The Ultimate Car Rig Photography Thread!

Looks a nice idea that.

So far still waiting on my rig parts :( have borrowed some 2" aluminium pole, 2 6ft sections and a sleeve connecter from my dad's mate.

Hoping to see how it holds up once all the parts arrive.

Is there a way to connect a perpindicular pole for the wire that is still removable? He needs this stuff back in February so I cant modify it.
 
My rig wire is fully removable.
If you look on the previous page you can see the pics of my rig

8094709156_4255a1aae1_b.jpg

Parts list

3x rubber lined jubilee fixings with m10 nut. These just clamp onto the pole and tighten with a nut.
1x m10 threaded rod. I used 300mm
2x m10 eye bolt (these go at each end of the rig to attach turnbuckles too)
1x m10 eye nut ( for the wire to run through as pictured above)
Tension wire + turn buckles.

I leave the clamps on all the time so to set my rig wire up is a case of screw in the rod and attach the wire.

If you need any more pics or info let me know.
 
Micky_st said:
My rig wire is fully removable.
If you look on the previous page you can see the pics of my rig

8094709156_4255a1aae1_b.jpg

Parts list

3x rubber lined jubilee fixings with m10 nut. These just clamp onto the pole and tighten with a nut.
1x m10 threaded rod. I used 300mm
2x m10 eye bolt (these go at each end of the rig to attach turnbuckles too)
1x m10 eye nut ( for the wire to run through as pictured above)
Tension wire + turn buckles.

I leave the clamps on all the time so to set my rig wire up is a case of screw in the rod and attach the wire.

If you need any more pics or info let me know.
Click to expand...

Micky can I ask where you got your 3 x rubber lined jubilee fixings with m10 nut from? sourced the majority of it from amazon :)
 
I got them off of ebay Scotty.
The seller i used is out of stock of 2" but if you search for 'plumbing pipe jubilee' you should find something in the right size..

Look forward to seeing so results with your rig :)
 
Micky, got those rubber jubilee clips fitted and they seem ideal for the job, cheers for the recomendation!

Sammy, you said before it was ok to have a bash at one of your images, so heres the result:

Edit.jpg


Really struggled with the blue line on the roof of the building, slightly aprehensive about the part were car meets background also.

Scott
 
Glad you managed to find some Scott. They do bend when under tension but don't seem to move on the pole.
Which clone brush are you Using? Try using one with a soft edge if your not already.
 
I've just read this entire thread with great interest! I somehow stumbled across it whilst searching for advice on using ND filters.

Congrats to the OP I absolutely love the shots, you're very talented, I liked seeing how you've progressed from the first pictures and rig set up to what you have now... I will keep coming back to this thread to see what you come up with in the future!
 
wow,what an absolutely inspiring thread, the pix are brilliant, keep up the great work.
 
Sko77y said:
Micky, got those rubber jubilee clips fitted and they seem ideal for the job, cheers for the recomendation!

Sammy, you said before it was ok to have a bash at one of your images, so heres the result:

Edit.jpg


Really struggled with the blue line on the roof of the building, slightly aprehensive about the part were car meets background also.

Scott
Click to expand...

not bad, what version of photoshop are you using? have you tried the content-aware fill? Also try and use the patch or clone tool to use the other parts of the sky not blocked by the rig to "copy" it to where you have to remove the rig.

For the roof I just used the clone tool and extended the part of the roof before the rig covered it. if that makes sense? just extend the straight edge.


Dean. said:
I've just read this entire thread with great interest! I somehow stumbled across it whilst searching for advice on using ND filters.

Congrats to the OP I absolutely love the shots, you're very talented, I liked seeing how you've progressed from the first pictures and rig set up to what you have now... I will keep coming back to this thread to see what you come up with in the future!
Click to expand...

stephen g said:
wow,what an absolutely inspiring thread, the pix are brilliant, keep up the great work.
Click to expand...

thanks lads, think I am going out with it tomorrow night so will post up the results :D
 
Cheers sammy i tried using content aware and it probably needed blended more. Its cs5 im using.

Found out the magic arm was on hold till december so have re sourced it, all my kit should be here today! Should get some pics soon!
 
Been watching this thread for a while.

Quick question should my VR be on or off?

I plan to shoot with the Nikon 24-120mm VR on my D700, I realise it's not that wide but all I have at the minute, I'm currently making a 6M rig. I have tried it before with a 4M rig and a 28mm lens.. see below..

wpid6547-untitled-3-3.jpg


wpid6549-untitled-4-4.jpg
 
technics100 said:
Been watching this thread for a while.

