Large Space Lighting Dilemma. Need Help!

Hi guys, I'm primarily an automobile photographer and normally use natural light. I am in the middle of a car project for a very important client. I'm shooting the cars separately, but he also wants me to shoot the cars as a group in his garage.

The garage is approximately 40 feet across by 30 feet deep with probably a 36 foot ceiling. The walls are white with lots of pictures and automobile signs and one movie poster on the main wall probably 18 feet high, but it is mostly white. The ceiling is wood rafters.

There will be about seven cars total, four against the back wall, two on one side one on the other. The door opening is probably 8 feet wide by 10 foot tall so I'll get some ambient in before noon. There are florescent lights on the ceiling.

Obviously a tricky situation. I'll probably try to shoot it piecemeal and stitch it together, but my question is the lighting. I'm pretty much at a loss and I don't want to look like a complete idiot.

My rarely used studio lights are 3 White Lightning Ultra 1200s. Do you think bouncing one Ultra 1200 off each of three walls would do much for me? I can fake most anything in post, but it sure would be nice to have something halfway decent to start with.

I am scheduled for next Tuesday. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Someone must have some experience and advice for me.

Jeez Pinto sounds like a tough room. A couple of things come to mind,
1. Don't use any ambient light, unless it is the same color temp as your lights.
2. See if you can borrow more strobes, even small ones to light under the cars, unless the floor is white or light the cars will blend in with the floor, if you bounce off of the ceiling.
3. I think image stacking is the way to go, one of the shots should be of the floor and then you can use white foamcore to add highlights to the fenders and front ends.
4. Image registration is going to be a bear so once you have the shot set you can't move the camera.
5. Shoot from as high a vantage point as you can get, maybe even seeinf if there is a lift or cherry picker or other such device you can use.
6. I would use 4'x8' pieces of white foamcore to bounce the strobes off of, and put them on their own stands.
7. You really do need to rent some strobes, to keep the light even across the images left to right and front to back. I don't think bouncing off the walls will cut it. The lights need to up high similier to what you get when you strobe an arena, basketball, hockey etc.

I hope this helps. If you were closer I would lend you my WL's i have six, various strengths.

LBaldwin wrote in post #8740620
Jeez Pinto sounds like a tough room. A couple of things come to mind,
1. Don't use any ambient light, unless it is the same color temp as your lights.
2. See if you can borrow more strobes, even small ones to light under the cars, unless the floor is white or light the cars will blend in with the floor, if you bounce off of the ceiling.
3. I think image stacking is the way to go, one of the shots should be of the floor and then you can use white foamcore to add highlights to the fenders and front ends.
4. Image registration is going to be a bear so once you have the shot set you can't move the camera.
5. Shoot from as high a vantage point as you can get, maybe even seeinf if there is a lift or cherry picker or other such device you can use.
6. I would use 4'x8' pieces of white foamcore to bounce the strobes off of, and put them on their own stands.
7. You really do need to rent some strobes, to keep the light even across the images left to right and front to back. I don't think bouncing off the walls will cut it. The lights need to up high similier to what you get when you strobe an arena, basketball, hockey etc.

I hope this helps. If you were closer I would lend you my WL's i have six, various strengths.

Thank you for your response, Les. Bouncing off of foam core is a great idea. Instead of additional strobes I'm thinking of just shooting the room and cars in sections and putting it together. I depend on post a lot, so stitching it together doesn't concern me. Does that sound like a decent idea to you? Any other ideas are greatly appreciated.

Hang large white cloths from the rafters, light them from above with radio triggered flash units spread across the entire area with few gaps or overlap in coverage to provide more uniformity...a giant softbox is effectively what this provides

This is an alternative to foam core as reflective source.

Wilt wrote in post #8742994
Hang large white cloths from the rafters, light them from above with radio triggered flash units spread across the entire area with few gaps or overlap in coverage to provide more uniformity...a giant softbox is effectively what this provides

This is an alternative to foam core as reflective source.

