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Deconstructing these images


jose santos

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Nice Car. Nice commercial.

 

Probably 35mm given it's a commercial, and for a prestige marque. Then again, could have been digital.

 

There were lenses involved, and it was definitely exposed.

 

It was lit with large bounce sources as most car commercials are.

 

The workflow was appropriate to the camera system used.

 

Honestly, these kinds of questions are unanswerable unless you have specific knowledge of the shoot, and even then the answers don't mean much.

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To reiterate what Mr Brereton said, stop obsessing about the toys. You could shoot that on any one of a dozen systems and get comparable results. The difference between two sets of high end lenses from two different manufacturers is subtle.

 

The interior shots in which the car is defined by white reflections are just that - a car on a blacked-out stage with a big white reflector above it. I've seen studios which are semi-permanently rigged for this sort of work, with genuinely huge (say, 20x40) white reflectors hanging from the ceiling.

 

It's not about the toys, or at least toys beyond a big white object above the car.

 

P

 

Edit: for instance:

 

IMG_1366.JPG

 

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1348930105[/url]' post='377314']

My bad. I was unclear. What I intended by 'propose' was "how would YOU do it?", though I certainly wouldn't mind hearing "here's how I think it was done."

 

Cheers!

 

They went to Italy. Tuscany I would say but maybe not. Used some kind of gyro stabilized system with a remote head for the driving shots.(Russian Arm?)Or just a guy hanging out of the back of a pickup with a good driver and stabilized in post.Went to a dedicated studio also in Italy, and did what phil said. With a techno crane and stuff.That's how I think it was done but maybe I'm wrong.

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Someone I know who would know claims that a popular light for such car commercials is a twinkie light, basically a twinkie-shaped balloon that hangs above the car. If I understand correctly. Otherwise it's an overhead, which accomplishes the same thing.

 

Cars are reflective so you're lighting with specular highlights. That means you can't have an obvious "source" or it reflects. Based on the last shot in this video they used a smaller source than that huge frame pictured below, and one shaped in a more perfect square. Anyhow, it's all the same idea: light with a big soft light and focusing primarily on specular highlights.

 

Lighting with specular highlights (or intentionally avoiding them, as with Khondji's miniature work on Alien Resurrection) is very cool and requires a real skill and mastery. Lighting dark skin can involve this approach; so can lighting glamor commercials and car ads and hair.

Edited by M Joel W
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Thanks to all.

 

I confess to obsessing about the tools. It is a tool intensive job. My biggest concern in making smart decisions as to how that toolbox is put together.

 

But really, as a newcomer I'm more interested in opening conversations than just the tools.

 

And where I really hoped to be able to take something like this is to a discussion of latitude.

 

To understanding how to expose for those secondary highlights, the ones that don't blow out, AND get the texture of the carbon fiber.

 

In other words, how to think about the problem(s).

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Dean Collins (the “Dean” of Photographic Education) might help you. :)

 

 

Find and watch from his DVD set The Best of Dean Collins on Lighting

DVD #2 - Finelight Commercial Illustration,

the 3rd segment called Porsche : Studio Large Set.

 

There, in simple and easy to understand ways he explains from start to finish

how to prep, light and shoot a BLACK 911 in studio environment.

 

 

Yes it is done in the pre-digital era and its about still photography,

but the concepts of lighting are the same.

 

 

For me a GEM to see how it was done in the days. :)

Not just the car, but all other product shots ...

 

Best

 

Igor

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