Chevrolet Caprice

There's just something about riding a little higher, a little slower, with the top down, and soaking up the sun. I'm a sucker for exotics and super cars - especially of the European variety - but spending last Saturday night with Jermaine and his 74 Caprice was a totally new experience for me. Sure, it's like comparing apples to oranges.. but I'm getting to that age where slowing things down a bit and sitting back just feels right.

I ran into Jermaine a couple months back at a local car show. At the time, I was scouting for something new to obsess over. His Caprice was a breath of fresh air for my creative soul. It's big, it's bold and it has presence. And, to quote him, "it's the color of money." Fun fact: It's actually a Volkswagen color.. but after seeing it on here, I can't imagine it looking as good on anything else.

While talking about the history of the car, he told me his son is convinced 26's would be a perfect fit for the car. I smiled at the thought, and he just shook his head. It's certainly not out of the question for wheels that size to end up on a car like this. After all, these cars are the foundation of the high riser culture. The Caprice itself is technically one of the few bodies classified as a Donk when it's lifted. But that's not Jermaine's style. His taste is a little more low key and, if I'm being completely honest, I'm more reserved in my modification choices, too.

Over the course of the hour that we spent taking pictures, Jermaine was busy answering questions and sharing stories with various folks who passed by. This car, as you can imagine, has a tendency to grab your attention. It's no surprise that people felt the urge to stop by and see what was going on.

Gear: Sony A7RIII, Sony 24-105 f4 G OSS, Tiffen CPL, Yongnuo YN-622C’s, Einstein 640, Vagabond Mini, Manfrotto Tripod

Post Processing: Adobe Photoshop

Acura Integra Type R (DC5R)

Every once in a while I find myself in a creative slump when it comes to shooting. Sometimes it's because I've hit a dry spell and I'm not shooting anything. Other times it's because I'm shooting the same stuff, over and over again. Regardless of the reason, when these feelings arise I will typically reach out to friends on social media and ask for something to shoot. (For free!? Yes. Especially if I'm playing with ideas and new gear.)

Having recently run across the for sale ad of a local guy's Type R Integra, I figured this would be a good opportunity to break out of the winter slump and try more creative editing and lighting. He's good friends with my buddy that owns the super clean Honda Civic I shot a few weeks back, so we set up a time to get the car out and capture a few images before it found its new home. This was a benefit to us both, as he got photos to remember this fairly rare vehicle and I got something unique to play with for a few hours. (Heck.. he even offered to let me drive it afterwards but, true to the photography driven person that I am, I had already used up all my time shooting. I really gotta stop doing that..)

While there's probably nothing here that'll blow your socks off, this was a fun chance to practice some light painting with a light colored car (I know, I know - white cars are easy!), and to even try a little light painting and rigging. So yeah.. here's some funky color graded images of a JDM beauty queen in a fairly simple Midwestern town.

Gear: Sony A7RIII, Sigma MC-11, Canon 17-40 4L, Canon 24-70 2.8L, Tiffen CPL, Yongnuo YN360, Manfrotto Tripod

Post Processing: Adobe Lightroom & Adobe Photoshop

Night Shooting

For a variety of reasons, I've recently become obsessed with shooting at night. While I've been terrified of dealing with artificial lighting in the past, educational opportunities and experimentation have pushed me out of my comfort zone and into a completely new realm of photography. So far, I'm over the moon about the possibilities. The tones you can control when working entirely with artificial lighting is probably my favorite part of this whole experience.

Making use of a Yongnuo YN-360 and an Einstein E640, I've been pretty content with the results so far. Mixing in techniques like shooting the car at a higher aperture (to ensure it's entirely in focus) and then blending a background from the same angle but shot at a shallower aperture setting, has helped give me more control over the final image. This is by no means a new technique but it's definitely one that has helped me in isolating my subject, holding onto sharpness across the entire vehicle, and gives me a long enough exposure time to paint the vehicle.

If it's possible, I've been opting to leave filters off of my camera when shooting at night. Sure, cutting reflections is valuable when working with glossy vehicles but, for me, battling the more pronounced refraction issues of that extra glass filter just isn't worth the hassle. Honestly, if you're shooting with a strobe, you can typically shoot at a higher shutter speed to cut the ambient reflections completely out. If you're working with a wand and light painting, that's a different story.

When deciding which method I'll use to light a car, light painting or strobing, it typically boils down to a couple of factors:

What color is the vehicle? If the vehicle is any color aside from black, I'm pretty game for strobing it. To me, strobing it produces some nice gradients in the color and light, which feels more natural. Since black vehicles don't have any color to help carry the light across the body lines, they typically react better to light painting (or strobing with large modifiers) to show contour and shape. That said, even when light painting a black vehicle you will find better results if you make use of a softbox to help make the light source larger and softer. (The two black vehicles in this post are great examples of what happens if you don’t use a large light source for painting - they basically look like outlines.)
Where will I be shooting the vehicle? If I'm working with a location that has a lot of ambient light, I'm more likely to strobe my subject vehicle. It's harder to leave the shutter open longer to paint a vehicle with light if I'm battling overexposure from various local light sources. (I know, I know.. Couldn't you use ND filters or stop the aperture down more? Sure - but that means you'll need to increase light output from your light painting device to compensate.) But, if I'm working in an area that has little ambient light to worry about, I may opt to light paint the vehicle. Once you get the hang of light painting and how to position the light to hide it in the body lines, it can be faster than messing with strobes, battery packs, light stands, modifiers, etc.

