Magazine style shots

shabba

shabba

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Ok I love cars and I love photography but rarely combine the two enough for my liking, I’d love to be able to re-produce some shots like I see every month in EVO magazine.

In my view the photography in this magazine is superb, very impressive indeed. Thing is I’m not sure how they get their shots, obviously some are panning stuff - and I assume that the head on shots must be taken maybe hanging out of a boot from a support car? Or are they done with large extending mounts which are they photoshop’d out after?

There is a shot of the electric SLS in this months magazine which is stunning, the lighting on both the car, building behind and backdrop is amazing.

Anyone else read EVO and can comment, or any experienced car photographer care to comment?
 
I can't open the link, takes me to a registration page, but that is the mag.

Maybe you can link the images directly?

The standard in the magazine is top level (IMO) - I'd love to know exactly how they achive the images.
 
Any more detail? Exact techniques and such? This is an area I'd very much to learn more about, but not sure where to look for this information. 'motorsport' just tends to bring up panning shot tips etc.
 
Can you possibly explain things in more detail? What is rubbish, using a rig for shooting, or the shots in the mag?

I will post somewhere else as this thread has been of no real use.
 
*OK first off I realise this is in the wrong section as such, but I posted under Motorsport and frankley I didnt get any useful replies, I know posting here will get more views and hopefully more replies.*

Ok I love cars and I love photography but rarely combine the two enough for my liking, I’d love to be able to re-produce some shots like I see every month in EVO magazine (popular car mag, does alot of high end supercar articles)

In my view the photography in this magazine is superb, very impressive indeed. Thing is I’m not sure how they get their shots, obviously some are panning stuff - and I assume that the head on shots must be taken maybe hanging out of a boot from a support car? Or are they done with large extending mounts which are they photoshop’d out after? Someone has mention a 'rig' - anyone care to give more details on this?

There is a shot of the electric SLS in this months magazine which is stunning, the lighting on both the car, building behind and backdrop is amazing. I'm pretty sure its not HDR, but its so well lit yet has no obvious signs of staged lighting from flashes.

Anyone else read EVO and can comment, or any experienced car photographer care to comment?

I really want to improve my car photograpy, panning is fine but I'd love to get some better shots - there is a photo of the month competition on the owners forum of the car I drive, I won it once but haven't had much inspiration for new shots of the car since.

I'd really appreciate any decent replies as I can't find much out there above the basics.
 
shabba said:
Can you possibly explain things in more detail? What is rubbish, using a rig for shooting, or the shots in the mag?

I will post somewhere else as this thread has been of no real use.
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Hey, Cheers for that...(y)

It'll be the same people reading it elsewhere...:shrug:

Not many people on here do this sort of thing and those that do aren't online all the time - give it a week or so and try and learn some patience in the meantime, eh...?
 
ooh, weirdly i can help with this from the other side of the lens! had a shoot down at a test track in surrey a couple of months ago with my car and two others like it at various stages of modification :)

sadly i can't post any of the results till the magazine's out and the embargo is lifted, but you're spot on, the moving shots of two of us side by side, or with one in front, were done with the journalist driving a punto and the photographer hanging out the back. they look fast, but were done at no more than 25mph. likewise we then went round the track with each of us driving past the punto, photographer hung out of the side and got shots of us whizzing past, and again from the back, we kept in position and drove at a steady speed and he drove round us, past us and through our formation to get the shots he needed.

from a driver's point of view, you need to be MUCH closer than you'd possibly expect to the photographer's car & lens, far closer than you'd ever drive on a road... was a good lesson in how to control my car and not hit the one in front, lol!

then we drove up a very steep incline and did a whole set of static shots of each car, the interiors etc, and then two at a time together, with a lot of lying down and strategically placed off-camera flash. it was fabulous fun and it made me wish i'd brought my camera to the shoot so i could attempt to replicate!

the photos i've seen so far are fantastic and i promise i'll link once the mag's out - i'm not sure which issue it is but it's the "My First MR2" feature in Japanese Performance Car magazine :)

good luck with yours, i'd love to see the results - i'm planning to get some of the other mr2 owners and their cameras together and see what we can achieve together one day :D
 
creamykiwi - massive thanks, this is exactly the sort of info I'm after, thank you for taking the time to post.

