C a r P h o t o g r a P h y  A l a i n B r i o t Alain Briot P u b l i s h i n g T C ABLE OF ONTENTS Prologue Chapter 22: Daytime Rig Shots Section 1: Introduction to Car Photography 1-With camera on tripod on passenger side Chapter 1: About Photographing Cars 2-With camera attached to car Chapter 2: The Car Photography Market 3-With camera mounted to car with pole Chapter 3: Equipment for Car Photography 4-With camera mounted to car with cup Chapter 4: The GoPro Camera 5-With camera attached to car window Chapter 5: Preparing Cars for Photography Sessions Chapter 23: Night Rig Shots without Flashlight Chapter 6: My First Car shoot Chapter 24: Car Photography with Flashlight Chapter 25: Night Rig Shots with Flashlight Section 2: Finding Cars to Photograph Chapter 26: Light Trails Chapter 7: Where to find Cars to Photograph ? Chapter 8: Photographing Car shows and Auctions Section 5: Compositions Created in the Computer Chapter 9: Photographing Racing Events Chapter 27: Cropping the Photograph Chapter 28: Replacing & Blurring Background Section 3: Car Compositions created in Camera Chapter 29: Using a Colored Gradient Chapter 10: Photographing Cars on Location Chapter 30: Using a Vignette Chapter 11 : Photographing Cars in Beautiful Places Chapter 31: Using a Texture Overlay Chapter 12: Photographing in Industrial locations Chapter 32: Creating Car Collages Chapter 13: Photographing Cars in Unique Settings Chapter 33: Creating Zoom Blurs Chapter 14: Photographing Cars in Different Light Chapter 34: Creating B&W Car Photographs Chapter 15: Photographing Old cars Chapter 35: Creating Colorized B&W Photographs Chapter 16: Photographing New Cars Chapter 36: Photographing & Creating Reflections Chapter 17: Photographing Historical Cars Chapter 37: Using Photoshop Filters Creatively Chapter 18: Photographing Car Details Chapter 38: A car Shoot from Start to Finish Chapter 19: Selective Focus Photographs 1-With long lenses & wide aperture Conclusion 2-With a Lensbaby Chapter 20: People and their Cars Appendixes Appendix A: Photographing your car to sell it Section 4: Rolling Car & Rig Shots Appendix B: Notes on Car Photograph Chapter 21: Rolling Car Shots Appendix C: Digital Car Wash 1-Panning Appendix D: Photographs that tell a Story 2-Panning blurs Appendix E: Car Facts (found in each chapter) 3-Drive along photography 4-Rig Photography  1 Car Photography Car Photography Photographing your car and the cars you like in natural light and without a studio by Alain Briot _________________________________________________________________________________________ © Alain Briot 2012 http://www.beautiful-landscape.com 2 Car Photography Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal –a commitment to excellence- that will enable you to attain the success you seek. Mario Andretti _________________________________________________________________________________________ © Alain Briot 2012 http://www.beautiful-landscape.com 3 Car Photography Prologue You need great passion, because everything you do with great pleasure, you do well. Juan Manuel Fangio My primary photographic subject is landscape photography. I came to photograph cars not as a professional occupation, but because I wanted beautiful photographs of my personal cars for my own enjoyment. We all have cars. Or we will all have cars. That is, unless we committed ourselves to public transportation for the rest of our lives, or we resolved ourselves to using a bicycle or walking as our only form of locomotion. Even then, the knowledge in this book still applies to you. You just need to photograph other people’s cars instead of your personal cars. The fact that you have no car, even though it is quite rare these days, and even though I expect it to address only a small minority of readers, is not a reason to put this book down. There are cars all over the place, and if it so happens you do not own one, or do not own one that you want to photograph, there are plenty of cars around as far as photography is concerned! Furthermore, many of the cars we want to photograph are not owned by us. They are either too expensive, too unique, or simply not for sale. This is the case for race cars, in particular those being raced at this time, because they are the sole property of the race teams. It is also the case for unique vehicles that belong to museums or to private collectors. Some cars are simply too pricy to purchase. Finally, regardless of our level of income, we simply cannot own all the cars that we like. While some make a good try at it, assembling fascinating collections over years of collecting, doing so is not commonplace. In the end, for most car enthusiasts, seeing cars and bringing back photographs of these cars is how we enjoy most of the vehicles we like. I should say, bringing back good photographs, or better bringing back great photographs. This is what this book is all about. Owning a great photograph of a great car is almost as good as owning a great car. Not quite the same, I agree. You cannot drive the photograph, you cannot hear the scream of the engine when looking at a photograph, you cannot smell the rich scent of leather, oil and gas, but it comes close. When you have seen and experienced the real car, all this can come back to you when you look at a great image of the vehicle. Why? Because a great photograph captures not just the image of the car but its soul, its essence. It captures what a specific car is all about. It is, in its own way, what the car represents to you and, if you can share your vision with others through your photographs, to others as well. However, while cars are beautiful and exciting, and while sport and luxury cars are unique, it is easy to create photographs that are commonplace. Creating expressive, artistic and unique photographs that go beyond representing the car in a literal fashion is challenging. Doing so requires knowledge. The