100 Years Of Indy 500: Photographing Race Cars For Sports Illustrated

how to photograph cars tutorialOne of the most important things any photographer can do to push their career forward is to take on assignments that are beyond what they feel comfortable shooting. When Todd Rosenberg was approached by Sports Illustrated for a commemorative issue, he was asked to shoot 10 historic cars from the last century of the Indianapolis 500. The only problem was Todd had never photographed an automobile before in his life! Using advice given by car photographer Michael Furman, Todd built a large studio (which included a 10'x30' Chimera softbox) directly inside the auto museum. Check out this great interview conducted by PhotoShelter as Todd discusses how he organized the shoot as well as some business tips on how he got the client in the first place. Also check out all of the images on the Picade Indy 500 page.

Patrick Hall's picture

Patrick Hall is a founder of Fstoppers.com and a photographer based out of Charleston, South Carolina.

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5 Comments

Love it!  I don't know how many jobs I've taken that I thought were out of my skill level.  And then came out pushing my skill to another level!

why is it when FS posts great stuff like this, no one comments but the amateur stuff gets tons of buzz. I don't think people realize how important most of what he said was or how important it is to study all the other masters. I recently shot a series of choppers in New York and having HUGE light is the key. I think I'm going to have the client use something like this next time.

Good post FS 

Ha yeah I have no idea...I was just talking to Lee about this.  I guess most of our readers aren't interested in the professional perspective as much as they hipster perspective?   I hope that's not the case :)

Hell no, these videos are the reason I visit FS once a week during Saturday breakfast! Gimme pro stuff! 

I think that fstoppers has a unique audience. You have those that just WANT more and more exposure to photography because they are very serious about camera work, and then you have those that are more tech enthusiast or hobby photographers. People want simple videos because they probably wont be shooting cars or models in Fiji. I think fstoppers is the BEST site for photography education, I just wished people would get more into clips like these and some of the others that get sent to you. I know I have learned a lot since I have frequented this site. 

What a great resource this site is.