I wanted to have a go at lighting the car more successfully than I managed last week. I was aiming to be more deliberate this time so that I could sculpt the shapes of the body panels and minimise the amount of specular highlights.
I only ventured as far as my driveway this time as I wanted to get it done during my lunch break. This was shot in the middle of an overcast day and all of the strobes were set between 400ws and 1100ws so that I could shoot well above the ambient level and put the light exactly where I wanted it. Having said that, I also shot a range of exposures from -2 to +2 in case I needed any parts of the image lit by natural light (It turns out that i only used an ambient light shot for the highlight at the top of the two side windows).
I shot at f/11 to give me enough depth of field without allowing my filthy sensor to show up too much in the image. I also used a variable ND set to its minimum density and a circular polariser to reduce the reflections as much as possible. I needed to set it to one position for the side of the car and another position for the front of the car. All a bit fiddly but it seems to done the job.
I got the car and camera into position first of all, then set up three lights to light the garage doors. Two of the lights are just out of frame and are very close to the garage wall. This meant the light brought out the texture in the bricks and put highlights on the wooden doors. A third light was on the floor behind the car aiming up at the middle door. Once I was happy with the background frame, where the car was pretty much in silhouette, I turned off the background lights. I then walked around the car with a single strobe in my hand and took about twenty shots with the light in various positions.
Back in Lightroom, I identified all the shots that would make up the composite and then took them into photoshop as layers. It was a pretty simple exercise of using layer masks and blend modes to composite all of the shots into what you see here. I finalised the image using Nik Software (Color Efex Pro 4 and Silver Efex 2), mainly to bring out contrast, detail and colour).
At this point I realised that the car lights weren’t on as it was shot in the day time, so these were added in post using Knoll Light Factory and a white brush, blurred to varying degrees.
In terms of the lighting on the car, I’m happier with this shot than the one from last week. Still much to learn though. I think I’ll have a play with strip boxes next time, rather than the 21cm reflectors, to see what the differences are. I may even try to light the car in one frame rather than doing another composite. We’ll see.
Strobist:
Background was lit with the car in position:
Ranger A Head, A port at 6.0, 21cm reflector, on the ground behind the car aiming up at middle door.
Ranger Quadra A Head, A port at 6.0, 21cm reflector, just out of frame left aiming right.
Ranger Quadra A Head, A port at 6.0, 21cm reflector, just out of frame right aiming left.
Then the car was lit with multiple pops from a single strobe, with the background flashes turned off:
Ranger A Head, A port at 7.5, 21cm reflector, all around the car.
Triggered by Skyport Speed.
Posted by ksten on 2012-10-16 21:04:07
Tagged: , Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM , Elinchrom , Ranger , 21cm Reflector , 2xRanger Quadra , 2x21cm Reflector , Skyport Speed , MB , Mercedes , Benz , Mercedes Benz , C63 AMG PPP , Car , Exterior , Diamond White , Composite , Multiple Flashes , Automotive Lighting , Automotive Photography , Week 42 , 42 of 52 , Strobist
