subject and upper half of the image and leave out as much bottom half as possible.

Try light painting! It will totally set your pictures apart from the status quo! If you aren't sure how this works, I put together a little automotive light painting tutorial :)

How to Lightpaint

Lightpainting is great

Light painting is awesome but honestly I wouldn't recommend someone attempt it until after the other skills are perfected. It's something where if done right the photos will be way better than anyone else's but if done wrong and you do that before the normal photos and the owner drives off too soon, you have none to post of that car. Even with time sometimes all the photos can be useless.

That's just me though.