Scroll Down Scroll Down Automotive Photography Some of my favorite shots from 2013 Scott Kelby Post by Scott Kelby March 7th, 2014 mercedes cls 550 My love of cars is something I inherited from my big brother Jeff who has been a sports car buff since…well…forever. Over the years I’ve taken a few car shots here and there, all just using natural light outdoors, but last year after watching a training class from UK-based automotive photographer Tim Wallace, I set to try and learn how to actually light cars and thanks to Tim’s brilliant teaching, my first outing didn’t result in a total disaster, so I was hooked. During 2013 I was able to work in six car shoots (I might have fit a few more in, but I learned that one of the biggest challenges of shooting sports cars is finding friends with cool sports cars). The opening shot you see above was from my first-ever studio car shoot. We searched the local area for a studio that had a large enough overhead mounted softbox to light a car, and we found one we could rent for 1/2-day for around $400. The studio was just barely big enough to drive a car inside (in fact, once inside you have to jack up the front wheels on rollers to reposition the car). For the shot above I used their overhead lighting (5 White Lightning strobes mounted on metal poles, shooting straight down through a large silk diffuser, so it was kind of like a giant soft box — see the behind-the-scenes shot at the end of this post). This was the day I learned that shooting indoors a car is like shooting into a mirror — it reflects everything, so you spend 90% of your time covering up things that reflect into the car with either large black panels or black felt draped everywhere. The shots you see above and below are taken in the same studio, during the same shoot, but using Tim Wallace’s one light technique (and camera settings), which make the room fall off to solid black and all you see is the reflection of the soft box in the car (as seen in the shots below of the same car). Many people find it hard to believe that the shots below were taken in bright light, but it works like magic. its all in the details I love detail shots, and I think it’s the probably un-close detail shots that drew me to car photography in the first place, but it was the work of the gentleman I mentioned earlier, UK-based automotive photographer Tim Wallace ( ambientlife.co.uk ) that got me hooked. After years of admiring his beautiful work, I was able to bring Tim to the US to record some online training classes for KelbyOne and it was from those very classes that I learned how to light and shoot cars. I’m still a work in progress, but anything I was able to pull off it strictly because of Tim’s teachings. He is that good. The shot below is the front wheel detail of a Mercedes AMG S65 V12 Biturbo taken in an airplane hanger in Las Vegas (part of the car collection owned by the man who invented video poker, a serious photographer himself as it turns out). Note: this was shot was taken in March of 2014. bmw 650I The BMW 650i shown here was my 2nd studio shoot, and it was a bit more challenging because the studio is just one big white seamless cove, and I wanted the background to be solid black, so we set up a very wide sheet of black seamless paper, and then covered up as much as we could with large black v-flats. Of course, all the close-up detail shots where shot using that one soft box. The side shot was taken with just one large stripbank but it wasn’t nearly long enough to cover the entire car so we would light the back section, take a shot, move the stripbank farther down the car, take another shot, move the stripbank further down and so on until we had about five shots where the entire car was lit, then I had to piece the five together in Photoshop to produce one fully-lit side view. It’s easier than it sounds. A FERRARI IS RED In determining which color is the color for a Ferrari, my brother Jeff told me that Enzo Ferrari himself once said, “A Ferrari is Red.” (say that in your head with a thick Italian accent). However, when I searched high and low for the exact wording (didn’t want to mis-quote Enzo) I simply couldn’t find Enzo ever saying anything like that, so now I shall attribute that quote to my brother Jeffrey, which is perfectly fine by me (plus, Jeff has an amazing fake Italian accent, and when he says that quote, it really sounds legit). Thes exterior shots below are of a Ferrari Daytona taken inside an airplane hanger in Florida (except for the one interior shot) using just one light — a Priolite 500-watt strobe. I did a little behind-the-scenes video of this Ferrari shoot where I talk about the lighting —- here’s the link: Audi r8 poster Here’s a small version of a large print poster I made as a gift for David McComas who was kind enough to let me shoot his Audi R8 and his Ferrari F-430 in his garage. For the rear shot (top center) I used two stripbanks — one on each side. The poster itself was made in Lightroom, and I did a tutorial on exactly how I made it