purpose of this book is to provide you with this knowledge. _________________________________________________________________________________________ © Alain Briot 2012 http://www.beautiful-landscape.com 6 Car Photography Chapter 1 About Photographing Cars I think that cars today are almost the exact equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals: I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which appropriates them as a purely magical object. Roland Barthes 1 - Car photography and landscape photography Car photography requires specific skills and knowledge. Although I practice landscape photography regularly (it is my primary subject) I found out that only part of the skills and knowledge I use in landscape photography apply to car photography. Certainly, knowledge of light is similar. Good light is good light regardless of which subject or location you photograph. Similarly, knowledge of my cameras is the same. How they work, which functions I use, which lens I select and so on does carry over. Finally, knowledge of framing and of composition does carry over as well, but only to some extent. As we will see in this book, when photographing cars, composition needs to be approached differently than when photographing other subjects. The main difference between cars and landscapes is that with landscape you go to the subject and you position yourself at a time and place that is the most propitious for the kind of image you want to create. When photographing cars you have to position the car where you want it to be in relationship to the background. This is the main difference with landscape photography, and even though it may seem minor at first, this is what makes car photography unique. While in landscape photography the landscape is the main subject, in car photography the car is the main subject and the landscape is there as a ‘backdrop,’ as a ‘décor’ so to speak. In fact, you don’t have to photograph the car in the landscape. This is only one option among many. However, regardless of what background you use, the background is chosen for its interest in relationship to the car. What matters most is not the setting in which the car is shown. What matters most is how the car looks in a particular setting. What is important is how this setting enhances, dramatizes, and ‘says’ about the car. Not being a studio photographer, I personally prefer to photograph the car in a natural environment. This is the focus of this book. Plus, this is how most if not all of us photograph our cars. We do not have access to a studio large enough to fit our cars, provided we have access to a studio at all. The closest we can get to that is our garage, but it is usually far from being a photography studio! 2 - Location, location, location Location is everything when photographing a car. A fantastic car in the wrong location will look out of place and may even cause the viewer to lose interest in the car and to dislike the photograph. You want the location to either complement the car or contrast with the car. In the first situation the chosen location goes with the car: we expect to see the car in this location. In the second situation the location clashes with the car: we do not expect to see the car in this location. Examples of locations that complement the car include photographing a racecar in a race setting, either on a racetrack, in the pits, or in a garage or preparation shop. Or photographing a luxury car in front of a luxury home, a luxury hotel, or at a country club. Or again photographing a 4x4 in an off-road environment. _________________________________________________________________________________________ © Alain Briot 2012 http://www.beautiful-landscape.com 7 Car Photography Examples of locations that contrast with the car include photographing a luxury car in an industrial setting, for example in a factory, a smelter, a power-generating station, or in front of a graffiti covered wall, in a dilapidated building or in other run-down locations. These are locations where we do not expect to see this kind of car, therefore we are surprised when we see the photograph and we tend to look at it more carefully. Regardless of the location you decide to use, be sure to scout this location ahead of time. Be careful of what is on the ground and behind the car. Unless you plan to replace the background, make sure there’s nothing distracting behind the car: no telephone poles or trees sticking out from the top of the car, and no other distracting elements. You want to avoid cluttered backgrounds as much as possible because you want the car to be the most interesting element in the photograph. The background is there to add further interest to the car, not to take away interest from the car. Also, make sure that the background is interesting, that it adds something to the photograph. Otherwise, minimize the amount of background you use around the car. There is no need to feature a large and uninteresting background in the photograph. Remember that if something does not add interest to the photograph, it will take away interest from the photograph. Therefore only feature the background prominently if it is interesting and visually appealing. In selecting a location, it is important to remember that a quality photograph is not taken, it is made. In other words, a good photograph is a construction, not an accident. Luck, if any, is not what creates a good photograph. Skill, knowledge, deliberate intent and specific choices are the elements that help create good photographs. 