Static Cars and continous lighting

[avarice08]

Hi All,

Looking at some new projects to try and wondered if any of you had tried the following and could offer some advice.

I recently read some posts on another forum where the guys had been taking photos of their cars in the daylight and in the dark but using strobes to highlight the cars and really make them stand out.

I have a set of continous lights and am in the process of sourcing a generator to have a dabble at this but would be interested to see if anybody else had tried this and what the results were.

Thanks

Rob

 

[david1701]

cars don't move so if you can work in the dark then its a good solution, just use a tripod and drag the shutter as much as is needed

 

[Garry Edwards]

As above, but it won't work in daylight because the continuous lighting won't have anywhere near enough power

 

[avarice08]

Thanks for advice guys.

I'll be running about 1kw of continous lighting so should be good for night time, but out of curisosity, what is the strobe output likely to be if using that method?

Thanks

Rob

 

[Garry Edwards]

Thanks for advice guys.

I'll be running about 1kw of continous lighting so should be good for night time, but out of curisosity, what is the strobe output likely to be if using that method?

Thanks

Rob

It's difficult to make comparisons, but assuming a shutter speed of 1/250th second in daylight, a 1000 Ws flash would produce the equivalent of about 3000 watts of continuous light, compared to 4 watts from a 1000 watt continuous light in the same period of time.

If you shoot at night then of course the exposure could be virtually any length of time, and a 1 second exposure with your continuous light would produce a usable value of 1000 watts, but in daylight you would need to use a short shutter speed to control the effect of the ambient light - this works with flash but of course a short shutter speed with continuous light also affects the value of the continuous light - which is why it doesn't work.

 

[avarice08]

It's difficult to make comparisons, but assuming a shutter speed of 1/250th second in daylight, a 1000 Ws flash would produce the equivalent of about 3000 watts of continuous light, compared to 4 watts from a 1000 watt continuous light in the same period of time.

If you shoot at night then of course the exposure could be virtually any length of time, and a 1 second exposure with your continuous light would produce a usable value of 1000 watts, but in daylight you would need to use a short shutter speed to control the effect of the ambient light - this works with flash but of course a short shutter speed with continuous light also affects the value of the continuous light - which is why it doesn't work.

Whoa! Had to read that a few times to get my head around it but I think I have it now!

For off camera flash bodies, do you have any recommendations?

Thanks

Rob

 

[david1701]

Whoa! Had to read that a few times to get my head around it but I think I have it now!

For off camera flash bodies, do you have any recommendations?

Thanks

Rob

as in camera bodies?

the 1 series is pretty good as its high sync speed can kill more ambient light.

My 1d3 can almost give me a stop less ambient than my 5d2 will

 

[avarice08]

as in camera bodies?

the 1 series is pretty good as its high sync speed can kill more ambient light.

My 1d3 can almost give me a stop less ambient than my 5d2 will

I'm using a 30D and a 1D mkII...

I actually meant which flash units would people recommend..

Cheers

Rob

 

[david1701]

oh right I work with speedlights because they suit my style, but I don't shoot cars

I can't really recomend guns specifically for this, but would rate canon guns very highly and the new yn580 (I think) looks to be very very good for manual only work

portraiture and other stuff smaller than cars is more my thing. I'll help where I can though as the principles are the same

 

[david1701]

also 1d2 I think syncs the same as 1d3 which is good for killing ambient, if you want to work in the dark its on minimal value though, the epicness of the camera is still win