As some of you might know I have added videography to my business and am incredibly excited about the addition. In order to grow my videography portfolio with the content I would like to be hired for I am undertaking a few personal projects and one of them involves Harry from English Wheel Fabrication.
A they had been working on for some time was the Ferrari 625 TRC Le-Mans Prototype replica. It was built from the ground up – everything you see and the stuff you cannot see was hand built by Harry and the team.
I had been waiting for a while to shoot the Ferrari and when the stars aligned 2 days before it was delivered to Cape Town I got the opportunity. As it turned out, the night I was there to shoot we had load shedding, so the two techniques I was going to use to light the shots were perfect as neither involved electricity.
For both techniques I shot the Ferrari 625 TRC Le-Mans Prototype with the lights on and off.
Flash photography
The first technique involves using a portable flash to light multiple images which are combined into the final image. It does take a bit of practise as you need to visualise what you are doing with the lighting. The main thing is to make sure you have enough shots with the light in the right place.
This technique provides a very clean look for the images and if you take your time, you can create beautiful 3D lighting.
You will need a sturdy tripod, camera and a battery powered flash. It can be one with a speedlight but it does make it a little harder as a speedlight is not very powerful. The other item you need is an app like the Canon Camera app to control the camera and see what you have just shot. That way you can perfect your lighting before moving to light the next area.
My Gear:
Canon EOS R5, Canon EF 24-70II, Manfrotto 055 tripod, Manfrotto 410 Geared Head, an Elinchrom ELB 400 portable flash and the Canon Camera Connect app.
LIGHT PAINTING
The light painting technique can be as simple or as complicated as you would like it to be. From a single pass all around the vehicle to multiple passed to light specific areas of the bodywork.
I find this technique uniquely satisfying because the highlight and colour surrounding it is very dramatic.
Due to the nature of the technique, you will almost never get the same result with two different cars let alone the same car and that is what makes it exciting.
For this technique the shutter is set to about ten seconds during which time I walk along the car holding my “Lightstick” 🙂
As with the flash technique, you will need a sturdy tripod, camera and a continuous light source. It can be a battery powered LED light or ideally a Light tube like the NANLITE Pavotube or the Godox LC500R RGB LED Light which I use.
My Gear:
Canon EOS R5, Canon EF 24-70II, Manfrotto 055 tripod, Manfrotto 410 Geared Head and an Godox LC500R RGB LED Light Stick. And let’s not forget the Canon Camera Connect app.
Photographers, want to learn to light like this?
I suspect it was my time in the advertising industry that led to my love of adding lighting to an image. When I was shooting weddings, lighting was a critical element for me. There was a look I wanted for the images that natural light just could not provide. I remember in the early days when I was one of the first using the off camera flash technique, there was a lot of learning on the job and shooting by the seat of my pants to create some killer images.
If you would like to learn to light like this, send an email to q@quintinmills.co.za and join me for the next automotive lighting workshop.