How do I take professional looking pictures of cars?

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Nick

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i have a canon rebel t1i and ive had it for awhile but im trying to start taking pictures of cars, theres a car "crowd" in my town and i want to practice and get good so theyll want me to shoot their cars, this is what ive been doing lately, just playing with the settings and editing them on the computer.

http://tinypic.com/r/11smkav/7

http://tinypic.com/r/bfmbzn/7

I want to be able to do stuff like this

http://www.tangcla.com/photos/vicimportsclub_100115/images/IMG_4473.jpg

http://www.superstreetonline.com/car_wallpapers/import_car_desktop_wallpaper/photo_01.html

What kind of lens, editing, settings, lighting, and anything i need to make superstreet quality pictures?
 
Good lighting. This month issue of Popular Photography discussed that.

Here is their website. The magazine is so new (I received it in the mail yesterday), this article is not on line yet. http://www.popphoto.com/tags/lighting
 
Just one more tip. If you can, wet the pavement under the car totally. It will look better black and a little reflective.
 
The first one is all photoshop. It didn't even have to be a good image to begin with. They took it and made it flat and kind of cartoonish. you can do that with any fair photo of a car.

The second one is a LOT of lighting. There is a LOT that goes into lighting vehicles. HUGE lot. A good, wide prime is ideal. I'd probably use my 28mm to shoot vehicles if this was what I was working on. Lens is a matter of preference, but if you want tack sharp you want a prime.
I am guessing a MINIMUM of 4 to 6 strobe heads of probably 600WPS or higher. You could probably get away with 4 strobes of 300WPS if you are careful, take your time and make sure everything is perfect. And if you aren't shooting on a white backdrop-that takes more light. Preference for lights? I might seriously consider einsteins. Alien Bees are pretty decent and for the price they are much much loved. You could setup using several speedlights, but you are talking just as much in those as you would be with buying decent strobes. It just depends if the portability if the speedlights is more important to you or the power capability of a good strobe head. You can get some knockoff speedlights for pretty cheap. I know Hobby has one he recommends. www.strobist.com. that would definitely keep your costs down.
LARGE softboxes for each strobe/speedlight head. Mounts and stands for each speedlight/strobe head.

Here's a good thread on vehicle lighting: http://photo.net/photography-lighting-equipment-techniques-forum/00Owhh
http://www.cobracountry.com/fototips/
 
make sure you get many different angles of the car. dont make the background too big as it will distract from the car.
 
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