Pistonheads Car Shoot

Snowball

Snowball

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Paul Buttle
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Took a few photos today at an event held by Pistonheads. Really enjoyed it and learnt a lot about continuous lighting shoots.

Hope you like the photos, let me know :):

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Audi R8

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Ford Mustang - Pic 1

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Ford Mustang - Pic 2

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Aston Martin Vantage

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Jaguar Composite - This is a composite of 8 seperate images, each part of the car / background was let seperately and we had to then mask it up. It was quite hard and it is by no means perfect, but I was fairly happy with it.

Really recommend the day, they have more details on their website.

cheers

Paul
 
Really like those, incredibly nice. No.3 is the one for me. If I was being picky....

No.4. is nice but the light area in the bottom right distracts my eye.

Is it my eyes or is No.1 ever so slightly wonky?
 
not keen on the first and i agree it looks ever so slightly wonky, but ive never liked that shot of audis so its nothing personal (that shot of audis is seen every day through a rear view mirror on the m6!

the first mustang - feels a bit claustrophobic at the bottom right hand corner.

second mustang shot is right on the money :)

jag shot is really good as well :)
 
Cheers for the comments guys, I know what you mean about the white at the bottom left of the Jaguar, the reason being that we didn't add the colour gel to the light in that shot :-(

Also, agree on the composition on the mustang shot. It's that kind of thing that you curse when you get back and look at the I image on a large screen.
 
great captures!!!! Especially no 2 :)

went to pistonheads show last year and it was brilliant - was it another show?

thanks for sharing them! (y)
 
Number 2 for me. I think most generations of Mustang lend themselves to that kind of shot (with the possible exception of the early Fox bodies)
 
They're good shots, but I'm not convinced by the pistonheads days...

They're teaching bad habits by lighting the way they are doing it like that.

The process you should be doing in a studio is:

1. move the car into place how you want it.
2. get the camera to the composition how you want it. don't more it from then.
3. light the background to get smooth lighting on the car and show the shape of the car.
4. light the details of the car if required
5. light the background smoothly so that you can shop it in.

From shots I've seen of the pistonheads shoot people are putting their tripods side by side and snap away. They should be teaching you to shoot for the precise location of the camera... you're also going to get lots of light spill and bad reflections with that much to reflect on the car.

For the situation you've got some good shots though :)
 
GFWilliams said:
They're good shots, but I'm not convinced by the pistonheads days...

They're teaching bad habits by lighting the way they are doing it like that.

The process you should be doing in a studio is:

1. move the car into place how you want it.
2. get the camera to the composition how you want it. don't more it from then.
3. light the background to get smooth lighting on the car and show the shape of the car.
4. light the details of the car if required
5. light the background smoothly so that you can shop it in.

From shots I've seen of the pistonheads shoot people are putting their tripods side by side and snap away. They should be teaching you to shoot for the precise location of the camera... you're also going to get lots of light spill and bad reflections with that much to reflect on the car.

For the situation you've got some good shots though :)
Click to expand...

I actually agree George, it was a bit of a free for all - you drive the car in, grab a spot and then take some photos...

The beginning of the day though is spent with the tog from What Car / Autocar, who basically gets the 'example' car, puts it into the middle in the composition he wants, locks off his tripod, then spends the next hour directing his assistant round to the various lights, asking him to move, turn, flood, spot, barn door off the light until it strikes the car exactly as he wants it.

Then he takes his test shot, if he doesn't like it, then he starts the lights off again.

Once he has the standard shot in the bag, he then can do stuff like the composition shots, which I have tried to do at the bottom with the Jag where you light each part individually.

All in all, I found the day good fun, met lots of nice people, some of whom I hope have heed my advise and joined here. Watched a tog in action for the first half of the day and then tried to recreate that in the afternoon.

You are quite local to me (George), so if you ever want someone to come along and assist, or even if you don't mind showing me, I would love to see an outside piece come together.

Regards

Paul
 
Snowball said:
I actually agree George, it was a bit of a free for all - you drive the car in, grab a spot and then take some photos...

The beginning of the day though is spent with the tog from What Car / Autocar, who basically gets the 'example' car, puts it into the middle in the composition he wants, locks off his tripod, then spends the next hour directing his assistant round to the various lights, asking him to move, turn, flood, spot, barn door off the light until it strikes the car exactly as he wants it.

Then he takes his test shot, if he doesn't like it, then he starts the lights off again.

Once he has the standard shot in the bag, he then can do stuff like the composition shots, which I have tried to do at the bottom with the Jag where you light each part individually.

All in all, I found the day good fun, met lots of nice people, some of whom I hope have heed my advise and joined here. Watched a tog in action for the first half of the day and then tried to recreate that in the afternoon.

You are quite local to me (George), so if you ever want someone to come along and assist, or even if you don't mind showing me, I would love to see an outside piece come together.

Regards

Paul
Click to expand...

I've just emailed Paul (Garlick) about the day and am regretting not just talking to him about it last week when I went to Wilton with the ph peeple:
http://pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=22367

You're more than welcome to come along to a shoot - drop me an email:
george (at) gfwilliams.net
make sure you mention assistant in there or I won't find it when I search for assistant at a later date!

George
 
I saw the shots you did in the studio George of the GT3 and although fantastic as they are, you where alone in the studio and not with 9 other paying people with you. This you have to understand comes into play a great deal with the amount of freedom you have to position your equipment ( IE "people are putting their tripods side by side and snap away").

I'm speaking from experience as I attended the June session, I also arrived late after getting abit lost in Teddington which was not ideal as it ment I was at the back. However in the afternoon I got time to pose my 1275mini and having 9 other people there to move lights was great.

I dont know how much it cost you/client to hire the studio space for the day but im sure that it wasnt the cost of the pistonheads day, once considering the use of pete the pro for the hole day aswell.

All in IMO of course.
 
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