Burnt highlights - D70

[Maisiemouse]

I've been doing some car photography recently (lucky me) and I'm getting an occasional problem with purple & green burnt out spots, particularly on mid and dark toned cars in bright sunlight - see picture below. For info, I'm using a D70, Nikon 70-300mm G (the cheap one) and a Cokin Polariser with 2 stacked Cokin hoods. All pictures were taken facing North, so the Sun was behind and slightly to one side when this one was shot. The attached picture is a 100% crop, but the green burnt spots are invariably in the dead centre of the frame (give or take a mm or 2.

I'm not using a skylight/UV filter at the moment - would this help? Or is it likely to be the lens causing the problem?

Sean

[MikePL]

In my opinion this is a problem with the lens. The spots on the car logo are normal light reflection spots. The blue cast around chrome elements is chromatic aberration (which occurs in areas of big contrast). The spots on the left side might be lens flare from the severe light reflections that appear on the headlight. Try a better lens, I guess.

[Steve P]

I'll second that. I've always found cars rather difficult as they have lots of smooth surfaces at varying angles. This can be somewhat challenging with light reflection! The sparkle off the VW badge is normal but the blown area is NOT. I to would try a different lens and would also shoot Raw in this situation..

Steve

[Maisiemouse]

Mike/Steve

Thanks - it's what I thought might be the problem, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to go and spend big money on a new lens. Any thoughts on a reasonably fast zoom (70-200 range) at a not too scary price?


Steve - RAW isn't really an option for this work - the finished images are relatively small as they're destined for web use. I'm shooting around 90-100 cars per day and need to upload images at the end of each day, so the RAW conversion would be a pain.

Sean

[Steve P]

Sean, point made on the workflow thing. I too would want to use jpeg's with that kind of volume.

On the lens front I would recomend the now older Nikon 80-200 2.8. You can pick these up on Ebay for under £400 now days and as I own one I can honestly say they are robust, reliable and sharp all the way through!

Tell me, is this a paid venture or for the hell of it? 100 cars sounds like hard work!

Steve

[Maisiemouse]

Steve

I hadn't thought about the Nikon lens (to be honest I usually dismiss them as being too expensive). I'll take a look around and see what turns up.

Yes - it's a paid venture (regular hours, reasonably paid). It allows me to not have to worry about my next booking, while still being able to be called a photographer. It's not difficult, and I'm currently getting a good suntan. Can't be bad eh?

Sean

[sandman]

Sean i'm intrigued now :D
What sort of job requires you to shoot 100-150 cars a day .
You working for autotrader ?
or car auctions ?
Brian

[Maisiemouse]

Brian

The company I'm working for takes used cars (usually ex-hire or ex-lease, all under a year old) and sorts them for sale through main dealers. Each car has a picture attached to it's history record, which accompanies it through to the dealer. Dealers can then put these on their websites/brochures etc.

BTW - 100 cars would be a high figure, it's often around 60 or so per session.

Not exciting I know, but it's a good regular bit of work, and leaves me a lot of free time to chase other more interesting photo jobs without worrying about paying the bills (and I get a hi-vis vest with 'professional photographer' written on the back - priceless!)

Sean

[sandman]

Thanks for the info Sean .
I've got a high vis with Blue circle cement written on the back , :rofl:

Brian

[MikePL]

Sean,

Although the pro Nikon lens might seem a bit expensive, you should look at it from a different point... They do deliver very good quality. The difference is not only in the 2.8 brightness but also in the overall optical quality. If your assginment is permanent, I think you should invest in good optics. At first you will have to do some shootings 'for free' in order to compensate for the lens but in the end you will have some cash and some good optics.