Exterior automotive photography lighting

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slideordie

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Hi guys, I've searched to no avail on this quite specific topic so I'm turning to the forum for advice.

Currently I use a couple of Speedlites, remotely triggered.

Sometimes the light can be a bit harsh, plus there's the element that it takes a few shots to get the placement of the Speedlites correct and the exposure adjusted.

At this point, I have a decision to make. Either I buy another Speedlite and some kind of diffuser for them to soften the light; or I look in to purchasing a portable lighting system.

There's a lot of portable lighting stuff out there and with my photography being taken mainly in daylight, I'm afraid if I buy a beginner set-up, it won't be bright enough.

Any insight/advice/recommendations are much appreciated! :)
 
if you're shooting in a car park or somewhere with a ceiling then you can bounce off of that, it will help. To be honest I gave up on the endless fiddling with umpteen flashes and have gone for a portable lighting system.

A Diffuser helps but you need to up the output of the flash in order to get enough light when using a diff, which then means batteries get eaten quickly.

This was taken with 3 speedlites, 2 diffused roughly 2 meters apart, one firing up at the rear, one firing down to the side and the other up to the side/ceiling, and to be honest, it's still a little dark

IMG_7446.jpg
 
I think that questions have to come before useful answers...

1. What are the photos for? Brochure shots, your personal interest, second hand car dealers?
2. Why do you need lighting in the first place? - it could be to get more light, or to overwhelm sunlight, or to create diffused lighting on highly reflective subjects.
3. Are you photographing complete cars or just specific parts of them? This will affect the amount of power you need, and the other equipment too.
 
you can also make specific shots for each part of the car and then blend together. 3 speedlights should be enough to light a car but with flash you are pretty much going to get hotspots. I use bare lights to light my shots although I know a few people that use brollys.

this was shot with 2 portable flashes and a speedlite

3088407061_1dc03dece8_o.jpg


this was shot with two studio lights

2572925118_73c47e84c2_o.jpg
 
I shoot complete cars and its just a hobby.

Lighting is somewhat of a new realm for me; I want it so I can position the car where I want it, then use artificial lighting to balance the areas that are and aren't getting sunlight. And also to do shots like above, in darkness/low light effectively.

I suppose what I really want is a consistent, soft light.

Hope that helps!
 
i personally didnt like shooting with flash guns, so soon sacked them off.

Some people love them (dean photo) does some fantastic work with some vivitar 285s and some good PPing..

I shoot with elinchrom rangers which have alot of punch, I like being able to overpower the ambient especially if im in a nasty carpark or something. I wish I didnt want a short flash duration for some other bits as if I could have got away with it the interfit kit which ross had posted in other threads looks cracking for the ££££...

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-interfit-int474-stellar-xtreme-300w-kit/p1027333

and one moody one with the elinchroms with lights left in to see positioning.
_YAN2641-2.jpg
 
Well, shooting in relative darkness isn't difficult and hotshoe flashes will just about do the job, although the power is very limited and the range of modifiers is also very limited.

If you want more power then the Lencarta Safari is your obvious choice - if using 2 heads fitted with large softboxes you still won't have enough power to overwhelm the sun but will have plenty on an overcast day.

The standard way of dealing with bright sunlight is simply to fit a large overhead scrim (black material with loads of tiny holes in it) or you could use ripstop nylon (the same stuff as is used for softbox diffusers) which does a basically similar job but not quite as well.
 
another issue as I found, is with having just 1 power pack that it serverly limits where you can position the lights.

Obviously you can run extension cables but most systems this seems to be either expensive/you drop power pretty quickly.

so in an ideal world you dont want to be off of one battery pack imo
 
fastworldimages said:
another issue as I found, is with having just 1 power pack that it serverly limits where you can position the lights.

Obviously you can run extension cables but most systems this seems to be either expensive/you drop power pretty quickly.

so in an ideal world you dont want to be off of one battery pack imo
Click to expand...
This is true, but 2 generator packs for an amateur...
The Lencarta has an optional 5 m extension cable that only drops 0.3 of a stop and only costs £40
 
fastworldimages said:
i personally didnt like shooting with flash guns, so soon sacked them off.

Some people love them (dean photo) does some fantastic work with some vivitar 285s and some good PPing..

I shoot with elinchrom rangers which have alot of punch, I like being able to overpower the ambient especially if im in a nasty carpark or something. I wish I didnt want a short flash duration for some other bits as if I could have got away with it the interfit kit which ross had posted in other threads looks cracking for the ££££...

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-interfit-int474-stellar-xtreme-300w-kit/p1027333

and one moody one with the elinchroms with lights left in to see positioning.
_YAN2641-2.jpg
Click to expand...

Hey up Ryan ... recognise this photo from PGT :thumbs:
 
Continuous lighting is appealing though. Only problem would be powering 2 heads for an hour or two.
 
slideordie said:
I thought that's what power packs were for?
Click to expand...

the packs are designed for specific units. Not all are compatable.

So for example you cant just bung a head onto a battery unit, some ranges you can but sometimes are the sacrafice of a modelling lamp etc.. So a battery pack may have issues running a continuous light source.
 
it drains the battery running them, but for example my packs the modelling light only stays on for a short period of time not permanently.

The only unit i could see which has a permanent light source if you want it for good time is the elinchrom quadra with the bright LEDs.
 
lighting kit for an amateur .........


nothing wrong with having two battery packs - my old kit has a pack each. no way I'd use a single pack for two lights

Garry Edwards said:
This is true, but 2 generator packs for an amateur...
The Lencarta has an optional 5 m extension cable that only drops 0.3 of a stop and only costs £40
Click to expand...
 
neil_g said:
i had a look at battery packs the other day and a lot said to turn off modeling/continuous lights?
Click to expand...

It depends. Some have halogen lamps that give out relatively little light, which drain the battery quickly and which are a very warm colour that will seriously clash with daylight.

Others, like the Elinchrom Quadra and the Lencarta Safari Li-on, have low wattage LED lights that produce relatively high power but which place very low drain on the battery and which produce white lite.

On the Li-on, the modelling lamp can be set to on, off or can be timed to be on for anywhere between 5 - 99 seconds.
 
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