[xxballinboi786]

i just got my canon XTi rebel and i wanna take pics of my e93 but i wanna know how i can make'em look better...

[Inuyasha]

Use a tri-pod.

[LOLrance]

depends what your talking about. Make them sharper when you take the photo, or make them sharper when you already have a picture and you want to sharpen it.

[ejazbmw]

I know what my problem is I can't seem to stop shaking while taking a picture, well that was my excuse in high school to drop the class

[xxballinboi786]

Originally Posted by l4wr3nc3

depends what your talking about. Make them sharper when you take the photo, or make them sharper when you already have a picture and you want to sharpen it.

bothh...and not justt sharp...i want the pictures to look as good as possible...just need some tips!

[LOLrance]

while your taking the photo, crank your f stop WAY up. To compensate, you'll probably have to use a slower shutter speed, but as long as you have a tripod, you wont need to worry about the shutter speed being too slow. (im assuming you have a DSLR)

After you have taken the picture, use some sort of editing program to sharpen it. I dont know what you use, but i use CS2 and a lot of the times, a little Unsharp mask will go a long way.

[S4to335]

Originally Posted by xxballinboi786

i just got my canon XTi rebel and i wanna take pics of my e93 but i wanna know how i can make'em look better...

buy a better camera? read the manual?

[LOLrance]

Originally Posted by S4to335

buy a better camera? read the manual?

i like my xti

[cn555ic]

damn your 16 and your shaking...try some xanax than take the pictures

[xxballinboi786]

Originally Posted by l4wr3nc3

while your taking the photo, crank your f stop WAY up. To compensate, you'll probably have to use a slower shutter speed, but as long as you have a tripod, you wont need to worry about the shutter speed being too slow. (im assuming you have a DSLR)

After you have taken the picture, use some sort of editing program to sharpen it. I dont know what you use, but i use CS2 and a lot of the times, a little Unsharp mask will go a long way.

thankss

[xxballinboi786]

Originally Posted by cn555ic

damn your 16 and your shaking...try some xanax than take the pictures

i havent taken any pictures...im askingg for tips before i do

[julesman]

Plus, when you've got your exposure\focussing\sharpness OK get a graduated ND filter to prevent those crappy shots where the sky is overexposed and the car (especially dark colors) looks underexposed. You've all seen them... You can buy filter kits to plug on the front lens, plus, if you use a graduated tobacco colored filter you can get that "Top Gear" look....

[nhhiep]

Put it in A(aperture) mode and set the Fstop to the smallest # (or 1 step next to the smallest). Now you blur out most background, so your photo will look sharper. Never put it in Auto mode.

Also, somewhere in your menu has an option for you to set to have your picture sharp or soft, ect.. Set it up Sharp. I have a nikon D50, but DSLRs share many same features. XTI is a very good camera, I almost bought it. but it is too small for my hand.

[jimi_hoffa]

Originally Posted by nhhiep

Put it in A(aperture) mode and set the Fstop to the smallest # (or 1 step next to the smallest). Now you blur out most background, so your photo will look sharper. Never put it in Auto mode.

Also, somewhere in your menu has an option for you to set to have your picture sharp or soft, ect.. Set it up Sharp. I have a nikon D50, but DSLRs share many same features. XTI is a very good camera, I almost bought it. but it is too small for my hand.

This is both correct and wrong. You also want to take into consideration the lens that you are using. You can choose to have a a larger or smaller field of view. The above mentioned method will give you a small field of view, just like was said where the foreground is in focus and the background is blurred. If you crank your fstop up to a higher number, depending on the lens, but try F11 or there abouts for a larger field of view with both your foreground and background in focus. Some lenses are just sharper than others too. I am a Nikon guy myself so I don't know all the lens lines from Cannon, but there are certain lenses that Nikon users know that are tack ass sharp. I'm sure there are some Cannon favorites out there as well. Do some research of the available lenses on bhphotovideo.com and adorama.com. Make sure to read user reviews, some crap in there, but you can usually tell the folks that know what they are talking about.

