Settings for the car show

[Smititty]

Hey guys. I asked this last year when I was planning on attending the auto show in Chicago but didn't end up going. So I'll ask again this year. What kind of settings would give me good pictures at the auto show. Camera in use will be a Canon Powershot A75.

Thanks in advance.

Smitty

 

[Joves]

Hey guys. I asked this last year when I was planning on attending the auto show in Chicago but didn't end up going. So I'll ask again this year. What kind of settings would give me good pictures at the auto show. Camera in use will be a Canon Powershot A75.

Thanks in advance.

Smitty

Can you customize your white balance on that camera? If so go to your menu and, set the white balance using a 3x5 card. Either white or, light gray. The lighting should be uniform through most convention centers.

 

[Smititty]

Can you customize your white balance on that camera? If so go to your menu and, set the white balance using a 3x5 card. Either white or, light gray. The lighting should be uniform through most convention centers.

Yes it does have custom white balance. Is that the only thing i'd need to change to get decent shots though?

 

[Joves]

Yeah pretty much. Lighting is the one thing that will screw up nice images, in a heart beat.

 

[sulfur_lad]

To illustrate, I think I posted the exact same pictures from the Calgary Auto Show to answer the exact same question last year; they were still in my folder when I went to put in something similar right now. lol

Under daylight balance, the bigass tungsten lights turn everything like this (it was a white car at one point):

clicky

Under Tungsten white balance (matching with the tungsten lamps in the convention center) the lovely STi looks perfectly normal:

clicky

(edit) OH! If you have a tripod, set to ISO100 and use the tripod.

 

[Smititty]

To illustrate, I think I posted the exact same pictures from the Calgary Auto Show to answer the exact same question last year; they were still in my folder when I went to put in something similar right now. lol

Under daylight balance, the bigass tungsten lights turn everything like this (it was a white car at one point):

clicky

Under Tungsten white balance (matching with the tungsten lamps in the convention center) the lovely STi looks perfectly normal:

clicky

(edit) OH! If you have a tripod, set to ISO100 and use the tripod.

Yep, those are the exact pics I remember from last thread. I don't think I want to lug my tripod on the train and throughout the center. I wish I had a tiny monopod that has a nice extension. Anyone know of a good CHEAP monopod?

Oh yea. With setting the custom white balance... I would set it at the car show right? So the camera can see how crappy the lights make whites look and corrects it?

 

[ToiIetDuck]

Oh yea. With setting the custom white balance... I would set it at the car show right? So the camera can see how crappy the lights make whites look and corrects it?

Not quite, try out the settings and see - but all it does is change the balance of the image to compensate for the light source so if you use a Tungsten white balance outdoors you might find the image has a blue hue to it.
If you do get a photo where the white balance has gone wrong then Adobe Photoshop (and i assume cheaper programs too) do a good job of correcting this afterwards.

 

[Bitchnmoan]

I'm not trying to be a smartlec, but if you'd like to use a monopod, couldn't you just keep the legs folded together on your current tripod? Or is your tripod a big bulky beast? I ask because some race tracks specify monopods-only, so I picked up a tripod that is lightweight and pretty easy to carry around and still works fine as a monopod.

 

[Smititty]

Yea my tripod is pretty bulky.

I'll just play around with the setting once I get there.

 

[HorsePunchKid]

If you do get a photo where the white balance has gone wrong then Adobe Photoshop (and i assume cheaper programs too) do a good job of correcting this afterwards.

Indeed. You always want to get the photo looking as good as possible before bringing it into your photo software, but these sorts of things can be decently fixed very trivially. This took all of about three clicks in Photoshop:

Not great, but not terrible. Unfortunately, nothing's going to fix the fact that auto shows like this generally seem to have very harsh, unattractive lighting.