Category Archives: Automotive

Motorcycles and Automobiles in the Studio

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Category : Automotive Motorcycle photography Studio

Automotive or motorcycle photography in the studio presents some interesting challenges. This week I will take a look at some of the options for dealing with these details.

Motorcycle Photography Phoenix Orcatek

First of all they are big and don’t move easily to “adjust their pose”. Motorcycles are a bit easier to photograph as they can move easier, but cars or trucks are just a lot of work. Careful planning is required.

The first thing you need is a studio with enough space to hold the car and allow the photographer to get far enough away to shoot it. If you are too close you will need to use your wide angle lens leading to shots where the vehicle will have a huge front end for example. Sometimes this look can be desired, but more often than not, it is problematic. I prefer to be a good 20 or more feet to keep proportions correct.

For moving the car around, car wheel dollies are great. One goes under each tire and you can jack it up then basically push the car in any direction you want, even spin it in a circle. They are not a cheap tool, but if you shoot a lot of cars, they are well worth the investment.

The other most difficult thing to deal with is reflections. The whole automobile is one great big mirror. Chrome on motorcycles can be even worse. And of course the classic black hot rod looks great, but shows everything. A very clean studio area is critical. Anything that must remain should be pushed as far away as possible from the car. This includes yourself and your assistants.

I actually have my assistants step off set behind a wall in my studio. I wear black to help hide my reflection. Another reason for keeping the photographer to automobile distance large during the shoot, is that it makes the reflections much smaller and easier to deal with in post.

Lighting is another key. You need a large soft light from above for most automotive work. Since I shoot on white, I have painted my light stands and cords white to hide them in reflections. Nothing more annoying than a beautiful white highlight on a car with a light stand jumping out at you.

Feel free to contact me with any questions. And if you are in the Phoenix area, I do rent my studio to other photographers.

Orcatek Automotive and Motorcycle Photography

Photography Challenge, Motorcycle on the Beach

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Category : Automotive Motorcycle photography

This week presented a challenge, off to the beach for to photograph a motorcycle. Shooting a motorcycle or car at a beach is typically very difficult. The biggest challenge is the motorcycle will sink into the soft sand of the beach. On a soft sandy beach I would need bury a layer or two of plywood just below the surface of the beach and then smooth it out after placing the bike.

Next challenge is timing as the tide will be moving either in or out, and depending on the location this can be a foot or two, to hundreds of feet if the slope of the beach is very gradual. One of my favorite beaches the low and high tide lines are tyically 200-300 feet apart. The smallest tide swings on at the half moon phases.

And of course waves will also present a challenge as they roll in and out. Salt water is very bad for vehicles, so keeping them dry is a priority. I would recommend wearing a helmet before you try this out so make sure you read motorcycle helmet reviews online.

Of course, no one likes to think too much about getting involved in an accident while on their motorbike, but mistakes can happen and therefore it is crucial that you take steps to ride safely. A friend of mine recently went on a motorcycle trip to Las Vegas and he told me that in las vegas motorcycle accidents are unfortunately very common. He also said that these incidents sometimes lead to lawsuits and personal injury cases. Consequently, please do as much as possible to avoid getting into difficulty when on your bike. Especially during a photoshoot.

In this case the beach had a hard area that was not sandy at all in this area. Being hard and dry the bike could stand on its own. The area was sheltered enough and the sea was very calm, usually mornings are the best time to find this calmness.

Motorcycle Photography

In the end, everything came together. When things were set-up, I liked where the sun was, creating a good shadow, the tide was moving in slowly to position and the sea was calm. With the addition of some supplemental lighting to fill in and create some sparkle, it came together as I had imagined.

Orcatek Automotive and Motorcycle Photography – Phoenix

Shoot cars at The Studio

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Category : Automotive photography Studio

This week I had the chance to shoot a car in my new studio.  Having done a lot of automotive photography, I knew just what I wanted as the new studio was created.   As I moved the test car into the studio I could see that everything had come together perfectly.

The lighting was everything I had hoped it would be.  This shot gave me just what I wanted using the standard configuration.

