Anyone have tips on shooting a rig-style car shot without a rig?

Yes, I understand the value of a rig, and the capital investment required to do it correctly. I'd like to shoot such a shot but I don't think I'm in the cateogry of buying a proper rig to do it all the time.

So have you found a successful way of doing it? For instance, does shooting car to car work in this way? Use a skateboard as a dolly? Walking quickly next to the car?

Masa Yume wrote in post #17449329
Yes, I understand the value of a rig, and the capital investment required to do it correctly. I'd like to shoot such a shot but I don't think I'm in the cateogry of buying a proper rig to do it all the time.

So have you found a successful way of doing it? For instance, does shooting car to car work in this way? Use a skateboard as a donny? Walking quickly next to the car?

The simple answer is, No... You will not get the same look from car to car photography. If you're doing rig photography and the end result looks like car to car, then i'd suggest just doing car to car photography. It's infinitely easier.

Forget a skateboard, and for walking quickly, that has to be sarcasm on your part.

no, I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, I was just trying to think of low budget things to try given the low speeds of the vehicle for rig shots. I already know that the DIY methods for buildlign a rig aren't worth it, so was thinking if there were other things that could work.

Thanks for the practical advice, and you site's great btw.

Try some car-to-car at different speeds & shutter speeds & see if you can get what you want.

Either do car to car at lower SS, or get a proper rig. If you do go get a rig make sure to invest and get good equipment for the sake of your gear and the car. lol

I wish I could remember where it was but I read a tutorial on how to do exactly what your talking about essentially just using motion blurs in Photoshop. The results won't be nearly as clean as a properly done rig shot but to be perfectly honest, the large portion of people would never be able to tell the difference. Essentially what you would do is take a shot of a car standing still, place a directional motion blur over layer, mask out the car, and then use a circular blur on the wheels. Now thats an extremely simplified version of it but you should grasp the basic idea from that. I currently own a rig so I don't shoot like this but I have tried it and with some work it can actually produce some pretty good results. If I stumble across the site again I will be sure to post it here.

To follow up on what you asked, I did think you were joking when you said about walking quickly. As mentioned above, you can use a virtual rig program and create something in one of those programs. The problem with those is that they cost a great deal of money (legally obtained) and usually require a certain level of skill to use to get realistic results. Having said that, there is something that happens in the camera when you do a rig shot, a look, that you can't duplicate with a virtual rig program. The latest version of PS has a filter that allows for that and seems to work well.

There is plenty of software to create "virtual rig" shots. But it never quite looks the same. Its a very tough technique to master in its own right. Making the blur realistic is the whole art. I suggest doing rig shots so you better understand how proper blur is supposed to look. Here is an example I have done where a client wanted a rolling shot, but I couldn't do car-to-car nor have a rig.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oZ5C​CZ

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oGAm​tQ

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oZ3L​Uj

Tony_Stark wrote in post #17457914
There is plenty of software to create "virtual rig" shots. But it never quite looks the same. Its a very tough technique to master in its own right. Making the blur realistic is the whole art. I suggest doing rig shots so you better understand how proper blur is supposed to look. Here is an example I have done where a client wanted a rolling shot, but I couldn't do car-to-car nor have a rig.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oZ5C​CZ IMG_4533-Edit by George.Bucur, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oGAm​tQ Before/After - 2015 Subaru WRX Virtual Rig Shot by George.Bucur, on Flickr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oZ3L​Uj Screen Shot 2014-08-29 at 12.59.29 AM by George.Bucur, on Flickr

that is very impressive...