# How to take perfect pictures of cars: (Help needed)



## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

O.k. I currently have a cannon ixus 75 quite a decent little camera yet I still seem to be able to take better pictures with my mobile phone, even when using a tripod I always seem to suffer with blurry pictures. I am told by my sister who is a graphic designer and is pretty handy herself at taking pics, that the trouble I am having is with aperture setting on the camera and the field of depth. Now I don’t claim to know to much about digital cameras hence the reason for this thread, but I have played about with different settings on the camera with little success and I am not even sure if the aperture can be adjusted on this camera. So I now usually just leave to camera on auto but I am getting so frustrated with the quality of pictures I achieve. I seem to have to take hundreds of pics just to end up with a few decent ones that I can actually use.

When I take a picture of a car from an angle say from front to back, the front part of the car will look fine but the picture becomes more out of focus towards the rear end of the car and looks blurry:wall:

Is there a setting which will help me eliminate this problem? 

Or would a new camera help?


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## snoop69 (Jun 16, 2007)

Tripod & 10sec timer to help avoid blurry shots.


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

snoop69 said:


> Tripod & 10sec timer to help avoid blurry shots.


I already use a tripod and timer.....


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## snoop69 (Jun 16, 2007)

Any examples?

Have you tried shot comparisons?

I would try taking a shot quiet close with no or little zoom & then
another shot from further away using the zoom.


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## Gary-360 (Apr 26, 2008)

If it's sharp at the front, then it's probably your aperture setting, if you have a manual setting, set the Aperture to a minimum of f8 (or higher if lighting permits) and try again. The higher the f number, the smaller the aperture, the sharper the whole image. Less light will be available to your sensor so a slower shutter speed will be required to compensate.

Hope this helps, Gary


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## Jakedoodles (Jan 16, 2006)

It's the ixus. It's crap. Really. I had one for a week and sold it at a massive loss. They are good for taking pics of people, but not cars. The two just don't go hand in hand. If someone can post some car pics they've taken with an ixus, and they have managed to get really good shots, I take my hat off to them, cos I never could.


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## joe_0_1 (Apr 7, 2007)

You don't have macro on do you? I know you say it's auto, but there's a setting for macro on auto mode?

May sound silly, but possible?


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## Gary-360 (Apr 26, 2008)

I've just downloaded the user manual for the Ixus.

there is a Manual setting which allows aperture compensation changes, this is worth a try.
Also, try the "Infinity" setting (looks like a mountain), this is used for scenic images but will give better focusing through the range.

Gary


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## richjohnhughes (Sep 24, 2007)

try the pre set for landscape (prob a pic of a mountain) this should make the aperture as small as possible for the lighting. 

its going to be hard to get right unless you have a slr.


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## richjohnhughes (Sep 24, 2007)

Gary-360 said:


> I've just downloaded the user manual for the Ixus.
> 
> there is a Manual setting which allows aperture compensation changes, this is worth a try.
> Also, try the "Infinity" setting (looks like a mountain), this is used for scenic images but will give better focusing through the range.
> ...


ha - beat me to it. :thumb:


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## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

Just as you are going to take the shot can you press the button half down and it will focus!!

If it does place the tripod down with the camera aim halfway down the side of the car and press half down on the button to focus then while your finger is still half down pan back to the original place for taking the picture and take the picture. This way it allows you to focus on a mid section of the car so you get the best outcome.

Not the best scenerio but try it and see a pro photographer showed me that once.:thumb:


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Gary-360 said:


> I've just downloaded the user manual for the Ixus.
> 
> there is a Manual setting which allows aperture compensation changes, this is worth a try.
> Also, try the "Infinity" setting (looks like a mountain), this is used for scenic images but will give better focusing through the range.
> ...


Cheers Gary sounds like you know what your talking about I will have another look at it and try to play about with the apeture setting and infinity.:thumb:


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Wonderdetail said:


> It's the ixus. It's crap. Really. I had one for a week and sold it at a massive loss. They are good for taking pics of people, but not cars. The two just don't go hand in hand. If someone can post some car pics they've taken with an ixus, and they have managed to get really good shots, I take my hat off to them, cos I never could.