Great idea, Wilt. But hanging cloth at 35 feet in the air, I'm afraid, is a little beyond the scope of this project. I've got to keep it pretty simple.

Pinto wrote in post #8743173
Great idea, Wilt. But hanging cloth at 35 feet in the air, I'm afraid, is a little beyond the scope of this project. I've got to keep it pretty simple.

Throw clotheslines over the rafters, tie the cloth to one end, pull the cloth up with the other end. The cloths do NOT have to be 35', you want them closer to the ground to provide softer light.

Wilt wrote in post #8743530
Throw clotheslines over the rafters, tie the cloth to one end, pull the cloth up with the other end. The cloths do NOT have to be 35', you want them closer to the ground to provide softer light.

The problem with that would be the wall decorations. A billboard sized movie poster, automobile signs, etc., go up to probably 25 feet on the wall. Great idea though, Wilt. Thanks.

Have you thought about painting with light?
Like This

J Kacey wrote in post #8744255
Have you thought about painting with light?
Like This

Yes, I'm sure I'll try that also to some extent. Thanks.

I think some small strobes shot through defusers would be the best bang for the buck. Get the lights positioned fairly high up (the top of a ladders?) crank the power up, shoot them through white sheets and see what you get. It's another twist to Wilts suggestion of a large softbox.

Jon.

The problem is that most loations like this are really lousey for photography. I have shot similier images on productions floors and diffusion lighting is not going to work. Softboxes, large orsmall will not add enough light to get to f8 or f11 to keep the subjects sharp. I would use a TS lens, fullframe camre or even better go back and shoot it on a LF camera. IF the ceilings were white you could bounce, but you still need at least 4 2400 ws power packs. With a 35 ft ceiling you would need to get at least 20ft off the ground to minimize distortion. Seven cars means that there will be three in the front and four in the back, in the easiest configuration. If the OP is right and the room is 40 wide by 30 deep then he will be vey close to the wall directly behind him so getting enough altitude will not be easy. That will mean going to a wider lens. Tough shoot no doubt you really don't want to go too wide because of distortion and the walls will look like crap. A pano may be the better idea, I have no real good skills in that area and only a basic idea of how they are done.

Just some thoughts..

LBaldwin wrote in post #8744623
The problem is that most loations like this are really lousey for photography. I have shot similier images on productions floors and diffusion lighting is not going to work. Softboxes, large orsmall will not add enough light to get to f8 or f11 to keep the subjects sharp. I would use a TS lens, fullframe camre or even better go back and shoot it on a LF camera. IF the ceilings were white you could bounce, but you still need at least 4 2400 ws power packs. With a 35 ft ceiling you would need to get at least 20ft off the ground to minimize distortion. Seven cars means that there will be three in the front and four in the back, in the easiest configuration. If the OP is right and the room is 40 wide by 30 deep then he will be vey close to the wall directly behind him so getting enough altitude will not be easy. That will mean going to a wider lens. Tough shoot no doubt you really don't want to go too wide because of distortion and the walls will look like crap. A pano may be the better idea, I have no real good skills in that area and only a basic idea of how they are done.

Just some thoughts..

There is only one row of four cars against the main wall. The room isn't square. One additional car will be in a right front corner, and two more on the left, with their front ends facing the main room, but the bodies in an area jutting off the main. If that makes sense.

I've got to go pretty wide. I'll have to work on the distortion in post. The nice part is that I have complete freedom to be as creative as I want with the final result. So I guess I'll figure it out as I go along.

I like the Foam-core bounce a lot. I may work on one car at a time and composite them in post.

You guys are a great help.

Another suggestion would be to gaffer tape some white seamless to the walls and bounce. With a 10ft roll you could make a huge light source with one of your Ultra's bouncing off it

Pinto wrote in post #8745050
I've got to go pretty wide. I'll have to work on the distortion in post. The nice part is that I have complete freedom to be as creative as I want with the final result. So I guess I'll figure it out as I go along.

With a 28mm lens on FF (or 18mm lens on APS-C) you will capture the full width of the room at 25' to the subject. That really isn't into distorted representation territory!