I have a convertible so I guess that would be easier for haning out of while someone else drives and we have the subject car following.

I'm guessing they would be using around 1/150 to 1/250 shutter speeds, and F 5.6 to 8 or so.

I have a camera mount which attaches to the bodywork, but I think the camera still moves around to much with it, that and although I've done 3 figure speeds with a video camera attached its still a worry it will fall off/get damaged.
 
Fair point, just usually the site seems flooded with great replies. Also I'd rather no replies than really short one liners that don't give much info.

I will keep researching. Apologies for my inpatience.
 
Well, having done a few car mage shoots including a recent evo car shoot (but I can't share the images as the shoot's not been published yet) - all of the above.

Some from a shoot last year...
You'll get a tog hanging out the back of an estate car
119125856.jpg


or through the sunroof is another way. Mostly it's at about 25-40mph.

I've got a similar setup as this:
sc2.jpg
for clamping onto the grab bars of my motorbike, but I've also seen similar used clamped onto the anchor or tie down bolt that's screwed into a cars bumper.

For detail shots, flash is almost always used, dialled right down on manual mode for fill in and adjusted to suit. Static shots are usually about a location and are decided beforehand.

Then you've got to decide what the pic is being used for, so a double page spread, is it the title rage so will need room for a headline, or will there be text around it.
So this was a shot with room for the headline:
122225026.jpg


Rigs generally don't get used as they take time to setup and are seen by some as overused, but there's always the exception and the opportunity for a stonking shot.
 
creamykiwi said:
from a driver's point of view, you need to be MUCH closer than you'd possibly expect to the photographer's car & lens, far closer than you'd ever drive on a road... was a good lesson in how to control my car and not hit the one in front, lol!
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Tog had a 5D mk2 and a 24-70 lens. You need to drive about 2-3 feet from the bumper but it feels like you're touching, all the while the tog is hanging out the rear of the car, quite low :eek:

Or we've been driving around a runway about 2-4 feet away level with the rear wheel of the car, with the tog hanging out the car window.
 
Have a look in the Transportation section for rig shots or do a google search for it as this is very common in Automotive photography.Also do a search for Automotive lighting tips on google as most of it is about lighting the car correctly and having the right choice of location.
 
excellent reply thank you, this approach makes sense now - I thought they must do it that way. Cool.
 
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Oh and it's not all glamour. It's actually very hard work.
The Brecon beacon shoot meant me getting up at 4:30am, the journalist and tog got up earlier. I got home about 7pm. The Evo shoot was a 9am start but we worked all day and finished about 6pm, so I got home somewhere around 8:30-9pm having left at 6am.

Then there's processing...

But don't think you need exotic locations. I've done shoots outside my house and on top of a carpark. Just get creative with the lighting.
 
Byker28i said:
Oh and it's not all glamour. It's actually very hard work.
The Brecon beacon shoot meant me getting up at 4:30am, the journalist and tog got up earlier. I got home about 7pm. The Evo shoot was a 9am start but we worked all day and finished about 6pm, so I got home somewhere around 8:30-9pm having left at 6am.

Then there's processing...

But don't think you need exotic locations. I've done shoots outside my house and on top of a carpark. Just get creative with the lighting.
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I'd be really interested to see some of your work and read anything you think is worth reading, got any links to images/good threads?

The thread linked here earlier is a great one too. Thanks all, this is really helpful.
 
Yup - for links check the other thread, also check out potn http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

Really, it's just a case of reading and trying/experimenting.

My fav shot of my car is the one outside my house, lit with two battery powered camcorder lights. It took 3 evenings of playing using flashes, torches etc and finally climbing the street light to put bin bags over the top to kill the sodium colour before I got something I was happy with.

Even now I think I would do it differently.
 
Yup - that was me.
Can't show the pics from that yet as I've sold some and the article's not come out. Was that the old one with the Griff 200 badge on?
 
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That back straight is LOOOOOOOOOONG!

Is it a proper Griff 200, they were either 195 or 281bhp?
 
