Hello all. I was wondering what you photographers use for settings when shooting in a sunny day;

Cars and their details
People and their face
Nature

I have a Sony a7III I am familiar with however when I take stills of cars and the image is looking clean, zooming in makes image look blurry.
Also wondering how you take motion stills of vehicles driving on the highway or road speed.

 

thank you for you questions and you are in the right place. Could you post up a few of your photos as examples so we can see exactly what you are looking for help with.

 

If you see the image looks nice but once you start zooming in, for example look at the fleur-de-lis emblem, it is not clear. I have seen images of superb quality images no matter if zoomed or not.

 

Thanks for the example. In regards to cars (specifically) I have a few bits of advice.

First of all you need to decide the type of photo you want. This will include the location, time of day, back ground (and if you want to show the background or blur it out), wide angle for distortion or telephoto for lens compression etc..

Based on the answers to those questions suggestions are going to vary greatly, that said I will give you some (overall tips) that will apply to several scenarios.

Location: Decide if background is important, if not stay away from anything busy that does not add to the shot
Weather: For the most part some cloud cover is going to be more desirable then direct sunlight
Time of day: Look for the golden hours (right before sunrise and sunset)
Camera Exposure: This is varies greatly based on time to day...color of car etc.. Basics just use you Evaluative Metering with no exposure compensation use lowest ISO you can and the fastest shutter (or a tripod).
Aperture: I separated this from shutter and iso as this really depends on the look you are going after and where you are focusing. For the most part you want the entire car sharp so usually around F8 will be a good place to start.
Focal Length: Another subject decision. Wide angle will distort and telephoto will compress. For me (personal opinion) I much prefer Lens Compression as I think it make the car really pop (but again this depends on where you are shooting, space, angle of the car etc...) If possible I usually shoot the car at 85mm
Focus Point: This will depend on the angle of the car, the distance you are from the car, your focal length and lens aperture. The main thing is (for the most part) you want the car in focus. If you are shooting at say f16 the entire car is going to be in focus (for 99% of the time) but if you are shooting at say f2.8 and the car is at an angle and you focus on the very front then the back of the car is going to be soft (out of focus)
Filters: A CPL Filter (especially when the sun is out) can be very useful.

I shoot people mostly so here are a few shots of mine of cars with models/friends/car owners. etc... I will put the EXIF data above each image.

My car: Canon R5 50mm 1.4 prime lens --- 50mm ---- 1/400th ISO 200 at f2.5 ------ (3) Studio Strobes




The first McLaren 765LT in the United States: Canon 55 85mm 1.2 prime lense --- 85mm ---- 1/2000th ISO 50 at f1.2 ----- (3) Studio Strobes




Huracan: Canon R5 50mm 1.4 Prime Lens ----- 50mm ---- 1/200th ISO 250 at f6.3 ---- (4) Studio Strobes




Huracan: Canon RR 135mm 1.8 Prime Lens ----- 135mm ---- 1/200th ISO 100 at f2.0 --- (3) Studio Strobes

 

OMG that McLaren still is AMAZING. The Corvette shot in action is a perfect capture of the model in mid-air. The blue Lamborghini just pops! I will mess around with those settings keeping in mind what you mentioned and mimic those settings to see if I can capture something worth "wallpaper" or even a "print".

I believe I am shooting at a low shutter speed (i think this one was taken at like 1/40th to 1/60th) since I see your shots are all well around 1/200th or more. Are you using a tripod or handheld in these pictures?

 

Thank you Regarding shutter the general rule of thumb (outside of shooting slow shutter on purpose for effect) you want to us pretty much as fast a shutter you can get away with. I have been teaching photography for quite a while now and one of the things I teach my students (...for the most part but there are exceptions to this as well pending on the effect you are going after)....is to look at the light you are given and/or using (meaning adding light) set your ISO first, then aperture (pending on the subject) and then see where the shutter falls and adjust accordingly

For the most part you do not want to be shooting hand held at slower than 1/100th (again there are exceptions though). I usually shoot at 1/200th because I am using studio strobes and that is the max sync speed and the fastest shutter I can just use before going into HSS mode.

 

Good advice/practice. I used this today on a bright sunny day (no clouds in the sky) i went low with ISO (less than 200) and had 1/200th shutter speed and aperture at f8. I am happy with the results. I will post my favorite ones in a few hours. I realized i have to learn how to tweak the focus on the camera (from zone, wide, multi) some shots were difficult to get but I messed around with the ring on the lens that adjusts focus to get a good shot. Maybe adjusting the cameras internal settings on focus will get me better desired results.

 

Another good tip is you can use "Auto Focus" but NOT "Auto Focus Points" ... That is the first thing I tell all of my students to do. When you use "Auto Focus Points" the camera decides on what is important and trys to predict what to focus one, usually with poor results. This is especially important the smaller the f-stop as the depth of field (and focus plane) gets smaller and smaller. A simple remedy for that is to start with change it to where you control the focus points. Select a group right in the middle of the frame and use that for now. Focus on what you want then you can recompose. I think you will have much better results.

 

Here are a few very different types of shots I'm pretty proud of, utilizing the knowledge and tips you gave. 😄

 

Those are very nice and you should be proud. Good composition and exposure, nice work