2 – Why I photograph cars It is interesting to pay attention at how most people look at car photographs. There is an assumption, especially when the photographs show my own cars, that the purpose is to brag about owning a specific vehicle. The fact is I photograph cars because I love cars, be it my own cars or someone else’s, not to brag about them. I have been photographing cars for at least 5 years now, and if I were taking these photos to brag about owning specific cars, I would have stopped a long time ago! Bragging doesn’t go on for years. It is a short lived thing. You brag, people get envious (if the bragging worked), you achieve what you wanted, and you move on. You don’t go on doing it for years and years. Plus, regardless of how long you brag about owning a vehicle, you don’t put all your efforts into creating the finest car photographs possible. You don’t spend hours planning a shot, composing the photograph, making sure everything is done right, processing and optimizing the photograph to get optimal quality, printing it to the highest standards, and making sure you are expressing a personal vision. No. If your purpose is to brag, you grab a quick shot with your cell phone and post it on Facebook. Bragging isn’t about the quality of the photograph. It’s about owning something that others don’t have. Who cares how good the photo of that thing is. What matters is you have it and they don’t. Your skills as a photographer are not at stake here. It’s your buying power that is! Quite frankly, I photograph cars for the same reason I photograph landscapes. Because I love them. That’s all. I love landscapes and I love cars. I admit that having a passion for both is quite unusual because there isn’t a whole lot in common between both. One is man made while the other is nature made. One is the product of science and technology while the other is the product of geology and natural forces. But to me, the one thing they have in common is that they are both beautiful. Landscapes are beautiful and cars are beautiful. Not all landscapes and not all cars of course, although the case can be made that with the proper light, composition and vision all landscapes and all cars can be made to look beautiful. _________________________________________________________________________________________ © Alain Briot 2012 http://www.beautiful-landscape.com 13 Car Photography Chapter 2 The Car Photography Market You can have any color, as long as it’s black. Henry Ford, referring to the Model T Ford 1 - A niche market Car photography is an expanding niche market. There are more and more car collectors in the US and in the world. This is due to the growing number of historical cars that are being restored and to the fact that collector cars are now considered investment vehicles. While a new car depreciates the minute you drive it off the lot, collector cars keep or increase in value after you purchase them (this is a personal opinion and not an investment recommendation). If you make a living selling fine art photography, photographing collector cars may be a profitable option. It fits in with portrait photography, pet photography and other types of photography in which you photograph either a person or a person's property. In car photography photographing cars owned by private collectors is particularly lucrative. People who own collectible cars are often affluent and can afford to hire a photographer. They also have an incentive to get high quality photographs of their vehicles to display in their home or garage, to use as illustrations for essays, interviews, websites, etc. or to use as advertising if they are selling their cars. This is where you come in. 2 – The number and the size of car auctions shows are expanding In January 2011, in the Phoenix, Arizona area alone there were 5 separate car collector auctions: - Barrett-Jackson (Westworld, Scottsdale) - Russo and Steele (Loop 101, Scottsdale) - RM Auctions (Arizona Biltmore, Scottsdale) - Motoexotica Classic Cars (Tolleson) - Gooding & Co. Sales (Scottsdale Fashion Mall) - Silver Auctions (Fort Mc. Dowell) These auctions generated over $200 million in sales and attracted tens of thousands of visitors who came in person to the shows and millions more who watched these auctions on TV. Barrett Jackson is televised on the Speed network nationally and internationally. In 2011 Speed TV offered 40 hours of live TV coverage for the Scottsdale Barrett Jackson auction alone. This shows how important car auctions have become and how much money is tied to these shows. When you sell a collector car at an auction, you need professional photographs of your car. Most car collectors also want to have professional quality photographs of their cars and of other cars they like. For a growing number of investors historical cars represent a viable alternative to traditional investment vehicles such as stock and bonds. The rapid and unexpected up and down fluctuation of stock prices, combined with the recent Wall Street scandals and the dramatic drop in value of home prices, have motivated a large number of investors to look at alternative investments. Historical cars are one of those, and this is generating additional interest to the collectible car market and, by association, to car photography. _________________________________________________________________________________________ © Alain Briot 2012 http://www.beautiful-landscape.com 15 Car Photography Chapter 3 Photographic Equipment for Car Photography Driving fast on the track does not scare me. What scares me is when I drive on the highway I get passed by some idiot who thinks he is Fangio. Juan Manuel Fangio Introduction When selecting gear for car photography you want a combination of features, versatility, practicality and lightness. Your gear must give you professional features and quality, while being practical and easy to carry. This means limiting the number of lenses to a minimum (I carry 3 lenses maximum), keeping the weight down, and making everything fit in a small camera bag. The last thing you want is come unannounced with a huge bag filled with cumbersome and heavy gear! This scares car owners. Big heavy cameras can hit the car and damage it. Plus, the more gear you have the slower you work. Deciding which gear to use becomes an issue because a lot of time is spent selecting the camera, lens or other accessory you are going to use. Car owners don’t always have the patience to wait! They move fast and they want to go. So you have to move as fast as they do, relatively speaking, with your photography. This means having a setup that you can use quickly without unnecessary fussing. 