Yikes, some car collectors asked me to shoot their cars and the more thought I give it the harder it seems to get right.

The cars are incredibly big (think Deusenberg) and shiny. They reflect everything.

So I'm thinking of setting up a temporary studio that I can roll them into that's essentially 4-sided to suppress reflections. And I'm thinking of making a light source that's like a huge soft box that's bigger than the Deusenbergs are by using 4 flash heads through a huge sheet or collection of them.

I'm thinking black. Some of the cars are black.

Your thoughts.

This is what you are looking for. I am sure you can rent them in CA.

If you are not sure of a good rental location. Photosource is a great place to look. They list rental locations around the world.

Sounds hard. One possibility is to shoot them in a dramatic outdoor location on an overcast day or late in the afternoon. I'm thinking about ocean or canyons in the background. If the cars are black, what about a sandy background? Or you could use a famous San Francisco location (looking down at the Golden Gate from the park on the Marin side?)

I think my imagination has been posoned by car ads in magazines.

I dug around on the web a little and found lots of pictures of Duesenbergs. Many were not actually good photographs, but I liked this and it shows how an outdoor location can work.

Notice the photrapher's trick. He shot at an angle so that no surface was perpendicular to the camera (so the photographer's refliction won't show.) There isn't else to reflect except sky, and I suppose that would be fine.

Originally Posted by rutt Sounds hard. One possibility is to shoot them in a dramatic outdoor location on an overcast day or late in the afternoon. I'm thinking about ocean or canyons in the background. If the cars are black, what about a sandy background? Or you could use a famous San Francisco location (looking down at the Golden Gate from the park on the Marin side?) I think my imagination has been posoned by car ads in magazines.

I know this guy who takes really good photos of cool cars outdoors. Perhaps you could ask him for some tips?

These are great!

Notice this guy also avoids perpendicular angles and keeps himself out of the reflections.

Originally Posted by rutt These are great! Notice this guy also avoids perpendicular angles and keeps himself out of the reflections.

Tilt&Shift lenses might be useful too
in that they allow the photographer to keep themselves out of the reflections

More info is available here http://www.usa.canon.com/html/eflens...s_e-45-f28.gif

and here
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...ovements.shtml

Originally Posted by fish I know this guy who takes really good photos of cool cars outdoors. Perhaps you could ask him for some tips?

I dunno Fish, those are pretty weak... I think Baldy's looking for something that will raise the bar. Right Baldy?

Originally Posted by wxwax I dunno Fish, those are pretty weak... I think Baldy's looking for something that will raise the bar. Right Baldy?

probably, but it's really hard to beat perfect ambient lighting on a perfectly manicured lawn.


are those reflections of clouds in the lower edge of the body? or damage?

Baldy,

as much as I admire your photography, you might be biting too much here - car photography is a real PITA in a studio, and a completely different sport than shooting outside. You'll need major lighting gear and either a light bank as that Chimera or a tiltable ceiling panel to use as a giant reflector. That means renting a specialized studio, and once you're there, the fun is probably gone from the whole exercise. I don't shoot cars in my studio, but I've shot motorcycles and that is a challenge in itself if you go for the "liquid" look.

I'd strongly advise location photography instead, with additional lighting. You'll feel more confident and will probably get better results.

Here's a website to get you all jittery: Chris Bayley's site . Pay special attention to the simple but effective outdoor shots.

If you get to photograph a Bugatti Atlantic, I want a copy of the pic!

Wow, that Chris Bayley stuff is amazing. Fortunately, I don't need to do anything so artistic.

I shot a couple of Bugatti Atlantics at Concours last year, which is what led up to the current project:





What amazing cars they are.

The current project is for Jay Leno, who was showing a Bugatti at the show and whom I met while shooting his car. We'd like to create a really nice online display of his cars and motorcycles at smugmug.

The problem is he has over 100 cars and 83 motorcycles and taking each one to a good location with the right light would be a huge project. The good thing is he has them together in big hangars at the Burbank airport, so there is room for a temp studio to roll them into.

I have a friend with a car collection locally and a big building, where I can practice. Since Jay's in Burbank, I figure I can rent anything I want down there.

A lot of collectors use Ron Kimball to shoot their cars. He's got a studio locally and I think you can tell a lot about his lighting by looking at the shots:

This one looks like he used small light sources:



This one looks like a big source with a highlight for the model's hair:



Big source, nothing fancy. This is kinda what I had in mind:



I don't think Jay is into it being too artsy. He has a very fine eye for cars and wants to see the cars clearly and have them — not the setting — take center stage.

Wow, nothing wrong with those car pictures! So just get Jay Leno to have a festive parade of his cars and you'll be all set.

The Ron Kimball pics don't show up in Baldy's post. Cut-n-paste time. Firebird/XP Pro.

EDIT: Odd, dead links when I cut and paste them. Y'all see the Kimball pics?

Baldy,

A long time ago and in a land far away, I worked for Hogan Racing, which was a CART Team based in St. Louis. In '99 Helio Castro-Neves was driving for Carl (Hogan). We were a owner financed team, with a mid range budget of around 7 million dollars. Because we did not have a huge coporate sponser, we tried to get by on somewhat less money than other teams did. And because of this, we were one of only 2 teams (I think) that year to run Lolas. Helio as you know if you follow open wheel racing went on to win the last 2 out of 3 Indy 500s for Penske.

Because we were very successful with the Lola that year, we were invited to take the car to Rick Graves in Santa Monica for a full color 6 page shoot for the centerfold in Racer Magazine. We arrived early in the AM for the shoot and unloaded the car. It had been detailed following the last race at Laguna Seca, but still took about 5 hours to bring it up the Graves' standards. He spent several hours setting up the shoot and finally started around 3 pm. Alot of this time was spent getting rid of glare from shiny parts. The last shot was an overhead in the parking lot with natural light from the sunset.

Your point about shiny stuff was interesting. I was the team tire technician and took some pride in keeping our polished magnesium wheels as shiny as possible. They were so good that day, he had to put something on them (I can't remember what he used) to dull them up.

Getting to the point. His studio was all flat black and was freshly painted the morning we started. No one walked on the black paint - paper was put down any place we stepped. After the car was rolled into place the floor was painted again. The studio was as close to perfect as it could get.


Enough of this rambling, but the website is :

http://www.rickgraves.com/index.html

I you are interested, the car was the centerfold in the November 1999 issue of Racer Magazine.

Hutch

Go for the outdoors stuff. Looks better. At least more natural.

The question is where can you park on the grass that has a great
background.

Originally Posted by wxwax The Ron Kimball pics don't show up in Baldy's post. Cut-n-paste time. Firebird/XP Pro. EDIT: Odd, dead links when I cut and paste them. Y'all see the Kimball pics?

Nope. Same setup you're using. No joy using IE 6 either, gives me a 404.

Originally Posted by zero-zero Nope. Same setup you're using. No joy using IE 6 either, gives me a 404.

Ron must block external linking from his site.

Strangely, I saw him at the voting booth yesterday. He must live within 2 miles of me. I've been a big fan of his for awhile.

Originally Posted by Baldy Ron must block external linking from his site. Strangely, I saw him at the voting booth yesterday. He must live within 2 miles of me. I've been a big fan of his for awhile.

We went through this on other threads already. It is illegal to display other folks images without their permission. Be satisfied to list links to Ron's site.