My New Rig - 2005 Patrol ST-S

Thanks 2ndLow, yup I am a professional photographer among other things.

But note: each of these shots required about 30mins of photoshop work to look like they do. The images have not been retouched, I've just broken them down into their respective regions and then applied contrast and colour balance etc specifically to each region. That way you get the look that the car ads often use.

Thanks,

Aaron.

Hi Aaron,

I checked your pics and simply assumed they were taken from the Nissan brochure, they looked SO much like the typical car brochure shots. Well done!

Cheers

Captain

Hi Captain,

Do you think Nissan (or any car company) will let my wife and I do their next brochure shoot? I don't think so. They usually like to pay 10's of thousands of $$ with a huge team of art directors and stylists etc etc. And that's before they start paying the photoshop experts hundreds of $$ and hour to do the retouching ;)

We will be shooting some cool stuff in late Jan. though, I'll keep everyone posted once the shoot is done and the photos are on the clients site or brochures.

Thanks,

Aaron.

My wife is driving the Patrol, and this was the first time she had ever driven it, or any large vehicle, and I was hurrying her up 'cause we were starting to lose the light. So I think she struggled to keep it in the lane going around the corners. Lucklily the dam wall we were driving on was deserted!

We did a similar shoot in November for our X-Trail (which sold in 3 days BTW) and she had no trouble keeping that car in the left lane ;)

Hey Jim,

Yeah the shots are pretty good before I start photoshopping them. The main things I do are:

1) Increase the overall contast massively. This makes the car very shiny looking and the background / road etc very dark. Gives the image a lot more punch.

2) Select the sky and darken it massively. This brings out the detail, otherwise it appears almost white, because the sky brightness is probably 5x more than anything else in the image.

3) Select the background - ground areas and darken + increase contrast. Makes the white bits, ie centre white lines, pop or really stand out, while the moutains in the background & road go very dark.

4) Select the car and work the contrast, brightness, colour balance and colour saturation until I get a good mix.

Having said all that, the right sort of image before you start is critical. While doing all the above will improve any photo heaps, it won't make an average photo into a product brochure quality image.

The main issues involved in getting a good shot are:

1) Location - something good behind, infront, around the car.
2) Lighting - the best location is no good at the wrong time of day.
3) Angle - choosing the best car angle for the shot.
4) Composition - framing up the car nicely in the scene.

So there ya go. It all sounds easy, and it not too hard, as long as you find the right location, and shoot with the right lighting. (ie right time of day)

I shot these images with a Kodak SLR/n which is a 14 Megapixel SLR ($6500). It's based on a Nikon body. These shots were taken with a 17-35 f2.8 Nikon lens ($3000) So I have some good gear. But the images I've provided on the web could have been shot with virtually any resolution camera as they're only 800x600 pixels or 0.5 Megapixels.

So to finally answer your question "how good can you expect from 3 or 4 megapixel?" The answer is How good is the photographer taking the images? and How good is the person doing the photoshop work?

Really you can get outstanding results from a 3 or 4 megapixel camera when you know what you are doing, and you don't want to enlarge the image too much. 3 or 4 megapixel images generally won't print past A4 size without losing quality. (This of couse will vary with your viewing distance - ie the further away people will stand to view the image, the bigger you can enlarge it without losing 'apparent' quality.)

Hope that's helpful in some way. Basically if you've got a digital and want to get some good results, then get out there are use the @#@^&&* out of it. You'll soon learn what works and what doesn't.

Aaron,

Thanks for taking the time to provide such detail.

I have a lot to learn.

You have given me something to start with.

Where can one start to learn? Is there a book or a course you would recommend? I'm so impressed with what you have done I need to start improving. I've just got a Canon A75, 3.2 megapixel job, which I have found a little disappointing compared to my old Pentax ME Super SLR 35mm.

From what you say I can make it do better things for me?

Cheers,

Jim.

Jim,

I can't recommend any courses as I've never done one. Most of my learning has been by reading (magazines & books) and then doing. These days most of my reading is done online, but I still purchase heaps of 4wd mags, 'cause I don't know that much about it, and mags have heaps of info. presented logically etc. Often info. on the net is all over the place.

So I'd recommend picking up photo mags and books to read. If you've got a library nearby, you can probably get a mountain of books and mags for free. At least that's how it is on the Gold Coast.

Certainly the little Canon is capable of doing a good job. One of the biggest issues you'll have with a compact digital is the huge depth of field they have. Without getting too technical, because the sensor on compact digitals is soooo small, lenses that produce 'normal' looking photos have massive depth of field. (ie focus from near to far. Digital video cameras have a similar problem, it's one of the things that separates the 'film' look, from the 'video' look) Often you'll want 'selective' focus to highlight your subject. One way to help narrow the depth of field is by shooting at the maximum optical zoom in lower light. (Never use the digital zoom, you're better off cropping later if necessary)

Put some effort into getting good shots with the Canon for a year or 2, and by the time you're wanting to move up to bigger and better things, they'll be giving away digital SLR's for free when you buy compact flash cards. (Well maybe not, but my first digital SLR, the Nikon D1x cost over $12,000 about 3 yrs ago, now the D70 (with same size sensor and most of the same features) costs under $2000.

Once you have mastered the basics of photography (which you seem to know a bit about) and your particular camera, then it's all about light and location.

Let me know how you get on.

Thanks,

Aaron.

Aaron,

I can only say thankyou for your time.

Cheers,

Jim.

No problem Jim,

Now get out there and take more photos.... err you might want to wait 'til morning, 'cause compact digitals are generally not good at night shots. Digital SLR's are often not that much better.

Aaron.

Hi Rob,

Yeah we did OK. RRP on Road for what we got is about $62,000. We paid about $53000. Nissan aren't discounting these babies generally at the moment 'cause they're brand new. Toyota on the other hand are discounting madly to take the wind out of Nissan's sales it looks like to me.

I wouldn't mind a TD cruiser, but another $10,000 was far too much for me. (Assuming the IFS issues are sorted out soon that is ;)

Thanks,

Aaron.

That sounds a very fair price, congrats on your new truck
Cheers Rob