1. Look through a few R/C magazines to get ideas on the types of pictures to take. The photographers for professional R/C magazines have been doing their job for years, so it's not a bad idea to borrow ideas from them on the types of pictures to take. Watch how they set their backgrounds, lighting, framing and positioning in their pictures. Take note of the types of shots they have, whether it's action or still photography. Don't worry if you don't have an expensive camera, not many people do - you may be able to borrow one and in many cases it doesn't matter anyway - you can't fake good photo sense, a nice paintjob and amazing effort.

2. R/C cars only. It only makes sense, but we do get submissions that are not of R/C cars or related to R/C. If you send a picture of your car and it has offensive contents, including decals and language, we cannot and will not post it. One of our main goals of RC Racing USA.net a kid safe site, after all they are the future of R/C.

3. Good angles on the cars in the picture. (lower is usually better, but a higher angle is sometimes good). See the examples at the bottom of this article. Show off your rims, unless the rims are messed up the rims should face the camera. Also make sure they are clean. Check out some real car magazines to get more ideas.

4. Include the chassis. Having a great looking body shows off your painting skills, but without a set of wheels to go with it, it looks way to flimsy and abandoned.

5. One car per pictures. Unless you know exactly what you are doing, try to exclude other cars from your picture. Having another car there will distract the primary vehicle and the viewers will pay less attention to it. This includes portions of another car as well, you want your car to have the full attention of the audience.

6. Good backgrounds, settings and lighting. Natural sunlight is the best light you can use. Indoor pictures can be tough because incandescent and flourescent lighting isn't that bright, plus a flash at night or indoors is usually TOO bright. Also, you have to deal with things like carpet, chairs, tables, electric cords and other visual distractions when taking a picture inside. If you put your R/C car on your real car, make sure they are both clean

7. Experiment with different angles. Instead of having your camera level to the ground, you can try rolling your camera a bit to get a funky feel to the shot. For starters, try rolling the camera 30°. Remember, it never hurts to experiment! If you are not trying to show off your artwork at the top of the body, then you should get down on your knees to get a low angle shot. The lower your camera is to the ground, the more realistic the car becomes. This is because in a real car situation, you are not 80 feet tall looking down on a 5 feet high car.

8. Keep it in focus. For those of us who has a camera that lets you set focus manually, you should try your very best to focus on the car. An out of focus picture really isn't a picture at all. For cameras that automatically focus for you, you should have the car in the middle of your view finder. This will help the camera find the correct object to auto focus on.

9. Fully finish your car or clean it! Too many R/C enthusiasts don't trim their body posts when taking pictures of their car, or racing. Add the decals and put on the wings. Organize wires, clean body, and tires. (unless you are taking an action shot, make it showroom ready.)

10. Minimumal of work needed "clean it up" the picture. We use Corel Draw 10 to modify the pictures...sometimes. What we prefer to do is resize, save the big picture, make the thumbnail (the small picture), save the thumbnail and that's it. Anything taking much longer reduces the chances of your car making to the RC Racing USA Racer's Gallery!

Digital cameras are NOT a necessity, but it does make it very easy to edit and email the pictures Larger pictures are easier to work with, because you have more "slack" to edit "Cropping", or trimming the picture is helpful.

Grainy or very dark pictures are not peffered and Webcam pictures are usually too dark, very small and grainy, making them very hard to work with.

With a disposable camera and good natural lighting you can take excellent picture, it just comes down to being patient and getting the right background, subject and lighting. The digital camera, computer and software just make it easier - without these you just need a little more time and skill.

11. Try to send us original, fresh paint jobs. Don't send us a picture of a body that has seen too much race action, and unless your paint job is really unique, don't send us something we've seen too much of!

There are two basic paint jobs: race schemes or street schemes. Race schemes can be replicas of real teams or a team you've made up on your own. Many R/C racers have adopted the "R/C style" paint job with swoops of bright (sometimes neon) color, drips, flames, etc. Street schemes are usually one-color paint jobs, possibly with decals to make it look a little sporty.

12. If you have something unique. Include a picture of that and a short description!

13. Include your name and location! We get submissions with no name or location info! People like to know where other racers are located, especially if they are near them.

14. Picture files can be too big or too small. Pictures should be between 50 KB and 1 MB (1024 KB) in file size, each. Our thumbnails are 135 pixels across, so make sure your pictures are at least 400-700 pixels wide. Include your pictures as attachments, not in the body of your email. JPG files work best for us and can be opened and saved in any image editor. Try not to have any spaces in the file name, and if you can keep the extensions (.jpg, etc.) in lowercase letters it makes it easier for us to use your pictures.

So that's it. With practice and a little bit of dedication you can be taking great pictures of your pride and joy in no time!