I've been asked to specify equipment and set-up required for a particular installation.
The company, who are asking, sell cars online - so a virtual car dealership if you like. They want about 15-20 shots of each car, front, front 3/4, side, rear, rear 3/4, etc and then some interior shots, side on, forwards, dash etc.
Becuase of the numbers involved we're not looking to create brochure shots, and I have no interest in spending any time at all in Photoshop - simply becuase I took 200 shots yeaterday of 10 cars and that took all day! PS'ing them would have teken me all night too - and they're not paying that much!!
Some shots are wide (eg side on) some shots are close-up (such as the alloy wheel which wills the frame).
the set-up right now consists of two walls in their garage (10-15 ft high celing, sloping, bare boards) and we shoot into the corner of the building from the front, turn the car around and then do the rear shots and interior).
They are telling me that they want white walls, but my thoughts are that black would work better as unlit back is black, unlit white is grey! If they want blown-out white backgrounds then they will have to light them = $$$$/££££ The down side of this is that when I get a dark/black car I'm guessing I'll need some sort of equivalent of hair light(s) to separate the car from the black background, yes?
Now this project is beyond my area of comfort, so I am looking for helpful solutions (on a fair, but limited budget) to work this out.
Bearing in mind that it is not practical to move lights for different angles and that metering between shots/cars/angles is too time consuming - what are your thoughts? Have you done anything similar on this scale or any scale? What did you use, how many lights, where, how muchh power, tungsten or flash or other? What about backgrounds?
Also, whilst I'm here, I thought I'd pick your brains about interior shots. Right now they use on-camera flash and as you'd expect (especially with the cheaper cars with shiny plastic dash boards) it's a very harsh shot, big glare from the flash and generally not particularly appealing. I was thinking about getting a small low power (100w?) tungsten head to take into the car when I do those shots and bouncging the light from the ceiling of the car for interiors...any advice on those? I could use long exposures, but it's too much hassle, takes too long and it's flippin' difficult to set up my tripod in the back of a Mini Cooper
Again, please bear in mind that these are online shots to help sell a car - as if you were sat in a dealership looking to buy a car. I wish I had the time, budget and knowledge to produce brochure shots - but it's just not on the agenda right now I'm afraid.
Extreme thanks in advance for your expert input!