1 - The best cameras are the ones you have with you! Avoid big heavy cameras. The number one quality of a camera when it comes to photographing cars is that it is not too big or too heavy. When I talk about camera size, I don’t refer only to the size of the camera alone. I also refer to the size of the lenses and other equipment. A big camera uses big lenses, needs a big bag to carry it in, and so on. All this gear has to fit in the trunk of your car, and if you use a sports car, the trunk is small. Plus, even if you drive a car with a large trunk, a big, heavy and cumbersome camera bag will limit your mobility. It’s difficult to move around quickly when you carry a lot of equipment! For this reason I favor a relatively small and lightweight camera. I am not saying you need to use a digicam or a cell phone, there is no need to go that far, but I definitely want to avoid using a medium format camera for this type of photography or a big heavy DSLR. Of course, your preferences may, and most likely will, be different than mine. That’s perfectly understandable. What I am describing here is my personal approach, an approach which is characterized by working in the field, not in the studio. It is also characterized by the desire to be as mobile as possible, to work quickly, and to be able to create a variety of different images without having to use different cameras. In other words, my goal when it comes to equipment is to be versatile. As you make your own choices in regards to equipment, keep in mind that the photographs in this book were created with the equipment I recommend. Therefore, if you use the same equipment, you will be able to create the same kind of images. 2 - Cameras At the time I am writing this book I use three camera systems: a Canon 1DsMk3, a Canon 60D and a Canon G12. The 1DsMk3 is the camera I take when I want maximum control and versatility during a shoot. However, it is heavy and cumbersome and that is where the Canon 60D comes in. The 60D is much lighter and can do most of what the 1DsMk3 can do. This is the camera I take with me when I go to a show or other event where I have to walk around a lot and carry my equipment all day. The G12 is the one I take when I _________________________________________________________________________________________ © Alain Briot 2012 http://www.beautiful-landscape.com 21 Car Photography Chapter 4 The GoPro Camera You need great passion, because everything you do with great pleasure, you do well. Juan Manuel Fangio 1 – Introduction DSLRs are great cameras for car photography. They are versatile and for most situations they represent the best compromise between cost, size and image quality. However, there are instances where DSLRs simply don’t work. The main reason being their size, weight and angle of view. There are situations where the lightest DSLR, or even digicam, will simply not work. I became aware of that when trying to fit my Canon 60D inside my Lotus Elise. I was trying to mount the camera on the suction cup rig to photograph me driving at night inside the car. While I was able to attach the suction cup to the inside of the rear window, the camera ended up being located between the driver and passenger seats rather than behind my seat. I was using an 8 mm lens, and even that wasn’t wide enough to show the inside of the car the way I wanted to. This is when I thought of using the GoPro camera instead of a DSLR. The GoPro is extremely small –it literally fits in the palm of your hand – and takes 1/4th, if that much, of the space taken by a DSLR. It is also extremely light. This means that it can be mounted virtually anywhere. In addition the GoPro lens covers 170 degrees of view, nearly half of a circle, which is perfect for close up action photographs. The GoPro is designed for action photographs, comes in different models each designed for specific sports and activities: Motorsports, Surfing and Outdoors, and comes with its own mounting system. The GoPro cameras are sold as packages that include a wide variety of mounts, attachments, waterproof housing, etc. With DSLRs all this gear has to be purchased separately. This makes the GoPro a far less expensive option for sports photography. Certainly, the GoPro has limitations: the camera has no viewfinder therefore the only way to know for sure what you are framing is to use the LCD screen. Unfortunately, the LCD screen is sold separately from the camera, which means an added cost. The maximum resolution is 11 MP and the camera does not record in raw format, only in jpeg format, which means a lower image quality. There is no on-camera flash or flash sync connector for a remote flash unit. Finally, if you want to mount the camera on a regular tripod you need a dedicated tripod mount that is sold separately, another added cost. 2 - Specs for the GoPro HD Hero 2 model Field of view: 170 degrees, 127 degrees and 90 degrees Resolution for photographs: 11 MP, 8 MP and 5 MP Resolution for video: 1080p to 720, 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 960, 1280 x 720, 848 x 480 30 FPS at highest resolution 120 FPS at lowest resolution Shooting speed: 10 Photos in 1 second in burst mode Time-Lapse: every 0.5”, 1”, 2”, 10”, 30”, 60” plus Self-Timer Audio: 3.5mm Stereo External Microphone Input Natural and High Wind Audio Modes Website: www.gopro.com _________________________________________________________________________________________ © Alain Briot 2012 http://www.beautiful-landscape.com