The Classic Car Shoot.`

When you think photo shoot, you don't normally think smart phone.
Granted, you will never be able to match a DSLR cameras, but who says you cant do a decent photo shoot without spending hundreds of pounds extra on a camera? 

Smart phone technology now days, especially in the new Xperia line, such as the Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z1 Compact, have greatly improved. Both phones have had the pleasure of three bits of award winning Sony technology crammed in to each layer of their camera. The Bionz image processor, the Exmor RS senor (1/2.3") and a whopping 20.7 megapixels to play with. Not to mention a range of features which are only recently available to the smart phone cameras such as High Dynamic Range (HDR), Augmented Reality and 4K video recording. 

I had the pleasure of being introduced to my good friend Ella's classic car and pet project, the Ford Prefect 107e (1960). Once owned by her aunt in 1989, it spent 4 years on the road until it had gear box trouble so it went in to storage. In 2010 Ella found it and immediately wanted it. With the combined effort of herself and her granddad, they both managed to restore it to its former glory...it passed its MOT in June the 15th, 2012. 

 A background defocus shot taken of the bonnet with a HDR (nature) feature added through Snapseed.

I couldn't help but keep taking photos of her beautiful car every time I saw it, so we both decided to do a bit of a photo shoot so I could get my fix. We drove down to the beautiful village of Over in Cambridgeshire near the river where we could get some space and a nice surrounding to shoot. The weather was absolutely perfect, so we would have been foolish not to have taken advantage of this rare opportunity.

 The car is incredibly photogenic, as is Ella. The car looks great with a HDR filter. 

We added a nice vintage filter to this picture to give it that true 1960's feel. 

After a few pictures of the car in its surroundings I decided to open it up and have a look at the interior. The car has been excellently maintained and even has a few new modern touches which doesn't ruin the look or feel of the retro vehicle. 

 Ella's tribute to Ace Cafe, London. 

The original Ford Prefect key.

Steering wheel.

 Sprawled in comfort and style on red leather seats.

The leather interior in the Ford Prefect really made me realise how cheap and classless the interior of my Seat Leon is. 

(Non HDR)

The original photo from above, but before the HDR filter was added through Snapseed. Please let me know which one you prefer and why.

We decided to look around the outside of the car in more detail and see what give it its character. The car has so many decent characteristics and I am sure you will agree.

 A few minor imperfections still left to fix up.

Wing mirror selfie.

 A smile never seen anywhere other than in her Ford Prefect!

Ella has recently come back from Ace Cafe in London and absolutely fell in love with the place. She wanted to show her respect by wearing the jacket with her car.

Ella poses in her Ace Cafe jacket. 

Background defocus used with HDR. 

The new Background Defocus technology still has a few kinks to work out, often struggling with being able to tell which part of the photo it needs to focus on, and which part to defocus on. Its quite temperamental too, this photo taking many many attempts to even get this right.

We used another filter. This time we used the "sunrise" filter rather than "vintage" one, which worked equally well. It made the picture look almost like it was taken "back in the day".

We had some good fun today, posing with classic cars, taking pictures in the sun and relaxing near the river. I really enjoyed seeing what the Xperia Z2 was capable of. Camera phones clearly do have some way to go to catch up with professional cameras but at the same time they have come a very long way from even last year.

 I really enjoyed using the High Dynamic Range through Snapseed, which worked very well in most instances (Click here to see what it can do with landscapes). The "Background Defocus" mode was temperamental and took many attempts to get right, so you have to me patient, it usually ended up coming good and being worth it. There were a few issues with the background defocus struggling to understand when the background and foreground start and finish, but usually worked out ok. I look forward to seeing this technology being updated in the future. 

The "sunset" and "vintage" filters used today were from the Cymera app. Again, one of the advantages mobile phone apps have over transitional cameras as they have access to thousands of apps which have cool little features and tricks.

Thanks for reading.