How to shoot a car in a Studio

How to shoot a car in a Studio

If you are reading this the night before  you are going into a HUGE expensive studio to shoot a car, good luck, I was there too.   I did not sleep well the night before, had an upset stomach, and generally stressed out.

(I am 6 foot 3 inches for reference)

The first thing I can tell you is RELAX.   The studio does most of the heavy lifting.  You want to light up the studio not the car.   This will make it easier in post because you will not have to take out hot spots.

Blurred to protect identities

They are going to have some tools to help you out.   I shot in a studio with a turn table that would help place the car in a spot that I wanted.   This made life easy, no one (me) was pushing the car around all day.   Some studios have huge flats.   All you are doing here is going to bounce the light off the flat and onto the car.  In this picture I have two strobes pointed up at the large flat.  There are two that are pointed towards the back and then there is two final ones lighting the model.

If you are really on a high budget you can bring in light boxes.   This is ultimate cheater set up.  You do not need to have lights, they are provided in the box.   They come in different sizes, and the power level can be adjusted.  Here are what they look like covered.

The green dot is an exit sign.
The ladder on the left is over 7 feet tall 

This studio is here in California, www.southbaystudios.com .   They are an excellent studio and I recommend them.   So there you have it a quick tutorial on how to shoot in a studio.   In the end I think the work is totally worth it. 

Thanks for reading and if you have questions, please ask,
Mike