over on my blog. Here’s the link. A tip I picked up from my friend Karl Franz Marquez is to replace the car’s license plate with a solid-black plate, which is seen on The Devon GTX shown below, shot in natural light near sunset (amazing car, with gull-wing doors, no less). I love how the back has no bumper — it just goes straight from the side to the rear in one solid piece. The color of the car was pretty monochromatic so I went ahead and took it all the way with a black and white conversion. Shot with a 70-200mm lens (I’m standing way back from it). aston martin vantage Here’s some shots of my buddy Karl Franz beautiful Aston Martin Vantage. We shot this in a garage at the back of our video studios, but it certainly wasn’t a studio shoot. I lit it the same way I always do for detail shots — using just one large strip bank. One light. Simple. I love it. Below is my first full car shoot that I lit on location (that’s a BMW M6). It’s a three-light shoot — a large strip bank in the back, a small strip bank in front, and a strobe with a metal reflector and a 20° grid to tightly focus the beam of the flash aimed at the front wheel. You can see the full behind the scenes shots and specs over on my blog (here’s the link). Another shot from my first studio shoot. Yes, the shadows under the car are real. Here (below) is a shot of a Spyker, a Dutch sports car I got to shoot in an airplane hanger at St. Petersburg International Airport. You can see the Prolite that’s lighting the front wheel and the large stripbank in the back in this shot, even though it’s not intended to be a “behind the scenes” shot — I just kind of like how it looks. This rear detail shot of a Ferrari F-430 was taken inside the offices of the duPont Registry with the office lighting fully on and natural light coming through the windows. It’s lit with a single strip bank. The black background comes courtesy of f/22. Opening Shot BTS Here’s a few behind the scenes shots from the opening shot at the top of the page. The car is lit with five overhead White Lightning strobes shooting through a huge silk diffuser, and for the shot of the front of car (seen earlier) we added a large soft box in front for fill. one for the road Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Footnotes: The detail shots are all pretty much shot at f/22 at ISO 100 with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. Tampa, FL, United States Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google+ Back to the top Automotive Photography Some of my favorite shots from 2013 Scott Kelby Post by Scott Kelby March 7th, 2014 mercedes cls 550 My love of cars is something I inherited from my big brother Jeff who has been a sports car buff since…well…forever. Over the years I’ve taken a few car shots here and there, all just using natural light outdoors, but last year after watching a training class from UK-based automotive photographer Tim Wallace, I set to try and learn how to actually light cars and thanks to Tim’s brilliant teaching, my first outing didn’t result in a total disaster, so I was hooked. During 2013 I was able to work in six car shoots (I might have fit a few more in, but I learned that one of the biggest challenges of shooting sports cars is finding friends with cool sports cars). The opening shot you see above was from my first-ever studio car shoot. We searched the local area for a studio that had a large enough overhead mounted softbox to light a car, and we found one we could rent for 1/2-day for around $400. The studio was just barely big enough to drive a car inside (in fact, once inside you have to jack up the front wheels on rollers to reposition the car). For the shot above I used their overhead lighting (5 White Lightning strobes mounted on metal poles, shooting straight down through a large silk diffuser, so it was kind of like a giant soft box — see the behind-the-scenes shot at the end of this post). This was the day I learned that shooting indoors a car is like shooting into a mirror — it reflects everything, so you spend 90% of your time covering up things that reflect into the car with either large black panels or black felt draped everywhere. The shots you see above and below are taken in the same studio, during the same shoot, but using Tim Wallace’s one light technique (and camera settings), which make the room fall off to solid black and all you see is the reflection of the soft box in the car (as seen in the shots below of the same car). Many people find it hard to believe that the shots below were taken in bright light, but it works like magic. its all in the details I love detail shots, and I think it’s the probably un-close detail shots that drew me to car photography in the first place, but it was the work of the gentleman I mentioned earlier, UK-based automotive photographer Tim Wallace ( ambientlife.co.uk ) that got me hooked. After years of admiring his beautiful work, I was able to bring Tim to the US to record some online training classes for KelbyOne and it was from those