VirtualRig Studio is the only software that allows realistic motion blur simulation, and it has many advantages over Photoshop's path blur. In this article, I will walk through the software and explain how to use it.
An agency I work with for product photography hired me to photograph not one, but two race cars. I had already photographed motorbikes, but cars was going to be the first time. With cars the problems are almost always bigger: the surfaces are bigger, the reflections are bigger, the areas to be illuminated are bigger. Everything is bigger.
If you think that photographing Total 24 Hours Spa has anything to do with cucumber slices and a hot stone massage, then you are very wrong indeed. I will say, however, that when you finish photographing one of these endurance races you might need 24 hours in a spa. Have look at this fascinating short documentary to find out more.
Light painting has been a common method for automotive photography, but it is mostly demonstrated on car exteriors. On the other hand, shooting the interior of a car, by using the light painting method can give really good results that can be qualified as a high-end image. In this video, Moe Zainal shows his process from start to finish, including the retouching.
In a saturated market of incoming photographers each holiday or tax season, it is easy to get discouraged when you are trying to get paid clients in the door. When we think of photography sessions we generally tend to lean on the idea of photographing only people in portraits. Families, boudoir, fashion, and even underwater sessions. With so many other creative ways out there to get paid why not tap into another resource for marketing?
Let's be honest, how often do we get perfect conditions where everything just simply falls in the right place?
Automotive rolling shots are great way of capturing cars on the road and in action to give viewers the feeling of speed. Moe Zainal is a professional automotive photographer from Bahrain, and in this video, he shares his tricks that he uses while working.
San Diego, California, content creator Aldryn Estacio of Flytpath, and photographer Spencer Pablo wanted to collaborate together on a fun project. And what would be more fun than using a light equipped drone to light paint a pair of great looking, matte black Teslas at night?
There are several different ways to light your subject in photography. While light painting isn't a new or exclusive technique within automotive photography, it is a fundamental technique car photographers should understand how to use. If you are new to light painting or never used this technique to photograph a vehicle, you may have some questions on where to begin.
I recently spent three days in Ensenada shooting with the talented TEMPT Media crew during the Baja 1000. On the second night while unwinding at our Airbnb, in walks a guy with three beefy rigs with all the lenses wrapped in gaff tape, underneath what would appear to be a layer of dust that most normal human beings wouldn’t subject their Canon 1DXs to.
NO SPOILERS HERE! Just in case you were worried. They say inspiration can come from anywhere, and I have to say that definitely couldn't be more true. For one photographer, it came in the form of one his favorite TV Shows. Commercial automotive photographer Pepper Yandell took his work with automotive photography and digital retouching, and combined it with imagery and concepts from the Netflix Series "Stranger Things" to make a truly unique photograph featuring one Lamborghini, and a monster from the show.
When using a camera on a race track it's best to be cautious, and in this case really lucky. What looks like a back woods rally circuit, there are a multitude of onlookers and spectators for the day's racing. We see the number 50 car becomes airborne on a ramped corner in the beginning of the video, and while attempting to hold the line over compensates for the turn and careens toward a camera man pitched at the end of the inside of the turn.
A few weeks ago, I came across a post on social media from the Jônt about a shoot out contest inside a staged multi-million dollar estate which piqued my interest. Reading more about the shootout, it would be geared toward several different genres of photographers, as they would have vendors on site providing food, drinks, cars, and models at our disposal for the shoot out. First, you had to submit your info along with your portfolio to be one of the selected photographers to join the contest, I figured I would go ahead and throw my name into the hat and see what would happen.
There's a lot more to creating unique and edgy content than keeping a camera fixed to your face. From eating scrumptious tacos and filming rock-busting, high-horsepower off-road race trucks in Baja, Mexico to cruising the scenic Rubicon Trail in the Sierra Nevada creating content for some of the motorsport industry's biggest names, it's all in a week's work if you're Matt Martelli, the creative director and CEO of one of the fastest growing media companies on the U.S. West Coast, Mad Media.
New cars have cameras everywhere – in addition to the almost-ubiquitous backup cameras that will be required standard equipment on all new cars next year, newer cars have front-facing cameras that enable a host of safey-related features. But what if you could use that camera for photography? Turns out that you can, with a little bit of ingenuity and some hacking from Volvo engineers.
There are many professional photographers specializing in automotive photography who would find this disturbing. It's really possible to create professional looking images using your smart phone. All you need to add is a tripod, ND filter, and some post production to give your images something special.
Being lazy is one of my favorite traits, so walking needs to be avoided at all costs. I'm kidding... well, not really. This wireless remote for my camera has saved me quite literally thousands of steps in my light painting processes.
Most of the time, when photographers are buying equipment, they choose the piece of gear that will accomplish their goal using some set of typical parameters: price, weight, build quality, warranty, size, speed, etc. These days, for shooting Formula One car races, you’d probably choose a fast-focusing, high frame-rate camera such as the Nikon D5 or Canon 1DX — if you had the budget for it — because F1 cars are fast and crazy. But that’s not what this photographer did; he decided to step back 100 years and break out a camera that was definitely not designed for shooting a modern-day race track. And the images are awesome.
One thing to remember in life is that there is always someone cooler than you. Today, it's this guy. He decided his '96 Suzuki needed a little boost to be sold, and I don't think anyone could have done a better job. Even I want to buy that little car now.
