Car Photographers- What's in your kit?

Sharkattack

Sharkattack

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Tom
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Afternoon chaps,

I'll try and keep this short and sweet. Basically, I find myself shooting more and more cars. I'm doing it for friends and I've got a couple of magazine features in the bag.

Last time I was out I was shooting in direct sunlight and tackling gleaming bodywork crossed with big, black shadows. Luckily I had my girlfriend on hand with a big reflector to throw some light into the shade which did the trick. I can't rely on this technique though and I want to be as versatile as possible. I'd like to be able to shoot cars with little or no ambient light. I want to do some interesting night shoots when I have the gear.

Now I've never really used lights or off camera flash so I'm baffled by the amount of kit available and the jargon involved.

So what do people recommend? A couple of speedlights on stands? Or a portable kit like a Lencarta Safari or Elinchrom Ranger?

As for budget, I prefer to buy right and buy once. I tend to buy good gear and never sell it. So what should I be looking at?

Camera is currently a 7D if that matters.

Thanks!
 
Strobes are probably a good place to start, get some cheap flashes and remote triggers and take it from there.

Or if you're happy to composite images, then one decent flash and a trigger and take it from there.

Another cheap thing to start out with would be lightpainting.

For me at least, the initial outlay of buying a full on portable studio light, was just too much to justify. Speedlights would be the best bet for now till things become more beneficial financially.

Scott
 
Filters are a good place to start as well. I've got the lee kit which I find excellent.

Triggers wise, I've got 2 x PW flex TT5's and a TT1 to trigger them with SB700's on top. 2 seems to do the trick for me though I usually get away with 1. What lenses are you using?
 
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