Best TIME of the day to shoot a dark color Miata? Need help!

[Phatmiata]

So I just took some photos of my car, at 4PM but the camera is just taking crap photos, the sun seems to bleach out the photos?

I am told that dark colors are THEE hardest colors to shoot, so is there really a good time of day to shoot the car? Should I take the photos in the shade, sun??

The car is a 1995 Merlot Mica (dark purple color) no matter what time of day i try to capture that color it just looks brown on the camera, ugh.

[Ronpc]

So I just took some photos of my car, at 4PM but the camera is just taking crap photos, the sun seems to bleach out the photos?

I am told that dark colors are THEE hardest colors to shoot, so is there really a good time of day to shoot the car? Should I take the photos in the shade, sun??

The car is a 1995 Merlot Mica (dark purple color) no matter what time of day i try to capture that color it just looks brown on the camera, ugh.

this might help, not sure

http://visualphotoguide.com/best-time-of-day-to-take-pictures/

http://blog.muddyboots.org/2008/10/best-time-of-day-to-take-photos.html

[revlimiter]

Sunset:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7208/6778698948_9bca8f4fb2_z.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3168/2605717885_5f0664eda1_z.jpg


Morning:
http://revlimiter.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/DSC_4230_sm.jpg


Noon:
http://revlimiter.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/top1.jpg


Afternoon:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2617/4094652252_71a16c035d_z.jpg


Rainstorm:
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4154/5010638406_8523e6af60_z.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2606/3736452591_6bd413caa0_z.jpg


Midnight under an eclipsed moon:
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5123/5280562739_e0894aa7f7_z.jpg


In an abandoned factory:
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2524/4188337279_b6b6cb1d1b_z.jpg

[revlimiter]

So... the answer is: ANYTIME!

Seriously. You can make any light work for you. It's all in the exposure and how you work the camera. Obviously, it's easier to get deeper colors when you have a nice side-light, but you can expose for any scene. Just frame up your car and hit the shutter. Take a look at the photo and see what you got. If you didn't get much color (paint is too dark), add some exposure compensation (crank the little +/- toward the + direction.) If you got a lot of color in your paint, but your sky is blown out, crank the exposure wheel in the - direction.

They say that sunrise and sunset are the best times. You get side light and you get a lot of color in the sky. Golden hour they call it. And it lasts longer at sunset than sunrise.

They say to never have your light source (the sun in this case) in the frame with your subject.

They say to never shoot at noon.

I say that all of that is bullshit. You can make an excellent photo in any lighting condition. You just have to work for it.

[revlimiter]

One more thing: purple is THE hardest color for a digital camera sensor to capture. This sucks, but I've found it to be true. You have to have your white balance just perfect. Otherwise it'll become dark blue or kinda brown. I shoot enough purple robots to know this pain all too well. Damn Decepticons and their love of purple.

Make sure you're setting your white balance every time to match your conditions. Some guys shoot RAW. I do sometimes, but pretty rarely. I mostly just shoot correctly the first time rather than mucking with the photo days later in Lightroom or Photoshop.

If you have a sunset scene, put the white balance on either Daylight or Cloudy.
Afternoon = daylight
Night under the moon = daylight
Night under a streetlight = incandescent or fluorescent (or a custom white balance if it's a yellow sodium light).
Inside a building = experiment with different settings.

[Dilly]

I say that all of that is bullshit. You can make an excellent photo in any lighting condition. You just have to work for it.

100% agree.

[I<3flippyheadlights]

Damn Decepticons and their love of purple.



This all all I took from everything you said....

But seriously, love all the pictures of Sharka. The eclipsed moon is fantastic

[smaeda]

Randy, Photoshop is your friend. lol

[drv2fst]

I recently read Bryan Peterson's book 'Understanding Exposure' and would recommend it. My photos are technically better because of it.