difused or bare flash

[GoRk]

I see alot of u using bare flashes on cars...is it because u dont have any umbrellas or mini softboxes...or is it just better to light with a bare flash...

i never tried it but i realy want to because i lose alot of power firing those flashes through umbrellas...

[PhotosGuy]

You can almost always get a good shot of a silver car in sunlight or with strobes. You'll have to work much harder with black cars to make them look good, so what color car are you thinking of shooting?
Personally, unless you're willing to put a LOT of time into making your strobe setups, I suggest that you go back to the basics of "late light" & use the info in my Tips thread. There's a link somewhere in there to strobe shooting, though.

[GoRk]

I am already working with strobes for a year now...i never leave home without them...it's not a problem how to setup the lights...there's just a problem that i never used bare flash before...i always difuse it...so tomorow I have a shooting with two black cars(i know they are very hard to properly photograph) so I'll try with the bare flash tomorow but take my umbrellas just in case...

[jsnow]

I always shoot with some type of diffuser (most of the time umbrellas). I dunno if it is just me, but diffused light is always more pleasing in my opinion.

[Kyle is raaddd]

I find that most photographers shoot bare.
I've shot with my 22" beauty dish, and then just bare also. The results aren't much different :P
Then again it was a white car. I am very excited to try a method on a black vehicle when I get the chance :D

[turboale]

Its a balance that depends shoot to shoot. Yes, diffused light is prettier but on a shiny object its not quite as noticeable. It depends on more of what your going for. The reasons I have heard not to use diffusion is for power reasons like you said, but also it minimizes the cloning you have to do, and makes the light "footprint" smaller.

[Caspita]

I have never shot with my strobes diffused. I find that bare strobes give you equally even lighting. Also depending on the color of the car, cloning out the modifier may be a big problem. And in my opinion the lighting with bare strobes always suits automotive photography.

[thepepperman]

I'd say that the optics involved mean using a diffuser (to get a bigger effective light source) won't give you much advantage when shooting a car.

Consider you're shooting a big, mirror-like, convex surface. You're lighting it with a strobe at least 5ft away, and possibly up to 15ft if you want to have more clear area around the car. When you put the strobe that far back, putting a medium softbox or umbrella doesn't make for much of a bigger light source (thinking of the relative size of the light source to the area it is illuminating at a distance).

You have to get a light source much larger than a brolly/SB to have a "soft" light source on a car. Which is why in studios you have gigantic banks/rows of light.

[Kyle is raaddd]

You have to get a light source much larger than a brolly/SB to have a "soft" light source on a car. Which is why in studios you have gigantic banks/rows of light.

Exactly.

LOL I'm shooting a black truck soon, and I'm going to try to get people to hold a big white sheet, and I'll shoot through it with my B800.
Wish me luck hahah!