Keep in mind - these are not rules. I won't only light paint vehicles with color on them, or not strobe a black vehicle (though I've yet to do this). They're just some things I've run across when shooting that have helped me create a baseline when deciding how to approach lighting a vehicle.

Gear: Canon 6D, Canon 17-40 4L, Canon 24-70 2.8L, Canon 70-200 2.8L I, Canon 85 1.8, Tiffen CPL, Yongnuo YN360, Einstein E640, Sunpak Tripod

Post Processing: Adobe Camera Raw & Adobe Photoshop

Todd Grant's incredibly clean Hondas (TBC)

A few years back, when I was fully devoted to building Cinemauto and figuring out automotive videography, I was in search of more local builds that were unique and clean. Let's face it.. Wichita doesn't exactly have the most booming car scene. Outside of race cars and classic restorations, the culture in these parts is fairly milk toast. In a moment of sheer desperation, I took the advice of a couple friends that suggested I meet with a guy (Todd) who had two uber clean Honda builds. (It's not that I dislike Hondas or their fan base - but Fast & Furious didn't really do any favors for the community and our local Honda scene was already knee deep in clapped out sedans with stainless fart cannons, aluminum wings and neon gauges. Still can't imagine it? Pep Boys was our equivalent to The Racer's Edge.)

As luck would have it, Todd and I both ended up reaching out to one another simultaneously. He had seen some of the previous video work we'd done and I decided to live dangerously and gamble our future on the most common place cars around. Or so I thought. Upon actually meeting with Todd, I was swept away by some of the simplest, cleanest, most tastefully modified cars I'd ever laid eyes on.

The cars were gently lowered to a position that enhanced the existing body lines. They just looked like they were already on the move, and they were sitting perfectly still. The subtle addition of air dams, splitters, and rear lips ushered away all notions that these were the same daily driver your dad drove to work. And while I'd love to talk up his choice of wheels, Todd runs wheels on his cars like Sneakerheads run Jordan Ones. They're the best of the best and they're only on until he gets bored, when another set, even better than the last, tags them out for a brief intermission.

Anyway - for the folks interested in some backstory on his cars, here's a link to the video we did a couple years back. You'll notice that the Civic has already seen a few changes compared to my photos, and the Integra will likely look different once I'm done with that set!

Gear: Canon 6D, Canon 24-70 2.8L, Canon 85 1.8, Tiffen CPL, Yongnuo YN360, Einstein E640, Sunpak Tripod

Post Processing: Adobe Camera Raw & Adobe Photoshop

New lighting & new techniques.

Last year I started purchasing some online classes geared at automotive photography. At this point, it's the first time I've looked into education for improving my photography. While I've always been an avid researcher and learner, I've never looked into any sort of formal training. Considering the wealth of free information on the internet, it felt like a waste to pay for something I could likely find on YouTube or Google. Of course, obtaining a diagram for free isn't all that useful if you don't understand how to read it or use it.

After watching a couple classes on lighting cars, I decided it was time to consider adding some higher quality lights to my setup. For years I've been pretty happy with my Canon speedlights. They're portable, fairly powerful, and have worked for all the portrait endeavors I've been hired to shoot. That said, these small lights just can't match the light output of a studio quality strobe. They also aren't capable of bright, continuous output.

My first step was to research continuous lighting options so that I could try to improve my light painting game. While everyone involved in photography is familiar with the Wescott Ice Light, they're probably also familiar with its price tag. As someone who mainly does personal projects and very little paid automotive work, I didn't feel like spending that kind of money. After doing a little digging, I ran across the Yongnuo YN360. It was affordable, had pretty solid reviews, and there were plenty of example images of this being used in automotive work. Add to cart.

Then, just a couple months later, a friend reached out to me about his Einstein 640 strobe. He changed platforms a couple years back and just wasn't shooting much anymore. Having borrowed his strobe in the past to shoot some outdoor portraits, I knew it was capable of battling even the brightest of sunny conditions. Since I'd recently purchased a class on using a single strobe to light an entire car, this felt like fate. Sold.

Gear: Canon 6D, Canon 24-70 2.8L, Tiffen CPL, Yongnuo YN360, Einstein E640, Yongnuo YN622C II, Sunpak Tripod, Custom Tube Guard Light

Post Processing: Adobe Camera Raw & Adobe Photoshop