1965 Griffith 400 V8. Ford 289 Hi-Po engine - supposed 271bhp. Published power figures were never representative (see below), but this has extra tweaks over standard Hi-Po spec including a Cobra cast sump, and cross-over exhausts and an Edelbrock inlet manifold.

The American SAE figures allowed highest possible compression ratio, an exhaust system that is not representative of the exhaust when installed in the car, no power sapping alternator or generator, an externally driven water pump, and the fuel and mixture is optimised for each rev point rather than the carburettor actually fitted to production models. Different correction factors for pressure, temperature and humidity means that comparing American HP with European HP is difficult!
 
shabba said:
That back straight is LOOOOOOOOOONG!

Is it a proper Griff 200, they were either 195 or 281bhp?
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It was a really early one so I'm guessing the previous figure as the Griff 500's were about 300bhp.

The runway is pretty long as well.
IMG_0108.jpg
 
andrewc said:
1965 Griffith 400 V8. Ford 289 Hi-Po engine - supposed 271bhp. Published power figures were never representative (see below), but this has extra tweaks over standard Hi-Po spec including a Cobra cast sump, and cross-over exhausts and an Edelbrock inlet manifold.

The American SAE figures allowed highest possible compression ratio, an exhaust system that is not representative of the exhaust when installed in the car, no power sapping alternator or generator, an externally driven water pump, and the fuel and mixture is optimised for each rev point rather than the carburettor actually fitted to production models. Different correction factors for pressure, temperature and humidity means that comparing American HP with European HP is difficult!
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And it looks great too
IMG_8852-Edit.jpg
 
I'd expect 140, from memory I'm sure I was doing 130 in an Evo 7RS, and that thing is running very short of puff over 120.

Got to love a nice TVR, good work guys.

Back on topic, I have a friend with a Discovery 4, should be handy for a lead car - will get a subject car or use mine and hopefully a motorbike too (his sister has a Duke 848).
 
ones of the car moving are likely to be rig shots (big tether attached to car with camera, long shutter speed and move the car then tether removed in photoshop). I think the moving shots are not very good but thats just my opinion. I'm not a fan of rig shots, they have been done to death and you need to be very creative to get somthing thats not bland. You see quite a few people doing rig shots but although they can remove the rig in PS the actual composition of the shots are pretty poor and this is more self evident when you see their static shots.



shabba said:
Can you possibly explain things in more detail? What is rubbish, using a rig for shooting, or the shots in the mag?

I will post somewhere else as this thread has been of no real use.
Click to expand...
 
better find a smooth bit of road thats not busy as hanging out of the boot of a car ain't exactly legal lol


p.s you did get replies in the other thread

shabba said:
Back on topic, I have a friend with a Discovery 4, should be handy for a lead car - will get a subject car or use mine and hopefully a motorbike too (his sister has a Duke 848).
Click to expand...
 
POAH said:
better find a smooth bit of road thats not busy as hanging out of the boot of a car ain't exactly legal lol
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which is sometimes where the clamp onto the rear of the bike works well.
"get close, but just try not to hit me"
 
I hate you people with your TVRs. I can't get insured on them at the moment. It's a bit of a shame really, as early Chimaeras fall into my price range, but I resent paying £4.5k insurance.

I can't wait for the TVR copy of Octane.
 
Best I don't tell you then that it's £408 fully comp, 7K miles a year and trackday insurance for me.

I pay about £280 for a boring family car, mind you even less for the 1200 motorbike.

You just have to work your way up, plus it's good to show you've had a lesser performance car before a TVR. It makes the insurance companies happier.

The other thing to ask is if they give discounts for any additional driver training.
 
Without meaning to go more off topic a TVR is a car that the purchase price is a small factor, they aren't everyday cars and you really do need a garage too. Plus the running costs can be very high, I mean they could be fine but then one dya it could cost you a small fortune - you just never know. 4.5k for insurance is insane, you must be really young/live in london/prevous points/bad/small no claims bonus or all of the above!

I pay £600 for a group 19 car and I'm 28, but full NCB etc. I thought that was a rip off but was the cheapest I could get with my NCB guarenteed. its not exactly the fasest car in the world either! £408 is ace with ther trackday, who is that with?
 
Mannings. But I'm a sensible risk, have a garage and live in a nice quiet area. ;)
 
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