Quick question should my VR be on or off?

I plan to shoot with the Nikon 24-120mm VR on my D700, I realise it's not that wide but all I have at the minute, I'm currently making a 6M rig. I have tried it before with a 4M rig and a 28mm lens.. see below..

wpid6547-untitled-3-3.jpg


wpid6549-untitled-4-4.jpg
Click to expand...

Not bad efforts at all, I was worried about using my 17-55 on a crop sensor but not so much after seeing them. Have been looking at simga 10-22's all week :bonk:

Lovely subject also :love:

all kit has arrived and been test fitted, Micky I dont know if I will ust the Jubilee clips on the end or not, they flexed quite a bit. Test shots tommorow as long as its not raining
 
I actually just finished my 6m rig last night as the rest of the bits arrived..

The car is my brothers, I have to take it to a rolling road in the morning to see what power its putting out..
 
The rig is here and up and running, had a first go with it yesterday, struggled with the sky blowing out completely.

The F1000 Suction cups are quite picky with were they fix to, also I need a wide angle lens on a cropped sensor - struggled getting the car all in shot.


Rolling A3 by Sko77y, on Flickr


Rolling Mini 3 by Sko77y, on Flickr

Scott
 
Sko77y said:
The rig is here and up and running, had a first go with it yesterday, struggled with the sky blowing out completely.

The F1000 Suction cups are quite picky with were they fix to, also I need a wide angle lens on a cropped sensor - struggled getting the car all in shot.
Click to expand...

great to see others finally getting involved in this thread :D

Did you use an ND filter? for daylight rig shots I use an ND8 filter and sometimes I have to stack an ND4 on top of that. Really helps.

I find that the F1000's have better suction if I spray a bit of glass cleaner spray on the pads first, make them pretty wet and they dont seem to lose suction.

what lens did you use for theses? I use my 10-24mm (usually at 10mm) on my A77 which has a cropped sensor.

Also try and think a bit more about your composition. Have the empty space in front of the car so it gives the impression that is where the car is moving to, rather than behind it.

Also a nose down angle of the shot i think is more pleasing to the eye, rather than the nose of the car pointing up :)

hope that helps, stick at it. Its amazing how you improve with practice. My first shots (in this thread) are a lost worse than the ones I do now :)

Sammy
 
sduk said:
great to see others finally getting involved in this thread :D

Did you use an ND filter? for daylight rig shots I use an ND8 filter and sometimes I have to stack an ND4 on top of that. Really helps.

I find that the F1000's have better suction if I spray a bit of glass cleaner spray on the pads first, make them pretty wet and they dont seem to lose suction.

what lens did you use for theses? I use my 10-24mm (usually at 10mm) on my A77 which has a cropped sensor.

Also try and think a bit more about your composition. Have the empty space in front of the car so it gives the impression that is where the car is moving to, rather than behind it.

Also a nose down angle of the shot i think is more pleasing to the eye, rather than the nose of the car pointing up :)

hope that helps, stick at it. Its amazing how you improve with practice. My first shots (in this thread) are a lost worse than the ones I do now :)

Sammy
Click to expand...

Cheers sammy, I have a variable ND Filter I had on but the sun was causing issues then it got too dark to carry on. Its a Tamron 17-55 I have on a crop, looking into a Sigma 10-22 as really struggled to fit the car in the frame.

Shall invest in some glass cleaner as they were just not playing ball, it kind of dictated where we could position it. As for fixing to the roof they wouldnt attach near the edge and panel flex was an issue so scrapped that idea on the day.

Two other shots we got on the day, possibly a better composition?


Rolling Mini 1 by Sko77y, on Flickr


Rolling Mini 2 by Sko77y, on Flickr
 
Just invested in some suction cups (F1100) ones that were going cheap in the classifieds. Bought them really for attaching flashes in awkward places and for attaching a Contour HD camera onto boat hulls but I'm going to have a crack at this car rig malarky.

So I've figured from reading what you guys are doing that I'll need a super clamp (x3) plus a magic arm.... I'll rig up one of my old carbon fishing poles to use as the boom, see if they are rigid before I look at metal ones. It's a bit of fun so want to keep it cheap :)
 
specialman said:
Just invested in some suction cups (F1100) ones that were going cheap in the classifieds. Bought them really for attaching flashes in awkward places and for attaching a Contour HD camera onto boat hulls but I'm going to have a crack at this car rig malarky.

