Ideas for a cost effective car studio

I'm working with a company that sells/brokers collectable cars. His indoor showroom/warehouse is pretty good sized, and he has offered up some area to turn into a studio where I can shoot the cars. Currently, the walls are white/beige cinder block with a smooth concrete floor. Ceiling height is about 20-25 ft and there are skylights and typical warehouse lighting. There are also structural poles from floor to ceiling evenly spaced about every 40 ft or so I'd guess.

What's the most cost effective way to turn a corner of this into a nice area where I can get great shots of the cars? How big of an area should I mark off for it?

Thanks for any ideas/advice!
James

do you want to shoot all the cars the same way, i.e. against white background or something like that? You'd need enough room to fit the longest car sideways and at angles, plus room to keep strobes or what you might want to use out of the frame. 15x15 or 20x20 or something like that maybe? Not knowing the place, I'd also look around for different areas, maybe you don't need to block anything, but find two or three areas that work well and use different areas for different cars. An industrial looking area, a white background, a window. Move the cars accordingly.

Cars are also often shot with a huge softbox above the car, for that you'd need to set an area aside.

I'd also look outside, is there maybe a nice brick wall or a modern concrete/steel wall?

Depends a bit on what you/the client want too.

Anyway, just some ideas. Sounds like a great opportunity!

IMO, bigger is always better. Our studios were flat black & we moved the white flats to put the highlights in the body just where we wanted them. They were lit with 750 watt & 2,000 wt. (2K) focusing spotlights.
This doesn't mean that you can't have a white floor & coved background if that will work for you. It's just that the rolling & overhead flats gave us more fine control. Look at the overhead flat here:
http://www.1880studios​.com/
Note the rolling flat in image #4 used to bounce some light into the front.

Have you seen this setup for the Chrysler 300?
https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=9285903&pos​tcount=100
You could do that sort of thing almost anywhere.

(Took awhile to find this link.) This dealership has 4 all white walls & only indirect light at the top of the walls in a room dedicated to shooting his cars: http://theautopalace.c​om/

The room is only slightly larger than the cars. He only shoots a front 3/4 view, but could get the same back view & full front/backs if he wanted them. The only thing there's no room for is a profile shot.

Thanks for the replies! I have plenty of blank walls outside and inside to use as is. I'm looking for the best way to produce great highlights without having a complete rigging system on the ceiling. I like the idea of the rolling flat. I have monolights and plenty of modifiers - just none large enough for a car.

Also, how best to create smooth white walls - right now it's cinder block so it's textured. For the floor, grey floor paint? Polished concrete? White floor paint probably isn't a good idea as keeping it clean would be impossible.

Frank you mention black walls - is this even an option without the huge overhead scrims with rigging?

James

James33 wrote in post #17153500
Also, how best to create smooth white walls - right now it's cinder block so it's textured.

"Best"? Probably plaster & paint for no seams.
Fastest > Horizontal background paper.

Whatever. We sometimes painted the entire floor & back wall twice a day.

Depends on the shot. Sometimes a light on the background can take the place of one on the overhead flat.
Black eliminated stray reflections & costs to retouch 8" X 10" transparencies. And allowed us to put the highlights just where we wanted them.