BMW Z8 it The Studio 

I plan on doing a lot more automotive photography in future in the studio.  Location work falls off so much here in Phoenix during the summer due to the heat.   Now I can do the shoots in the studio while I enjoy the air conditioning.

The only thing that I will be adding is some hydraulic car wheel dollies to make positioning the car easier.  With them if the photographer needs to rotate the car and inch or two it is a quick job to do as opposed to trying to drive the car back and forth to get it perfect. 

The Studio is available for rental to other photographers.

Orcatek Photography

The Studio – Phoenix

Canon 50D does Barrett-Jackson

Category : Automotive Cameras Equipment photography

I love January in Phoenix as it is the time of year when all the car auctions come to town.  I enjoy the opportunity to see so many wonderful cars all gathered in one location.  Last week I spent some time at Barrett-Jackson with my Canon 50D.

 Tents

The lighting is all over the board at these auctions – full sun, open shade, tungsten, and mixed.  I knew this would give the 50D a good chance to be tested.  I had done some shooting with it outdoors and in studio, so I knew it worked well in these environments, but the indoor shots with random lighting seemed like it would be a challenge.

 

With prior cameras I would just crank up the ISO and shoot in AV mode keeping an eye on the shutter speed vs the focal length, tweaking the ISO where I could get away with it.  The 50D now has an auto mode for ISO that I decided to get a test shooting the stage.  As the cars move across the stage the lighting varies dramatically, and I wanted to get the cars in the clear, so I there was no one spot that they could be shot.

 

And not being a bidder, this meant I had to shoot from the cheap seats, so flash was out of the question.  So I decided to switch the ISO to auto and see how the camera behaved.  The ISO swung from 400 to 1250 depending on where I had the camera pointed and what aperture I selected.  It kept the shutter speed within acceptable hand holding for the focal and length and never seemed to falter.

 

Upon reviewing the shots I was quite pleased with the results.  Even though the noise level is acceptable for this type of work at the highest range the camera selected, it was nice to have even cleaner shots available when the light was better.   I can really see where this feature can come in handy and why the Nikon users have always spoken so highly about the usefulness of this setting.

Auto ISO put to the test

 

 

 

 

Auto-focus is also something I got a chance to test under the poor lighting and the 50D did great.  I was very happy to see that it locked quickly and accurately under some tough conditions.  The images were focused correctly and the camera only hunted when it faced the toughest targets where there was no contract to be seen.  Experience has taught me to just focus on an edge and then recompose to the low contrast area as needed.

 

I will feel quite comfortable using the Canon 50D for this type of event in the future.  Next week I hope to spend some time with my 5DII in the studio.

 

Orcatek Photograrphy – Phoenix

Monterey Car Week

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Category : Automotive photography

Well I spent the past week or so at Monterey Car Week 2008 photographing many amazing cars like the 1957 chevrolet 210.
The weather was cold to a desert dweller as the fog seldom lifted at several of the venues, but it was worth it to have a chance to photograph so many amazing cars.

Classic Car
Classic Car Race

I took my time and drove from Phoenix to Monterey. I went thru Yosemite on the way out and Death Valley on the return trip. Both parks provided some beautiful photographs – it was a photographer’s dream drive. I timed my overnights so that I would hit both parks in the early morning when the light does such amazing things.

Even outside the events the cars were amazing. Every time I turned around there was some amazing car driving by, from Ferraris to Cobras. It was like browsing through a site like Roadweb, except I was there, and (as much as the owners would let me) I could get hands-on with the vehicles themselves. As my hotel was located at auction central, the cars for both auctions were often parked or driving by the front of my hotel. It was all I could do to keep myself from running inside to bid on some of these amazing cars. Not sure why, but I think spending $2-3 million on a car might put a hole in my budget. If I got hit by one of these I might need to talk to an injury attorney, I hear they can provide useful information about how to proceed if a car accident happens.

The best thing about the week was the chance to see some amazing cars and spend time with some good friends. People brought them in carefully. Some used services like CarsRelo to make the journey, whilst others drove in the entire way (and back again afterwards). It was wonderful to see the high spirits and smiles on everyone’s faces from the show. Everyone enjoyed seeing some very rare cars.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix, Arizona

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