very classes that I learned how to light and shoot cars. I’m still a work in progress, but anything I was able to pull off it strictly because of Tim’s teachings. He is that good. The shot below is the front wheel detail of a Mercedes AMG S65 V12 Biturbo taken in an airplane hanger in Las Vegas (part of the car collection owned by the man who invented video poker, a serious photographer himself as it turns out). Note: this was shot was taken in March of 2014. bmw 650I The BMW 650i shown here was my 2nd studio shoot, and it was a bit more challenging because the studio is just one big white seamless cove, and I wanted the background to be solid black, so we set up a very wide sheet of black seamless paper, and then covered up as much as we could with large black v-flats. Of course, all the close-up detail shots where shot using that one soft box. The side shot was taken with just one large stripbank but it wasn’t nearly long enough to cover the entire car so we would light the back section, take a shot, move the stripbank farther down the car, take another shot, move the stripbank further down and so on until we had about five shots where the entire car was lit, then I had to piece the five together in Photoshop to produce one fully-lit side view. It’s easier than it sounds. A FERRARI IS RED In determining which color is the color for a Ferrari, my brother Jeff told me that Enzo Ferrari himself once said, “A Ferrari is Red.” (say that in your head with a thick Italian accent). However, when I searched high and low for the exact wording (didn’t want to mis-quote Enzo) I simply couldn’t find Enzo ever saying anything like that, so now I shall attribute that quote to my brother Jeffrey, which is perfectly fine by me (plus, Jeff has an amazing fake Italian accent, and when he says that quote, it really sounds legit). Thes exterior shots below are of a Ferrari Daytona taken inside an airplane hanger in Florida (except for the one interior shot) using just one light — a Priolite 500-watt strobe. I did a little behind-the-scenes video of this Ferrari shoot where I talk about the lighting —- here’s the link: Audi r8 poster Here’s a small version of a large print poster I made as a gift for David McComas who was kind enough to let me shoot his Audi R8 and his Ferrari F-430 in his garage. For the rear shot (top center) I used two stripbanks — one on each side. The poster itself was made in Lightroom, and I did a tutorial on exactly how I made it over on my blog. Here’s the link. A tip I picked up from my friend Karl Franz Marquez is to replace the car’s license plate with a solid-black plate, which is seen on The Devon GTX shown below, shot in natural light near sunset (amazing car, with gull-wing doors, no less). I love how the back has no bumper — it just goes straight from the side to the rear in one solid piece. The color of the car was pretty monochromatic so I went ahead and took it all the way with a black and white conversion. Shot with a 70-200mm lens (I’m standing way back from it). aston martin vantage Here’s some shots of my buddy Karl Franz beautiful Aston Martin Vantage. We shot this in a garage at the back of our video studios, but it certainly wasn’t a studio shoot. I lit it the same way I always do for detail shots — using just one large strip bank. One light. Simple. I love it. Below is my first full car shoot that I lit on location (that’s a BMW M6). It’s a three-light shoot — a large strip bank in the back, a small strip bank in front, and a strobe with a metal reflector and a 20° grid to tightly focus the beam of the flash aimed at the front wheel. You can see the full behind the scenes shots and specs over on my blog (here’s the link). Another shot from my first studio shoot. Yes, the shadows under the car are real. Here (below) is a shot of a Spyker, a Dutch sports car I got to shoot in an airplane hanger at St. Petersburg International Airport. You can see the Prolite that’s lighting the front wheel and the large stripbank in the back in this shot, even though it’s not intended to be a “behind the scenes” shot — I just kind of like how it looks. This rear detail shot of a Ferrari F-430 was taken inside the offices of the duPont Registry with the office lighting fully on and natural light coming through the windows. It’s lit with a single strip bank. The black background comes courtesy of f/22. Opening Shot BTS Here’s a few behind the scenes shots from the opening shot at the top of the page. The car is lit with five overhead White Lightning strobes shooting through a huge silk diffuser, and for the shot of the front of car (seen earlier) we added a large soft box in front for fill. one for the road Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Footnotes: The detail shots are all pretty much shot at f/22 at ISO 100 with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. Tampa, FL, United States Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google+ Back to the top
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 06:22:08 +0000