Who does HJ's photography of the cars he road tests ? I like the narrative of his tests, it's often a welcome departure from the stereotyped guff produced by the comics. Much more relevant to the real world. But the photography is often a bit of a disappointment to me. There are some basic errors being made and it wouldn't take much to transform the approach to do the cars more justice. In the XK8 test all of the shots are underexposed by at least one stop, the use of a wide angle lens emphasises the elements nearest the camera, the depth of field is too big, the interior is metered for the exterior. I know he has a big fan club, often keen to express its devotion. Somebody must have a short/medium tele-zoom throw out the background, highlight the subject and emphasise the potential of the car ? And a hand held light meter to measure the incident light. I suspect the manufacturers won't be over enamoured by how some of their cars end up being portrayed. The black XK8, for example, ends up looking very glum indeed.
This is criticism, offered constructively. I shouldn't get barred for it. I'd be happy to help (free) if he ever takes the cars to Scotland (where there are fantastic test routes, by the way.)
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Personally I would prefer some bigger photos. It would obviously increase the bandwidth etc., so I will understand if it's not possible.
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I take them myself with a Canon Ixus 400. I usually have about 5 minutes to do the lot. And what I get depends on weather conditions (the Jetta pix were taken in a snowstorm). The pix cannot be bigger or thumbnailed to increase in size because the site cannot carry larger pictures. 208 Road tests contain 1,248 pix. Remember, this is not a big budget, big money site. No way I'm going to pay a professional to take the pix.
HJ
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You had me fooled. It may not be a big budget, big money site but in almost every respect it looks it. The photography is occasionally the exception to this. As I said, I'll happily do them for you for nothing but I live in Scotland. It would be good to give something back to the site.
Alternatively, on the Ixus take a few examples of each shot you might want to run, metering off different parts of the shot. For example, if you meter off the sky the lower part of the shot will be under exposed. If you meter off the car you will get varying results, depending on the colour and the amount of light being reflected back from it. Certainly zoom in as much as possible, standing further back from the car so that it is still composed as you want it. This will flatten the perspective and make the car look much more purposeful. As a basic rule, fill the frame with the subject.
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Thanks for the tips. I have the camera set to manual 100ASA to give the best average result whether it's taking pix of car in an auction hall (where you have no time because people are constantly walking into frame). It does self-compensate to some extent. The zoom doesn't actually work as well as simply filling the frame with the car because the more zoom the more shake, though I have to zoom in low angle sun to get my own shadow out of the pic. Will try metering off the car, rather then the sky, though.
HJ
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Unless you are unlucky, the zoom facility shouldn't produce camera shake below about 1/125 on that camera. The rule of thumb for avoiding camera shake is to use a shutter speed which is the equivalent of one over the focal length. So if you have zoomed into to (the 35mm equivalent of) 100mm you usually won't produce camera shake at a shutter speed of 1/100 sec or faster. There probably won't be enough light to do this in an auction hall but it'll work fine in most outdoor conditions.
You may feel that life is complicated enough (I know I often do) but there is a legitimate way you could use your thumbnails as links to larger shots without consuming your own bandwidth. All you'd need to do is buy a subscription to one of the digital photo hosting sites. I use Pbase.com, for example, at $25/year. There are plenty others. Your webmaster will know the details but at its simplest all you would have to do is, say, create a folder at the photohost site for each road test and upload the relevant larger images to this, maintaining the file naming convention for ease of management. Then in your right hand panel post your thumbnails as normal but make them hyperlinks to the bigger images at the photohost. Code the links so that they open in a new window (target="_blank") and when they're clicked they will open from the photohost without using up your own bandwidth.
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If zoom is a problem, there are plenty of digital cameras with anti-shake abilities for a fair price these days, and using the function is dead simple. Feel free to drop a message here if you want any recommendations.
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Good point actually, for when HJ is considering an upgrade from the IXUS. The Panasonic Lumix FZ5 is an incredibly versatile little camera with Image Stabilisation and a lulu of a 12 x optical Leica zoom lens for a runout price of £230 inc VAT. Don't bother with its replacement, the dearer FZ7, which adds nothing essential but increases the price considerably.
I've got the whole dual body Canon digital SLRs and studio lighting rig. The wife, on my advice (!), gave me an FZ5 at Christmas and I'm scared by its capability. Outdoors this little camera does almost everything that I used to need to 10Kg of lenses for. I've already stopped travelling with the big rig. Only portraiture really beats it at the moment and I can see that an active algorithmic portrait mode must be just around the corner for digital compacts.
Anyone sad enough to ask can have a URL of an FZ5 gallery I shot in the French Alps in February.
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Many thanks again for your suggestions. But I am happy with the way I do things and do not intend changing anything, at least until the camera breaks.
HJ
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I am very much an amateur when it comes to photoghaphy (my Kodak Brownie box camera does have it's limits) but may I make a suggestion?
How about HJ telling Ubidenmark which vehicle will be the subject of the next test. HJ can take his usual shots but 'Ub' can also do a set by visiting appropriate showroom or by getting an owner to let his car be a 'model'.
HJ then has the option as to which set he uses on site. Try anything once....the proof of the pudding...etc.
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Many thanks for all the proffered help, but there simply is not sufficient time to involve anyone else. At this point I'm going to close the thread.
HJ
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