Car Photography at Tempe Town Lake – Mark P.’s Dodge Challenger
Hey everyone! My name is Joshua and I was the photographer who covered this photo shoot for Mark.
My background for this type of work is that I love cars and consider myself a ‘gearhead’. I personally believe it’s important to have someone who is passionate about what they do photography for – so for me I am able to wrap both my interests into one thing.
Zina reached out to me to take photos of her husband’s Dodge Challenger for her anniversary gift to him. After explaining to her the packages MediaSmith offers, Zina picked our Apex Package and a location to do the car photoshoot at.
The type of gear I bring with me to a gig is important and I like to explain to people the ‘surface level knowledge’ of why I bring gear and what it functions for. So, I won’t get into the specifications of my cameras or my lenses, but I will make references to their focal lengths and other, as I like to call it, ‘surface level knowledge’ features in a camera.
The gear I brought with me to this car photoshoot was:
Canon R5
Canon RF 85mm f/2.0
Canon 6D Mark II
Canon EF 16-35mm f/4.0
GoPro Hero 8 (for filming purposes)
Canon 5D Mark III (backup DSLR)
The camera bodies I brought – the Canon R5, Canon 6D Mark II, and Canon 5D Mark III - are all professional camera bodies. They provide high quality content for myself and my clients.
The Canon EOS R5 is paired with the 85mm because I wanted all my shots that were up close to have as much detail as possible.
The Canon 6D Mark III was paired with the 16-35mm because I wanted the convenience of getting wide photos without having to take the 85mm off my R5, putting on the adapter, and then putting on the wide lens onto the R5.
And I always bring a third DSLR as a backup just in case anything happens to my cameras while “on set”.
Before we breakdown the photoshoot, I would just like to remind you all that if you are interested in having your car photographed by a highly trained photographer who has an eye for car photography, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us by clicking this link.
I am going to highlight the main difference between the two cameras I used by showing off two similar pictures that I took during the photoshoot.
This photo was taken on my Canon EOS R5. ISO was 100. Focal length was 85mm. F-Stop was 5.0. Shutter Speed was 1/640s.
This was the first photo I took at the photoshoot. I wanted to get the car in the center as that’s the type of photography (and videography too) that interests me the most. Looking on this now, I see that, with a wider lens, that a lower-third shot could have worked too. However, I am happy with this approach here because it gets the look I want and the car nearly fills the whole frame.
It is also important to highlight that the car almost fills the whole frame. If you’re just starting off, I would say the general rule is to make sure your subject isn’t placed oddly out of frame. There are artistic ways to cut-off your subject and keep them out of frame, but I won’t highlight that on this post.
The edit I’ve done to this picture brightens it up in every aspect – the shadows are increased, we’ve decreased some of the highlights, and we’ve boosted the exposure.
An important thing for me to notate is that I don’t normally edit my pictures like this.
I usually like deep, dark shadows or blacks with regular or slightly increased highlights.
However, one of the most commonly asked requests from me is that the background is seen and all the aspects of the car are seen as well.
So, that request usually makes the photo look like this. It’s still a splendid photo and I just love the way the purple shines, however, that is something that I’d like to highlight before moving onto the next picture.
This photo was taken on my Canon 6D Mark II. ISO was 200. Focal length was 16-35@16mm. F-Stop was f/4. Shutter speed was 1/400s.
This photo here is a bit more representative of the edits I like without being too drastic on the blacks or the shadows.
On this photo, I’ve actually decreased the exposure slightly, decreased the blacks, and then increased the shadows by a whole +100.
You can see the decreased ‘blacks’ at play by looking at the darker areas within the photos. Instead of the whole car looking bright, the part that is bright is the part that’s getting ‘hit’ by the sun.
This is an important photo to highlight – especially when the previous photo was with a ‘tighter’ lens at 85mm.
For those new to photography or for those just trying to familiarize themselves with newer equipment – look at the difference between a much wider lens at 16mm and a tighter lens at 85mm in the previous picture.
From the previous picture, we can see that the amount we see in the background is reduced and what’s important is filling the frame up close.
In comparison, we have this photo that has everything in the background.
A common question asked is, “What’s the best lens for car photography?”
Or, more generally, the question is, “What’s the best lens for _________?”
The answer is what your eye seeks as the photographer.
If you want more of that background – if you want people to really see where you’re at – then you’re going to want a wider shot.
If you want more details and still get a bit of that background, then maybe you’ll want to go with a 50mm.
If you want incredibly detailed shots without too much concern for the background, then you’ll want to seek out a lens that goes 85mm and upward from there.
This is why I always make sure my second body can get focal lengths that my first body cannot.
In this case, I would say that I was much happier with the wider photos than I was with the photos with the 85mm.
We get a lot more of the Tempe Town Lake in the background, we get the bridges seemingly converging onto one spot, and we get to see those buildings in the background too which gives the picture verticality.
In comparison with the first picture I showed, we get a lot more of the car in the frame and less of the surroundings.
So, what matters the most?
Should you have a wider lens for car photography?
Should you have a ‘portrait lens’ for car photography?
Again, it is all dependent on your style and what your client wants from the photoshoot.
For me, it’s simple – I do both and then I let the client pick which photos they like the most.
What do I prefer though?
From the pictures I took that day, I prefer the wider photographs.
The wider photographs beautifully showcase where the car is at and the car itself.
Oh, and the reason why I choose to do both wider photos and tighter photos is because I cannot tell someone else what to like. I do not know their tastes nor will I project my tastes onto them.
As I type this, I am wrapping up this exchange with Zina and her amazing husband, Mark.
Although they’ll get all the pictures from this photoshoot, they picked specific ones that they wanted in black and white – the majority of the pictures they ended up picking for the black and white conversion were the tighter portrait shots and not the wider shots.
I had certainly thought that the wider shots would be the most popular for this shoot since it showed the whole entire lake, however, as I mentioned above, that wasn’t the case!
That just about wraps us up for this blog post on my photo shoot at Tempe Town Lake.
If you’re interested in doing photos at Tempe Town Lake, especially car photo shoots, make sure you get the right permits and/or ask permission from the local park authorities before you go. Be kind and courteous to the folks nearby as well.
I really enjoyed this shoot and I loved working with Zina and Mark. They were absolutely fantastic and I hope to see them again in the future.
Before I wrap this one up completely, I do want to say that if you are at all interested in collaborating with MediaSmith to get photoshoots done on your car, please don’t hesitate to contact us by clicking here.
You will be working with someone who loves cars and will make sure it’s properly taken care of during the duration of the photoshoot.
If you’d like to see more of our work or more of the packages we offer for car photoshoots, go ahead and click here and you’ll be able to see all we offer for car photoshoots.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I hope to collaborate with you soon.