Photo Shoot...

I thought I'd post this in here... more views perhaps than the photo forum? Moderators please move it if you feel it isn't appropriate...


Anyway...

I'm hopefully going to be helping a business fella on Saturday with a shoot of his cars... I've been 'nominated' as the photographer, I have the kit, and I'm expected to look like I might know what im doing.

Tbh I'm really cr4pping my pants. I've been put forward by a very good friend to his boss. His boss wants some snazzy pics of his TWO skylines. One is almost brand spanking and the other is an older one, but mint.

They're expecting great things! I've got a set of Bowen Gemini's, appropriate wide and long lenses, syncs, triggers, filters, camera etc... plus an enthusiastic approach to challenges. I've done a little bit of this before and I've done some research, and now I have a massive opportunity and I really don't want to muck it up!

Any golden rules or things to remember before I head out? Anyone done it before? I will of course have fully charged batteries! and I plan to do a recce on the location before the actual shoot.

Many thanks,

Ben.

[jambo]

If it were me I'd try and spend an evening trying to photograph your own car. You can then get the nasty bits of the learning curve done out of anyone's sight.

Search for "Strobist car" and you'll get loads of ideas from places like flickr.com and strobist.blogspot.com

One of my favorite car photos ever was done with only 2 lights, both sat in the seats and fired straight up into the roof:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7211625@N06/462135050/


Jambo

Cheers Jambo.

Thats a fantastic image.

Ben.

[5hort5]

Originally Posted by BournemouthBen

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Any golden rules or things to remember before I head out?

Many thanks,

Ben.

1. Don't get your sausage out
2. Don't ask the bosses daughter to take her cloths off and lay on said car
3. Don't ask to drive the car
4. Don't start licking the car
5. And what ever you do don't come onto the guy who owns the cars

Ask Filipe, he knows his apples n pears with this sort of thing

Enjoy.

Thanks for 5hort5, but Jambo already beat me to it. Loads of great info on the Strobist group on Flickr, just have a thorough look through it and it'll give you tons of great ideas.

That shot really is brilliant, but since cars belong out on the open and not just inside a garage (or any dark space) I'd probably look into practising balancing available light against flash (assuming available light will be anything decent...). And mind your depth of field, cars are huge things when shot up close.
Oh... and chimp like hell. Take the shots, and review them there and then. Don't waste half the time doing it, but look for the stuff that might not be obvious at first glance, like funny reflections, out of focus stuff. You don't want to go back home and realise half your shots came out unfocused and the other half have a lamp reflecting back into the car in the most annoying places.

Follow Jambo's advice, take the time to practice with your car, it will take the pressure off your shoulders.

And just remembered, take a look at this post and scroll to the Ferrari shots. I absolutely loved the detail shots. Just an idea.

Diamond! Cheers Filipe.

Just had a look through that Blog as well. The Ferrari pictures are nice. Not quite my cup of tea, but definitely nice. As you guys know, I'll be playing with artificial light as much as possible.

Balancing the sky/sea/sand exposure with some sharp/contrast/bright strobes/flashes on the car will be the clincher and the hardest part at the same time.

I'm real excited. I always used to read Max Power and Redline etc. when I was younger so I've got a few ideas of what I want. They'll be classy yet cool, stylish and creative.

I hope!

Fingers crossed, still trying to organise the cars! Wish me luck and thanks again.

Ben.

I am going to be doing a friends car soon, and I'm trying to think of ideas at the moment. I want to put the car under a street lamp and shoot that, whilst firing a couple of flashes at it, probably one from the front of the car and one from the side whilst shooting the car from a 3/4 angle. I also want to put it into some interesting location (probably some run down building) and paint it with light on a long exposure. I might use some gels on the flash to create some colour as the car is gun metal grey and should respond well to some colour effect.

I do like the detail shots, you definitely need plenty of light for those and plenty of natural light.