Studio Car Shots

In a couple of weeks I'll be doing my first studio car shots and I'm a little worried about the lighting. Obviously with cars you have the extra problem of reflections.

I imagine softboxes and bouncing are the order of the day, but I'll pretty much be making it up and using trial and error.

Any tips from the pros would be really good.

Good luck. It's quite an endeavor. One of my cars was used in a Continental Tire ad. The shoot took all day and the car was lit by huge overhead softboxes which had all been connected. It took 5 pops of 5 Speedo 2400 power packs per sheet of film to get the exposure. Amazing!!

Red,

You do realise that you can't actually get a car into my studio ?

Seriously, I would suggest we look at bouncing flash power off the ceiling and walls in the workshop. The walls and ceiling are white. Even so, would suggest you shoot RAW so that WB can be fixed afterwards as it is bound to shift some.

If you are bringing up your Bowens kit, I can supplement that with my three elinchroms, pointing the whole lot up at the ceiling should give you a big softbox effect for the overhead shots of the car. For other shots, direct flash through physical softboxes would be the order of the day or better still bounce flash off a wall and back at the car.

Of course, if the weather is good, we can shoot outside in daylight. I've several reflectors and a large (1m x 2m) diffuser.

Don't worry, I'm sure between us we will be able to sort something out.

Cheers

Ian

What are you talking about you wuss? It's only a staircase, roll-up your sleeves and stop whineing

Add some lights and the workshop becomes a studio.

Everything you've said is where I was at. Good to know we're in sync. Apart from the outside shots. I'm planning on using the inside control while I have it. But you never know. Some long exposures or light painting could be fun. Hmmm, got me thinking now

You know I was at Barnes and Noble the other day and I saw a couple of books on this topic. So I went to Amazon and found you two links:

How to Photograph Cars
and
How to Photograph Cars: The Enthusiasts Guide to Equipment and Techniques

Hope that helps you out some.

- Digital Prophet -

"bouncing IS the order of the day" but, maybe a bit of direct light on just the tires to bring the tread up to the overall level of light. Hint: don't clean the tread - the dust helps here. Other than that, we almost never used direct light on the car.
We used huge 15X30' frames (on casters) covered with cloth to reflect into the car. Some were hung as overhead flats. These were lit with 20K lights. Smaller, highlighting reflections were lit with 750's. Check out the studio here: Stage3

The shot below was done using a 4X8' piece of plywood painted white at the camera. (This was my 1st real "Car shot", as in paid for by a manufacturer)

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3 hours and already a number of very useful replies. What a forum
Frank, Ian will be my lighting tech/assistant, and there should be a number of people hanging about who can manage the complex task of holding a reflector. Probably too many hanging about actually lol

The only time I'll have to practice "in-studio" will be before the shoot, so I think I may get there even earlier than planned now so hopefully we'll get off a few test shots.

We'll have 5 lights, and a few reflectors. I think we could do with more reflectors by the sounds of it. Or white paint and a brush.

Thanks for the book links. I've had a quick look and may buy one or both of them.

Keep the tips coming guys. I'll share some of the results afterwards. There's a certain amount of secrecy about this shoot

Oh, doing any engine shots? Be sure to have lots of cleaning rags on hand. (No, don't rely on rolls of paper for that. It will tear & leave bits behind)
You won't believe the conditon some of those cars arrive in!

Sorry to resurrect this thread (hey, at least I'm using the search function!).

How did you get on Red? And can we see the results please?

A more pertinent point for me, as I am trying to specify the kit needed to do this on the cheap for an online car dealer, what gear did the studio you used have? What heads were they using? Where were the boxes positioned? What about backgrounds and lighting them?

These and many more questions......

I've updated this a few times, A few Car Lighting Tips, so it's time to resurrect this thread & ask Red, "Did you ever post the results from this shoot. And if you didn't put them in Transportation, then just where are they?"

If your shooting autos outside make sure to shoot earlier or later in the day, shoot some in the shade, and most of all use a Circular Polarizer and dial in the glare on the windows and paint with it. Ive got some images of a 69 Pontaic GTO Judge you could take a look at on my website for ideas.

A better link would be nice?

YES!

Maybe.

Never use them myself.
https://photography-on-the.net …php?p=6987566&p​ostcount=6

Nice Judge! Here's my fav red car shot. No polarizer.
From the thread: Blown '37 Willys - A Beauty with a Beast!

Awesome car. I like the background fades. Ive shot a simliar car.

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