If you've not seen Felix Hernandez' images before, you're missing out. The Cancun-based photographer's work is as brilliantly resourceful as it is creative. In this interview, we go behind the scenes of his shoot using 1/45 scale models for Audi Middle East and Hernandez guides us through his process and offers advice for up and coming photographers.
There are many times in the automotive industry that when you're asked to shoot a car, you frequently cannot move the car either from where it is or far from where it's being stored due to its rarity, sometimes condition, and sometimes even questionable street-legality. This can definitely cause some problems when it comes to producing high-end images of the cars for a client. If they want only detail shots then you're good as you won't need to show much of the background to accomplish their goals. However, if they've got high hopes and want the car to be pictured anywhere except where it actually is you have to be a bit creative.
In case you haven't heard prior to this article of this series, a few years ago, Pennzoil started a brilliant marketing plan to release a series of videos showcasing a car being driven to its absolute limits in a seemingly real-world environment (for the most part), and they are pedal-to-the-metal hardcore action movies from beginning to end. If you're a car guy like me they even give you goosebumps and get your heart pumping. Just a few weeks ago, while I was on my way back from Sweden, Pennzoil dropped their newest addition to the series with a short film dubbed "The Last Viper," and it's an action-packed thrill ride from beginning to end.
As a professional wedding photographer, I spend a lot of time with people in front of my camera. But because I grew up racing motocross and driving fast cars, I have always been intrigued by automotive photography. So when I was asked by a friend of mine if I wanted to help shoot a 80s-styled cafe racer motorcycle, I jumped at the opportunity. Add to this that the shoot was going to be inside of an arcade filled with old-school machines, and this shoot sounded like one amazing time.
What do you get when you combine over 800 horsepower housed within the loins of a world-class trick-truck, one fearless driver, and the scenic streets and culture of Havana, Cuba? If the always creative Sweatpants Media is involved, you end up with an intensely high-octaine adrenaline rush of a short film, respectfully referred to as Recoil #4.
Have you ever captured a really amazing picture of a car or motorcycle only to realize that you forgot to turn the headlights on while you were on location? Don't you worry about a thing because Photoshop makes it a breeze to flip on those high beams in just a few easy steps.
I started my journey in photography back in 2011. Since then, there are only a handful of photographers that I have really paid attention to in terms of actively keeping up with their work. One of those photographers is Commercial Photographer Dave Hill. His work has taken a more drastic turn in just a few years than any photographer that I’ve followed. That’s one of many reasons that I reached out to Hill to chat about his work and photography.
I have always had a passion for cars, which is what set me in the path of becoming a photographer. From casually taking photos of various cars with a point-and-shoot at local events in the beginning, I decided to go beyond that and see where I could go with a camera. Scouring the Internet to learn as much as possible, there have been a group of automotive photographers that stand out to me amongst the best, and Easton Chang is among them.
I initially dove into the world of cinema and photography because of my passion for the automotive world and the arts. I have had some plans for more video work with cars in action but I always wanted more than action camera footage that’s stationary on the vehicle. Even with a jib and other equipment, I wanted more production value out of my work. Really, what I had in mind was a vehicle camera crane system.
One of a photographer's least talked about yet most important tools is the horse he rides in on. Okay, so I doubt many photographers are still riding horses, but the concept is the same: a trusty companion that will take you from point A to point B safely and in many cases with style. After all, it's not like you're going to hoof it into the middle of the Baja Desert, camera equipment in hand.
Even though she doesn't have a professional portfolio website, her name is widely known. Annie Leibovitz has done yet another nice shoot. This time it is for a Lincoln Continental campaign. Her style is very distinctive — both working with the subjects, lighting, and post processing. Although her lighting is simple, many photographers find it hard to achieve such a look. There are details that are not obvious if we look only from the technical side of her work.
Cars are beautiful pieces of machinery, some more so than others. Photographer Philipp Rupprecht came across a chance to shoot a Porsche 918 Spyder as soon as it was delivered, which almost took a year to begin. With a chance to shoot an amazing automobile, I probably would have waited as well. Philipp and his team where able to take the Porsche to a 100 year-old locomotive hall that's usually available for large events; I'm very envious of a location like that.
Audi took advantage of Monday night's presidential debates with its "Duel" ad spot. Nearly the entire clip plays in reverse, allowing the chronology of the true story and how the action unfolded to the point at which you began to unravel itself in an action-packed scene. The rewound clip -- fit for a 007 film -- features quite the production, complete with excellent, blockbuster-born sound effects to sell every punch and shattering glass shard. But it doesn't take much studying to see this was hardly as easy as rewinding an otherwise-normal action sequence: it took great audio to create this spectacle.
The recent remake of Mad Max: Fury Road has to be one of my favorite examples of both CGI and practical effects in modern day movie making working perfectly together. The way they created this world for which these characters live astounds me every time I see the film and truly set itself apart from other movies. Thanks to behind the scenes access and places like Gizmodo for the latest BTS footage.
It isn’t every day that a massive commercial client gives the freedom to artistically design a product launch. But freedom and a great amount of trust is exactly what Infiniti Motors Middle East gave Patrick Rochon for their new Q30 reveal. Rochon’s previous success with Infiniti’s Inspired Light campaign led to a second contract that allowed him to produce one of the most artistic automotive reveals to date.
You can’t have a car feature without some amazing details shots of the car, right? Recently, Ben Hosking from Hosking Industries shot a VH SS Holden Commodore for Street Commodores magazine. Some behind the scenes video was taken of his process.
