Get a darker background, you've exceeded the dynamic range of the camera..

Also get a good grey card and set your exposure (in manual settings) off the grey card for proper exposure of the black cars.A member of the rabble in good standing...

If you are shooting JPEG, change to RAW, which will preserve more highlight / shadow detail for processing (You're probably doing this already, but just in case...)Mike..

Actually, I was shooting in jpeg! I will shoot in raw from now on. So your saying I should also set white balance to a grey piece of paper? that will help in defining the cars?.

Here is a picture of a car I shot to show you whats going on.

Http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=313582..

Webdr wrote:.

Actually, I was shooting in jpeg! I will shoot in raw from now on. Soyour saying I should also set white balance to a grey piece of paper?that will help in defining the cars?.

Here is a picture of a car I shot to show you whats going on.

Http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=313582.

No, you need a photo grey card. Most camera shops will have one. Or there's B&H http://www.bhphotovideo.com/.../101853-REG/Delta_22030_Gray_Card_8x10_1_.html They are special and defined as 18% grey and neutral in color..

You use it to set the custom WB in the camera and you can use it to set and lock the exposure as well. Then you know that the car is properly exposed for and thus maximizing your dynamic range. Just place the card in front of the car and set exposure and WB and then remove and shoot..

Your pictures look pretty good, I'd let the background go completely to white and focus on getting the car properly exposed by using the above grey card to set the exposure..

Raw will let you get a little more dynamic range out of the camera but you do have an extreme range already so that may not be the whole solution. Try the above in jpeg first before messing with raw..

A member of the rabble in good standing...

Actually, I was shooting in jpeg! I will shoot in raw from now on. Soyour saying I should also set white balance to a grey piece of paper?that will help in defining the cars?.

Here is a picture of a car I shot to show you whats going on.

Http://www.rcuniverse.com/market/item.cfm?itemId=313582.

If you do decide to try RAW (see comment from LM1 in previous post) you don't need to worry about white balance as you set it afterwards on your PC; the camera setting for WB becomes irrelavant. RAW gives you what the sensor measured directly without any of the in-camera processing so you need to set the WB, sharpening, saturation levels etc. on your PC before saving your final result as a JPEG..

Often it isn't worth the extra effort, especially for 'ordinary' shots, but one area where RAW is particularly good is preserving extra detail in shadows / highlights compared to what you get in JPEGs. (There is a reason that RAW files are 3 - 4 times bigger than the best JPEGs). So if you have some pictures that are particularly important to you why not experiment - you might to be able to bring out this extra detail *before* JPEG conversion when it might otherwise be lost. Many cameras can save both a RAW and a JPEG version of the same shot..

If you do a search for 'RAW vs. JPEG' on this site you will quickly find lots of discussions on this subject..

Best wishesMike..

... and, if you do decide to stick with JPEGS for convenience:.

(i) turn the in-camera contrast setting down to the minimum which will soften the harsh blacks / whites and give you more dynamic range in the mid-tones..

(ii) Take pix at several exposures, especially slightly under-exposed compared to what your meter says. With digital sensors there is no way to recover burnt-out highlight detail if the sensor is saturated with light (bright white areas of picture) but it can be possible to recover surprising amounts of shadow detail from apparently 'black' areas of picture. So underexposure is better than overexposure..

Best wishesMike..

What is happening is that the white background is fooling your electronic exposure system in your camera. You need to shoot in manual mode (get out the camera manual).

Try this (jpeg is ok):.

Compose and focus your shot.Set your camera to ISO 100..

On a brightly lit (full sun) at noon your exposure would be 1/100 shutter speed at f16 aperature. If cloudy, open up 1 stop (f11)..

Bracket your shots up and down 2-3 stops in 1 stop increments and keep track with the image number and what the exposure (shutter & aperature) info is in a notebook. You will find a "magic" spot where the background looks good and the subject looks ok. Then fine tune with 1/3 or 1/2 stop changes in shutter speed or aperature..

Use a tripod if possible and measure the distance from camera body to subject and distance from subject to background. Try to keep consistant in all shots..

Have fun and learn!..