Pin sharp Focus.
It may sound obvious but making sure your picture is well focused and sharp is of utmost importance. Modern compact digital camera's all have an auto focus facility however there are a few things you can do to help with camera shake.

If you own a tripod or can borrow one use it.
Take the photographs on a bright day. It doesn't have to be sunny in fact a bright slightly over cast day will yield better results than sunny clear skies which cast hard shadows and contrasting levels of light.
Avoid pointing the camera at dark areas on your car (not too bright either). The light meter in the camera will be set to the amount of light coming into the lens and if there is a low level of light the shutter will be set to a slow speed greatly increasing the chance of a blurred picture from camera shake.
If you have manual controls on your camera you can increase the shutter speed and open up the aperture to help with a crisp image. You will lose some depth of field doing this (I.e. the point of focus will be sharp but other areas closer and further from the lens will be blurred) but this can be affective providing you focus on an area of interest on your car.

Good Composition.
There are two rules of thumb for creating eye catching composition. The rule of thirds and leading the eye into a picture. These two aspects create an image which is pleasing to the eye and keep the viewer interested. The better your car looks the more attention it will create. Try to get as much of the car in the image as possible making sure not to cut off the bottom of wheels or a slice of the roof when showing the whole car. You may have a beautiful flowering garden in the background and be tempted to include it in the picture but no matter how good it looks it wont help you sell your car!

Rule of thirds.

As you see with this picture the main subject takes up approximately two thirds of the image. The same can work with the subject in only one third, top or bottom with two thirds of foreground or background.

Leading the eye in.

With this picture the rule of thirds applies and the eye looks first at the spoiler, then is lead into the wheel and continues up to the rear. The line of the doors and perspective give the picture good depth and coupled with correct exposure and pin sharp focus this style of photo presents the car well and keeps the viewer interested.

Correct Exposure
This is one of the most difficult aspects of taking any photograph. The human eye is very good at dealing with high levels of contrast in light so when we look at a dark object on a light background we can in all but extreme cases of light and dark pick out colours with ease.
The light meter on a camera is not as adapted so your composition needs to be looked at to achieve the best results. The picture above shows blue sky which gives off a lot of light compared to the foreground of the car. In this instance a graduated filter was used to balance the light entering the lens. For the most of us this is taking things a little too far so to achieve a balanced exposure you need to try and keep away from heavy contrasts in light.

Over Exposure

Because this car is black and reflecting a low level of light the meter automatically sets accordingly which in turn has over blown the light areas of the image as large quantities of light are coming from the sky and the reflection. The rear bumper is pretty good but over all its a poor photo of the car. Also the lens has produced flare in the bottom left due to direct sunlight travelling into the lens. Flare also occurs when sunlight enters the view finder.

Under Exposure

This time the exposure is correct for the bright sky but the dark foreground made up of the black car is all but lost. Getting the correct exposure here would be made easier by turning the car around and having the sun behind you whilst taking the picture. Try pointing the camera towards the floor eliminating the sky, half press the shutter button and then recompose. This should get the main subject of the picture correctly exposed.

Correct exposure

This is the result of setting the meter by lowering the camera to eliminate the sky whilst half depressing the shutter button then moving back up to recompose. Although the sky is over blown the main subject is now exposed fairly well under these lighting conditions. In this example the best solution would be to park the car with a building in the back ground to give a better overall balance in the lighting.

Choose a better angle or location for balanced light

You can clearly see here the difference in the results. The composition could be better sticking to the rule of thirds however the exposure is good for the main subject giving clear details & some well exposed background. Keeping the sky or bright reflected light out of the frame & having the sun behind help create a better picture with little effort. You will notice also there is no lens flare from this angle.

Following these simple guidelines will greatly increase the quality of your pictures and when all said and done will hold in good stead for all your photography as well as helping your car stand out from the crowd.

If you would like more information regarding photography BetterPhoto.com Info is an excellent resource with 10s of thousands of photos and they provide a free online gallery for your work.

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