Photos from a moving car.

[Mike Kennedy]

A friend wants me to go on a road trip today. Basically it will be a few drop-offs and pick-ups, no real stops except for gas and coffee. I would like to bring a camera and do some "through the window" photography.
Thought I might bring along one of my P&S cameras loaded with tri-x. Any suggestions ?

Thanks Much,
Mike

 

[Mick Fagan]

Clean the windows, or wind them down!

Mick.

 

[Nige]

aim to take blurry pics, then when they are blurry... you have what you aimed for

 

[reellis67]

Work from the side windows when you can, preferably clean or rolled down. Many windshields are curved and distort the image when viewed through a lens. I often get frustrated bird watching due to my windshield. That is if you don't want the distortion of course... Oh yeah, rain shots on the glass can be kind of cool and they convey the car sense-of-place well.

- Randy

 

[removed account4]

make the camera focus at infinity ( if you can do that ).
farther away will be "static" closest to you will show movement ..

have fun
john

 

[rbarker]

I agree with all of the above, except that sometimes through the windshield tells the story you want.

Also, as noted, the anticipation should be for "fun" photos, not "great" ones - unless you happen to encounter a UFO.

 

[Photo Engineer]

If you shoot through side windows you enhance the blur due to car motion, but if you shoot through the windshield you get distortion from the curvature and you get elements of the dash in the picture.

Whatever you do, don't let the flash go off, and put the camera lens as close to the window as possible, and keep the camera back as parallel to the window as possible.

A lens hood making good contact with the window is a good idea to eliminate all reflection from the glass.

Taking a good picture upside down in a jet plane is easier than taking one from a moving car. Believe me.

Sometimes the blur of motion can be an enhancement to a picture.

PE

 

[Lee Shively]

I did a trip a few years ago and shot quite a few pictures through the windshield--roadside signs, black sky thunderstorms, sunlight reflecting off the highway, oncoming traffic with cloud formations, etc. I didn't print anything larger than 5x8 but the windshield of a 1999 Chevy Tahoe didn't distort things any (except for the bugs splat). The pictures fit pretty nicely into a documentary of the trip.

Shooting out the side windows yielded exactly zero--too much motion blur. Shooting straight on through the windshield was okay. Focus was on infinity the entire time.

I was using a Leica with 50mm lens. My wife was a bit concerned since I was driving and shooting at the same time. That's really worse than talking on the cellphone and driving. I'd suggest you shoot while a passenger only.

 

[keeds]

Hope for a bright day, set reasonable aperture/shutter and set appropriate infinity focus... attached pic was sunny f16 based. 1/1000 @ f8, infinity on f8 scale mark (hp5+), camera held close to front windscreen (i.e. not composed thru finder)

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

My buddy did this while he was driving from MA. to CA. alone.
Kind of dangerous but from what he said, he would take a disposable camera and just hail-mary it without looking at all. Some of his pictures were quite interesting.

 

[argus]

Hope for a bright day, set reasonable aperture/shutter and set appropriate infinity focus... attached pic was sunny f16 based. 1/1000 @ f8, infinity on f8 scale mark (hp5+), camera held close to front windscreen (i.e. not composed thru finder)

That the Pont de Normandie, no?

Years ago, I just stopped the car in the middle of the bridge to make a similar picture.

G

 

[sionnac]

Guess the make, win a prize... attached taken from a car on a bridge.

 

[gnashings]

Guess the make, win a prize... attached taken from a car on a bridge.

A Mk II Jetta?

I shot a few pics from the car - here is what I found:
- blurr canbe really cool if its the right blurr
- unless you can't do it otherwise, or you can use the interior of the car in the composition, roll down the window, lean out if you have to. Polarizer may help, but I doubt it willhelp much as hte outside is brighter than the inside if shooting through the glass
- you can take neat photos of other cars that are moving close to the same speed as you with that "dramatic" blurred background.
- Use a Holga, then it really won't matter

Peter.

PS One more thing - sometimes, you catch the rear-view mirror in the shot, it adds a neat touch to the picture by showing you taking the photo.

 

[Terence]

Panning when shooting out the side window can work well. The subject is in focus and everything else blurs. Just don't try it while you're the driver. Drop your seat back all the way to give you more room to swing when you pan. I've done this with an old aerial camera quite well a few times.

 

[Nige]

actually, I've done this but was using one of those new fang-dangled devices, so I can't show you the results here. I did get some nifty night shots while following cars down the freeway.

 

[keeds]

yep, it's the Pont de Normandie, and the wife was driving...

 

[Photo Engineer]

Panning when shooting out the side window can work well. The subject is in focus and everything else blurs. Just don't try it while you're the driver. Drop your seat back all the way to give you more room to swing when you pan. I've done this with an old aerial camera quite well a few times.

The aerial cameras I worked with moved the film at the film plane at a preset rate depending on altitude and speed. We had a special slide rule for calculating a host of things related to aerial photography in order to make unblurred overlapping stereo pairs.

PE

 

[Schlapp]

Have a look at http://boxesandbellows.blogspot.com/2006/01/whoa.html for photo from a moving car!

 

[gnashings]

Well... was I right about the car?!

 

[PhotoPete]

http://gallerykayafas.com/ has an exhibit of such work right now. Click on "Car Obscura"

 

[Stephanie Brim]

How about an image from a car at a stoplight?

 

[jon koss]

Guess the make, win a prize... attached taken from a car on a bridge.

It's clearly an IM Pei, so fork over!!

j