The Recipe for Getting This Type of Shot

SCOTT KELBY

Characteristics of this type of shot: interesting point of view; great contrast of colors; interesting composition.

1. To get a shot like this, you need a very low angle to shoot from, and that's what really makes the shot interestingthe angle isn't one you'd see very often because your average photographer would take the shot standing up (in fact, I was surrounded by photographers doing just that. Just in case you were wondering, this shot was taken outside a Lamborghini dealer located in a downtown area). To get this shot, which was hand-held, I sat in the middle of the street while my buddy looked out for cars.

2. To get the red car in the center in sharp focus and make the other cars softer in focus, shoot in aperture priority mode, choose a low number f-stop (in this case, it was f/5.6), and shoot with a zoom lens (this was taken with an 18200mm zoom, with the lens at 180mm). The reason the yellow car in front is out of focus is because of how depth of field works: 1/3 of the area in front of your focus area (the red car) will be out of focus, and 2/3 of the area behind your focus area will be out of focus.

3. Another thing that makes this photo work (besides the interesting angle of view) is the close-up view of the cars, leaving more of the story (the rest of the cars) out of view.

4. The rest is just the luck of coming across a row of brightly-colored Lamborghinis on an overcast day.