Shoot cars at night, inside under bad lights

Frasca

So i just started a new job at a car dealership, photographing Porsches in a garage under bright bad lights at night... any suggestions? :scratch
I have a Nikon D60 with a kit lens, nothing special, thanks
-Samantha

Cygnus Studios

What kind of lights and how many?

Your best option is to move the car to a more suitable location. Some dealers are likely to agree if you can show an image of the location with a car to simulate the final concept.

If that is not an option.

If you have the ability to stretch a sheet above the car and diffuse the light that would be a start.
Another option if you can is to shut off the lights, shoot at a long exposure and paint the car with a flash light or other portable light.

jhelms

Sounds like a pretty cool job!

Are the cars on dark pavement or white/light concrete?

One thing I've done to help out is to wet dark pavement and/or wait until after a rain to take the pics (that may not be an option here), and if it's concrete I use a 2 or 4 stop gradual ND filter, turned upside down so that I can expose for the car and not blow out the concrete pad.

Takes some trial and error, here's an example - not my favorite shot, but without the NDGrad the sky would have been totally black and the concrete totally blown out:

Frasca

This is the exact garage and time of day he wants the pics taken in and as you can tell there a lot of lights and its crappy quality



I just want to take better pictures to make the cars look better and maybe they can sell more! thanks

jhelms

Frasca wrote:

This is the exact garage and time of day he wants the pics taken in and as you can tell there a lot of lights and its crappy quality



I just want to take better pictures to make the cars look better and maybe they can sell more! thanks

Ahh... it's a work garage - sorry I was thinking parking garage.

Anything you can do to eliminate background distractions would be best. Maybe some exposures with all of the lights off and ONLY light painting the car would work to black out all the stuff behind the car...

Cygnus Studios

Frasca wrote:

This is the exact garage and time of day he wants the pics taken in and as you can tell there a lot of lights and its crappy quality

You are certainly limited. You have some choices if the owner won't budge on the location.

1. Shoot tight on the car. Limit what is in the frame.

2. Turn off as many of the lights as possible.

3. Shoot as high up as possible. Get a ladder if necessary.

4. Don't shoot the entire car. Think fine art shots.

5. Shoot the car in sections and put together in photoshop.

And finally, you could drop the job. Explain to the owner that you are not a miracle worker, and if they truly want "pro" shots, you need more latitude in the process.

mercphoto

Frasca wrote:

I just want to take better pictures to make the cars look better and maybe they can sell more! thanks

I myself have wondered if that would really sell cars faster or not.

And finally, you could drop the job. Explain to the owner that you are not a miracle worker, and if they truly want "pro" shots, you need more latitude in the process.

Agreed, that is an option to consider. Try some of the suggestions given and see if you are happy with the results. If not try to get some latitude. If not it might be worth turning down the job.

By the way, how much you getting per picture, or per car? PM if you don't want to say in public. Thanks!

orangeradish

Try lighting the car only with a flash and make the ambient light on the background disappear with a fast shutter speed.

Frasca

haha yah its a service garage, ive worked at the dealership for 3 yrs and since school has taken up most of my week my newly promoted boss told me i could take the pictures of the cars for the website cause he didnt have any time. So its not really something where i would quit but he knows I'm into photography so it could be fun.
Im gonna look into getting a better flash i only have the kit one and see how they look with the lights off and a fast shutter speed.. i dont start for till the 18th so i have some time to try it out in my garage at home
thanks for the all input!

mercphoto

Maybe in six months report back and tell us if they think better photos had any meaningful impact on traffic, inquiries and sales. Thanks!

951porsche

To get nice dramatic shots that will subdue the lighting I'd vote for getting 2 powerful flashes.

Heres a shot I did at a dyno day. Similar situation, metal halide overhead lighting and a mix of outdoor ambient to boot.





I used 2 high mounted sb-800s fired with CLS from my on board flash. I'm using alot of power which is why the overhead lights look so dim. You will need alot of punch to overwhelm the MH lights, but once you do you get control of the stage and can get nice results. If it were at night I'd Gel the flash to match the overhead lights so that you don't have a mix of colors.

jhelms

Are you 100% limited to having to shoot these in the working garage?

If you could get them outside, even just for a minute you'd have a new world of opportunities to make them look good and crop out the distracting elements.

Here's a few I did recently for an MB dealership:

Frasca

those are great! i wish i had the location like that. but yeah, its a pain to move them outside cause the dealership is in such a horrible location (comm ave in boston) the only place to move it would be outside in front of the dealership and theres too many other cars out there it would be very distracting, im going in today to talk things over.. thanks for the input!:D

mmmatt

These are all done with a 3 light setup. One mono light on the hood facing down, one on the front side of the car, and one on the back wall to add a little interest to the background. The hood and front side lights used soft boxes and the background was an umbrella. This is a $300 ebay monolight kit. This guy specificaly wanted "artistic views that draw peoples attention only to the car"











The detail shots I did some with on-camera and some with a single monolight







Matt

AdamV

My internet director and GM really belive in pic quality. They think it sells more cars. I guess its subjusctive no way to actually track that kind of thing.