Just out of interest which camera do you have now?


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## Gary-360 (Apr 26, 2008)

Perfection Detailing said:


> Cheers Gary sounds like you know what your talking about I will have another look at it and try to play about with the apeture setting and infinity.:thumb:


Nae problem, let us know how you get on :thumb:


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

the tiny sensors on these compact cameras (I have an Ixus 860is as well as my 5D) means there is NO WAY you can get low depth of field when taking pics from a reasonable distance of a car etc. Its the laws of physics at play, as one fundamental issue with these sensors is that they automatically create a huge depth of field - large area from front to back in focus. Only in macro situations with the subject extremely close to the lens, will you even get close to a shallow depth of field...

Its also not an issue with all Ixus cameras - they're Canon's core range, so not crap. The following is an Ixus pic from the 250 I took while doing the Veyron, so tell me all Ixus cameras are crap - taken in near darkness, underground handheld :lol: Also notice the fact that even in low light, with the camera at a wide open aperture setting, the background, about 30 feet away, is still very clear and pretty much in focus...










You _may_ have a problem with the camera, which is not beyond the realms of possibility, you may have the settings wrong eg set to macro or manual focus somehow, but even then its hard to see what you get such focus issues. Could well be camera shake of some kind - even some tripods might be a problem.

Can you post an example of a picture for us to see please.


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Bigpikle said:


> the tiny sensors on these compact cameras (I have an Ixus 860is as well as my 5D) means there is NO WAY you can get low depth of field when taking pics from a reasonable distance of a car etc. Its the laws of physics at play, as one fundamental issue with these sensors is that they automatically create a huge depth of field - large area from front to back in focus. Only in macro situations with the subject extremely close to the lens, will you even get close to a shallow depth of field...
> 
> Its also not an issue with all Ixus cameras - they're Canon's core range, so not crap. The following is an Ixus pic from the 250 I took while doing the Veyron, so tell me all Ixus cameras are crap - taken in near darkness, underground handheld :lol: Also notice the fact that even in low light, with the camera at a wide open aperture setting, the background, about 30 feet away, is still very clear and pretty much in focus...
> 
> ...


Unfortunaley I dont have anything on my camera at the moment to give as an example, but one thing I will say is that light coloured cars such as silver I dont seem to have any issues with. But black or dark cars seem to cause me more problems.


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

Perfection Detailing said:


> Unfortunaley I dont have anything on my camera at the moment to give as an example, but one thing I will say is that light coloured cars such as silver I dont seem to have any issues with. But black or dark cars seem to cause me more problems.


what sort of problems?

1. cameras need contrast to focus - so if you have a large expanse of one colour, it wont find anything to use to focus. That usually means it wont let you take a pic at all though....

2. is it making the balck look washed out and possibly a bit grey? Cameras still dont do a great job of scenes where the average tone isnt quite grey - eg when there is loads of very dark or bright, like snow/sea/sunny sand or sky etc. Black cars are the opposite and cause lots of issues as well.

Get some more pics and post them up - that will help us


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## bretti_kivi (Apr 22, 2008)

also, if you set the tripod up further away and zoom in, it will help increase the amount of car that's in focus (i.e. your depth of field).

Bret


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## Jakedoodles (Jan 16, 2006)

Perfection Detailing said:


> Just out of interest which camera do you have now?


Fuji F40. It's tip top. Took these the other night (Suz's friends wedding):

http://gallery.me.com/paul.reed.mail#100016&bgcolor=black&view=grid


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Wonderdetail said:


> Fuji F40. It's tip top. Took these the other night (Suz's friends wedding):
> 
> http://gallery.me.com/paul.reed.mail#100016&bgcolor=black&view=grid


Pics look good, I have just been reading some reviews about the ixus 75 and they all say the camera is great for taking pictures of people but thats about it. So what you say may be right.

I have changed a few settings now I actually did have it on manual focus so that most prob hasnt been helping

I will take some pics tommorow to see if it has made much difference or not...


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