Car Studio Shots

[TomTomTuning]

Hey everyone,
Me and a friend are want to do some indoor shots with a car & model... I am looking for suggestions and opinions

Whats going on:
We are going to do it in a old warehouse, he first came to me wanting to do it with a white seamless. I think we should do it with the available environment.

I don't have Studio strobes (yet), and was planing to try it out with some Halogen work lamps, diffused.

My concern is, if we do it with white seamless, where am i going to find a whole long and wide enough.
I would like for it to start from the top, roll out as the background and floor. Then just add some sheets for the side.

But i am afraid i wont have enough light power. I know if it was just the car i could drag the shutter, but since there will be a person in the shot. I don't want to risk them moving. and coming out soft. I guess i wont really know unless i tried it.

I just don't want to waste money on the paper and lights, for us not to use it. I will be going tomorrow to check the location and see if it has any character. If it does, then screw the seamless approach

Current ideas:
Lighting will be probably bounced, with some direct for things such as tires and wheels.
I have a bunch of really big foam core i could bring for manipulating the reflections coming from the front.

Just spend the whole day there taking as many different compositions as i can come up with.
I plan on referencing from online and magazines for ideas to work with.

I need to worry about lighting the car as well as the model. I could maybe use my Off camera setup i have with my canon speedlite (If needed). But be careful not to cast shadows and unwanted reflections on the car.

Its pretty much going to have to be low budget. I am not getting paid for it, its just to help my buddy out.
And the shots will i help my portfolio if they come out good. (lol, if)

HELP! lol
Any suggestion on what to use,
Comments & onions on the information i have already given
Ideas on the setup, etc...

Thanks PhotoGuy for the advice in the PM

[PhotosGuy]

Thanks PhotoGuy for the advice in the PM

Here it is:

I was thinking for the seamless, id just roll it out from the background to the floor then add a section for the top and sides.

That would work, but I'd roll it down from the top without cutting it. That would give you a cove without a line where the pieces meet & you could reuse the seamless another time.
"Cove": there's a link in "Tips" where someone shot in a studio recently & posted a set-up shot that shows what it looks like.

But i know with the seamless i am going to need ALOT of light for the background.

Not really. We just used 250wt lights for the background of the 'Cuda shot. We used 20,000wt spots on the flats we used to reflect into the body. Except for the front shot. I think that was just a 750wt.

You don't really need to pour a lot of light into the set. A long exposure will work. With slow 8X10" cam lenses, we routinely had 2-10 minute exposures.

better off with doing a non-seamless shot and just exposure the shot so the background is dark. But the subject is well exposed.

You should have something above the car on the background to give you some light reflecting on the roof to separate it from the background.

Don't know just what you visualize as a finished shot, but remember that a lot of the shots in the "Tips" thread were shot outdoors & the background was PSed in. There's a link to that in there, too.

A nice job was done in a studio with the 300 in this post:
Notice that there's no direct light on the Chrysler.

And dubbr has a nice example in Post #98 of using a strobe along with "late light". Again, notice that the strobes are NOT pointed directly at the car?

More:

I need to worry about lighting the car as well as the model.

Model? You didn't mention that before & now you've complicated the situation! I've seldom had one stay still for more that a minute & we had hidden support for them then. We'd hide a light stand touching behind them so they could feel if they were moving.

Its pretty much going to have to be low budget.

That will leave several rolls of 9' seamless out. But you might be able to use sheets as in the Chrysler 300 post I linked a few sentences above.

I have a bunch of really big foam core i could bring for manipulating the reflections coming from the front.

Here's an idea: shoot the car & model in sections & then PS them together.
Or try painting with light while moving both the light & the foam core.

Just spend the whole day there taking as many different compositions as i can come up with.

Have fun with it.

[TomTomTuning]

The shoot was postponed till this weekend.

AS far as location and reflections and what not, ill take care of that but now my issue is lighting. I got a 70-200 2.8L IS instead of studio lights.

I might be stuck with a bunch of halogen work lamps. I might get a CTO gel on my speed light and use that off camera to light the model and hope the temperatures are close. Or just do a couple different shots but just more the lighting around and paint with lights (like frank said)

[PhotosGuy]

Have fun!

[stillresonance]

If you can get a cool looking location, and you can go when it'll be dark or when the ambient light is low enough you could paint in the scene with you speed light. Set a long exposure (30 sec) and then walk around the scene popping your speed light from different angles to fill in the car and backgroud. Then on a seperate frame without moving the camera put your subject into position and pop an exposure with the speed light and then composite them together in photoshop. If done right you will have the car nicely filled in looking like you used many more lights than you actually had. And by shooting a seperate frame with the model in position they should be nicely exposed without the other pops from the flash washing them out once you composite them together.

[ryant35]

In my experience halogen work lamps are not very bright (compared to a strobe), and they are really really hot!

I picked up a 2 strobe wireless kit for the weekend for only $70. I would think you may need more than 2.

[jkaiser]

sorry to dig up old thread, but when u do the walk-about-strobing method, wouldnt there be light incident/reflected on yourself as well? how do u reduce that?

So after that if u want the car to be on a white (or any other colour) background, just have to clone it in?

[ryant35]

Originally Posted by jkaiser

sorry to dig up old thread, but when u do the walk-about-strobing method, wouldnt there be light incident/reflected on yourself as well? how do u reduce that?

So after that if u want the car to be on a white (or any other colour) background, just have to clone it in?

Yes clone unless you have a large enough white background.

A circular polarizer will help to reduce reflections in the glass, otherwise you just need to watch your angles, and watch for your self in the car.