Automotive photography: camera settings

Written By Khalil Bahaji

Mastering camera settings is crucial for capturing stunning images in automotive photography. The right settings can help you achieve the desired exposure, sharpness, and creative effects in your shots. Here’s a detailed look at key camera settings and how to use them effectively.

The Settings:

1. Choosing the Right Mode

  • Manual Mode perfect for making manual adjustments for lighting and movement.

  • Aperture Priority helps adjust depth of field while automatically selecting a suitable shutter speed.

Manual mode offers the freedom and flexibility to control exposure settings—aperture, shutter speed, and ISO—enabling you to adapt to varying lighting conditions and achieve your creative vision without relying on automatic adjustments.

2. Aperture: Depth and Detail

  • F/2.8 to F/4 – Isolate details, soft background, great for close-ups.

  • F/4 to F/6 – Allows you to capture the interior while keeping most of the cabin in focus.

  • F/8 to F/11 – Ideal for entire vehicle with clear details, slight background blur.

  • F/16+ – Wide-angle or group shots with sharp focus from front to back.

As you increase the aperture (moving to higher f-stop values like f/8, f/11, or even higher), you’re effectively reducing the amount of light entering the camera. This can be challenging for automotive photography, particularly for interiors, because dim lighting is often already an issue. 

To compensate you will likely need to use a flash or continuous light, lower shutter speed (tripod likely needed), and, or increase the ISO which comes at the cost of increased digital noise.

A higher aperture (e.g., f/8 or f/11) reduces the size of the lens opening, allowing less light to enter and increasing the depth of field for sharper background details.

A lower aperture (e.g., f/2.8 or f/4) creates a wider opening, allowing more light in and producing a shallower depth of field that blurs the background and emphasizes the subject.

3. Shutter Speed: Freezing Motion or Adding Blur

  • 1/500s or faster – Sharp, frozen shots of moving cars or motorcycles.

  • 1/15s to 1/250s – Panning shots to blur the background and capture movement. The faster the object, the higher the shutter speed. The slower the shutter speed, the more blurred the background will be. Going lower than 1/15s, it will become very hard to get the whole car in focus. 

    Additionally, you might need to use ND filters if you’re shooting in bright conditions. This is because the lower the shutter speed, the longer the sensor is exposed to light, which means your picture will turn out overexposed, if you don’t have an ND filter (AKA “sunglasses for your camera”) on, or use a higher aperture. See example below.

  • If you’re NOT doing panning shots and shooting in low light conditions, then consider using a tripod to avoid motion blur.

Panning shot of a Hyundai crossover @ 1/15s.

Handheld. F/14. Without ND Filter.

4. ISO: Keeping Noise Under Control

  • ISO 100-400 – Daylight shooting with clear detail and minimal noise.

  • ISO 800-1600 – Low-light shots; minimal noise with modern cameras.

  • ISO 3200+ – Use only if absolutely necessary to avoid digital noise.

5. White Balance: Keeping Colors True

  • Daylight (5500K) – Bright outdoor shots.

  • Cloudy (6000K-6500K) – Adds warmth on overcast days.

  • Tungsten (3200K) – Great for neutralizing warm indoor lighting.

  • Custom or Auto White Balance – Mixed lighting accuracy, or shoot in AWB and RAW for post-edit adjustments.

6. Focus Mode: Staying Sharp

  • Single-Point AF – Focuses on specific car details.

  • Single AF (AF-S or One-Shot) – Stationary vehicles or close-up details.

  • Continuous AF (AF-C or AI-Servo) – Moving vehicles, maintains focus dynamically.

  • Manual Focus – For difficult scenes where autofocus may struggle.

7. Metering Mode: Controlling Exposure

  • Evaluative/Matrix Metering – Balances exposure for the entire frame.

  • Center-Weighted Metering – Focused exposure around the center, useful for full-frame vehicle shots.

  • Spot Metering – Ideal for high-contrast shots to expose specific areas.

8. Final Tip: Use RAW Format

  • RAW captures the full range of detail and allows for more flexible editing. Adjust exposure, white balance, and sharpness without sacrificing image quality.

Summary

  • Mode: Manual or Aperture Priority

  • Aperture: F/2.8-F/4 for details and blurring background, F/4-F/6 for interior shots to keep the cabin in focus

  • Shutter Speed: 1/60s and lower for panning shots (use ND Filter, or higher aperture to expose the shot correctly), 1/60s and lower for low light (Tripod)

  • ISO: Start at ISO 100-400; adjust as needed

  • White Balance: AWB (Auto) + RAW for flexibility in post

  • Focus Mode: Single AF for static and Continuous AF for motion

  • Metering Mode: Evaluative/Matrix or Spot

Experiment with these settings to find your style while delivering sharp, visually compelling automotive photos. Whether you’re capturing a stationary vehicle or in motion, these settings will set you up for success. Next, we will discuss post-processing and softwares.

Khalil Bahaji
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