Keep in mind the ability to do the above mentioned method is going to be strictly lens dependent. For example one of my lenses is a 50mm 1.8f lens which means I can drop the fstop all the way down to 1.8, where as another one of my lenses is a 12-24mm f4. The 12-24 only allows you to drop to a minimum of f4, where as the 50mm gives me a aperture ability of 1.8. Check your lens, it should say either on top of the lens or atleast around the ring on the front glass what your MM/Aperture is. With a 3.5-5.6 or something similar you are going to want to shoot wide open at the bottom end of the lenses range to get the lowest aperture possible. The indicated 3.5-5.6 means at say 18mm or whatever the bottom range is for that lenses (for example 18mm-200mm) the lowest aperture you can shoot is 3.5, while zooming all the way in to 200mm is going to only allow 5.6 as the lowest aperture possible.
ANYWAY! in this case you would do better to shoot in strong natural light, with the sun at your back, or close to it, with your aperture cranked to f11 or so and your shutter speed a tad longer. During strong natural light you may find you don't have to worry as much about shutter speed, but at night to achieve great shots on a high aperture (as mentioned above) you will want a tripod or a monopod at the very least to steady yourself from camera shake.

That said I suggest investing a good low to medium or semi high range telephoto that sports Cannon's IS mode (image stabilization) as it will greatly decrease a good deal of camera shake. For the Nikon folk out there the VR(vibration reduction) lenses do the same thing and are terrific.

I really apologize for the novel, just felt like talking shop for a minute I guess.

[Robert]

Wrong section.

[K335i]

Originally Posted by jimi_hoffa

This is both correct and wrong. You also want to take into consideration the lens that you are using. You can choose to have a a larger or smaller field of view. The above mentioned method will give you a small field of view, just like was said where the foreground is in focus and the background is blurred....

I think you mean depth of field. Depth of field depends solely on aperture and focal length. It doesn't matter what type of lens you have, though the quality of the bokeh (the term for the out of focus region) will depend on how nice your physical aperture is, and the nicer lenses tend to have much nicer mechanics in general.

To answer the OP's question, photography is all about light. The most important thing you can do to take better (and sharper) pictures is master the art of exposure. People have dedicated their lives and careers to this, so don't expect to master it overnight. Critical sharpness comes from making sure your lens has the right focal point and having no motion in the scene (this means the subject shouldn't move AND the camera shouldn't move, unless you're looking to shoot motion blur).

I've found that the best way to take photos of my car is to use a tripod to keep the camera steady and to focus on unique compositions. Get the camera down near the ground to make the car look more agressive. Use wide apertures (lower numbered F-stops) to blur out backgrounds and draw attention to the important parts of your photo. Play with long exposures to get interesting lighting effects. The bottom line is that you'll have to experiment with all of these techniques before you find the ones that work for you and that you really like.

[halB]

If you really want to know the physics behind taking a good picture you have to buy a book to read about it or take a course. Modern automatic cameras do a very good job but that only works 80% of the time at best. Unless you understand the physics you will not know how to adjust it or use it properly to suit your needs the other 20% of the time. Some 25 years ago I read a book called The Big Book of Photography and today I am still benefiting from it.

It's like going to BMW Driver Training and learn to make agressive manoeuvres with DSC DTC and ABS all turned off. Once you learnt the physics of it, you can drive much better even with all the devices turned on.

[TurboFan]

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/unsharp.htm

[Neema]

Originally Posted by bobbo

Wrong section.

+1

[Driver72]

Use a slightly slower shutter speed on a tripod and then use a ND filter to bring your F-Stop to about 4.
Most lenses are not as sharp wide open (the lowest number on the F-Stop).
You also don't want to stop down too much either. Using an 11 stop lets in very little light and though you get a deep depth of field, the subject you are photographing won't stand out and again stopping down that much also does not produce the sharpest pics on most lenses.
Stick to the 4-5.6 F-Stop when possible, and again slow down the shutter speed a bit (below 1/60th) if you can use a tripod.

Also invest in at least one higher quality lens. A good mid range zoom will serve you the best.
But prime lenes are sharper in most cases, unless you compare a crappy prime to a high end zoom.
Primes have less glass so a more pure picture can be taken if the glass is of high quality.

Good luck have fun.
You made a good choice going Canon.

[Raz335]

Here's an example of a photo I took with a Canon rebel XTI with the 50MM kit lense, a UV filter, lowest F stop and the exposure set a little past half way. Lighting really is everything. Right after the sun goes down makes for a good light conditions I think.



I like the way the color of the car came out in this one (very natural)

[karliejai]

Originally Posted by Raz335

this pic looks cool if i didnt see you on the right side of the picture!