Car photography is a good hobby for any gearhead. To get the best professional looking photos of sports cars or any vehicle as a matter of fact, you must choose the correct camera settings. These settings usually depend on the scenario or effect that you are trying to achieve with your photo.
This guide below is a quick summary of different camera settings to get you started.
Static/Not Moving Car Photo
To take a picture of a parked car, best recommendation is to control the depth of field. One thing to decide is do you want to focus on the car itself, or showcase the car in an interesting surrounding/environment?The recommendation is to use a wide aperture size (f/5 or lower) to blur out the background if you only want to focus on the card it's self, or use f/8 and up to keep both the car and the background in focus. It is best to always use a low ISO setting to reduce image noise and a quick enough shutter speed to not produce a dark photo. If you are including the environment another option is to use ND (Neutral Density) filters especially on sunny days reduce the chance of overloading the sensor in the camera.
Focusing On Car Details & Features
To take pictures of details up close on a car it is best to use a wide aperture setting of f/2.8, an example is decals or rims. This wide aperture setting gives a blurring effect for parts of your image thar are not in focus, and good sharpness on the detail that’s in focus. Similar to static car shots, it's best to start with low ISO settings to remove image noise but in this case the ISO might need to be stepped up based on lighting conditions. By increasing the ISO setting slightly your pictures will be brighter and less blurry. This increase in ISO is especially important if you are photographing the inside of a car.