32
Votes
Thom Spierenburg's picture

Mercedes-Benz 300SL

A personal project inside a simple garage in Venlo, Limburg, the Netherlands.

This was my second automotive shoot and I wanted to try something different compared to my previous work, (which was generally lit in/by a spray booth using the existing fluorescent lights and some extra continuous fresnels. I might upload it).

Looking at the distinct shapes and lines of this beautiful car, I was seeking for a moody and contrasty look and feel to enhance it's distinct shape and features.

Since I do not have the luxury of a studio or my own expansive studio lighting, I lit this picture inside a garage, with a handheld studio strobe from (obviously) different angles.
Hard lighting was used for the colours and a little “pop”. Furthermore, i used my small softbox for the shadows and curves of the body.

Apart from all that; the set-up was pretty straight forward, camera mounted on tripod, Fuji EF-42 triggering my handheld Jinbei MII-250 strobe. (I know, an upgrade would serve me well)

After masking the car in photoshop to get rid of the brick wall behind it, I started adding layers containing the different lighting positions.
No repositioning, mirroring or warping were made, this car was crafted by hand and I thought it would do the car justice to preserve it's original shape and form.

Fujifilm XT-1
56 · f/9.0 · 1/180 · ISO 200
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13 Comments

How to be Chosen as Fstoppers Photo of the Day:

https://fstoppers.com/originals/how-be-chosen-fstoppers-picture-day-24218

Thank you very much for considering my photo Rebecca! The info has been updated as you requested.

I feel humbly honoured, thank you so much Rebecca.

Great shot Thom - beautiful car too! Well done in post - very clean edit pulling out the brick wall.

Thanks Will! All I did was add a layer mask in photoshop. Refined it and added some gradient for the spotlight. The shadow was painted by hand :-).

Love it...sure looks like you did it in a pro studio. Nice work!

Thanks Jason!

love it.
great image.
the car has a Portuguese plate :-)

Thank you Rui,
The plate is dutch, meant for old-timers :-)

realy?
its the same as the portuguese plates...

Great image

A very nice photo for a marvelous car. Bravo!

Sometimes it’s not the equipment that matters but what you can do with it. And this surely worked out very well.