So I've figured from reading what you guys are doing that I'll need a super clamp (x3) plus a magic arm.... I'll rig up one of my old carbon fishing poles to use as the boom, see if they are rigid before I look at metal ones. It's a bit of fun so want to keep it cheap :)
Click to expand...

that's great mate, yeah thats what you need. You can do it without a magic arm and use a tripod head but for freedom of movement and better composition you cant beat the magic arm!

lookin forward to seeing your results!



Sko77y said:
Yup shot in raw, will send you through the file, post up your edit in here. Be good to see what you make of it.
Click to expand...

got it! away to do a quick edit now before I go to work :)
 
sduk said:
that's great mate, yeah thats what you need. You can do it without a magic arm and use a tripod head but for freedom of movement and better composition you cant beat the magic arm!
Click to expand...

I'd seen a few posts on the web saying magic arms were good to progress your shooting, rather than being essential, glad you've confirmed - was thinking about one of these attached to a super clamp to have the camera upside-down:

http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/eng/p...tilt_top_double_ball_head_with_platform/mn155
 
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yeah you can do it without a magic arm. I looked at the tripod head but I love the magic arm, the ease of adjustment and makes it my favourite thing to use.

Plus the further away your camera is from the beam the smaller the beam is in the edit. So if you have your magic arm fully straight with the camera hanging upside down then its a thin beam you have to remove from the shot in pp.

I started with a tripod head (see page 1) and the beam is obviously alot closer so looks really fat in the shot and is harder to remove :)
 
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Sko77y said:
Yup shot in raw, will send you through the file, post up your edit in here. Be good to see what you make of it.
Click to expand...

Here they are side by side...

Your edit...

8196522279_e2d9942a9d_c.jpg



and mine...

edited1a.jpg




The main difference is just down to the white balance, i changed mine to a cooler less green tone. You can do this in camera (not sure what setting you had it on) or it can be changed in raw.

Because of the tight crop on the car I decided to extend each side of the canvas by 300px then used a content aware fill to "extend" the picture into it. Then I just had to tidy up the joins.

I used a graduated filter to try and recover some detail in the sky (by pulling from the top down about a -2 exposure) then did the opposite from the bottom up to try and get a better exposure on the car and some detail in it. I also desaturated the ground to lose the slight sandy colour it had.

Then a bit of sharpening and removed the rig.

One tip is if you are struggling with a blown sky, before you move the car and once the shot is set up, take a stationary shot with a shorter exposure. This should give you a nice sharp perfectly exposed shot of the sky that you can edit in if needed.

Also gives you a sharp shot of the car in case you need to use any of that image in your rig shots :)

hope that helps :D

Sammy
 
Ah cheers for that Sammy, I've never tried to extend a picture before may have to have a look into it since a wide angle is some way off just now. I added a warming filter on top so I dont know where the green tones came from :(

Comparing the two I dont know what I was trying to do :lol: seems awfully dark anyways!

Hopefully get out again with it soon.
 
Micky I dont know if I will ust the Jubilee clips on the end or not, they flexed quite a bit
Click to expand...
Sorry taken a while to reply. They do bend but once tensioned but don't seem to move. Although i have only used my rig once.

Mike love your rig shots. Are you still using the pole that came with your kit?
 
Mikehamilton said:
Few recent stuff of mine from a customers photoshoot, looking to get a longer boom :)


Jon's Zetec S - Rolling Wheel by Mike-Hamilton Photography, on Flickr

Fixed the off cloning out of the rig in the first shot for the final shot to the customer :)
Click to expand...

Mike what lens are you using? Edit: meant to leave the full car shot oops!

Micky_st said:
Sorry taken a while to reply. They do bend but once tensioned but don't seem to move. Although i have only used my rig once.

Mike love your rig shots. Are you still using the pole that came with your kit?
Click to expand...

Micky, ended up using them in the end, worked out quite nicely after they were tensioned. nice idea, cheers :)
 
Sko77y said:
Ah then I am justified in getting a wide angle then :lol: struggled with 17mm on my rig. Out of interest whats the wire sticking out the side skirt in the second picture? dont suppose you know?
Click to expand...

Yeah a wide angle is good for rig shot, i found 15mm on my rig a squeeze

Its the retaining wire for the jacking point cover which is missing
 
yeah I would find it difficult to do these shots without my 10mm, just gives you so much more freedom with the composition when its not so tight to the car, plus the longer the beam the more you have to deal with the bounce.
 
so yesterday I shot a brand new Fiesta and did my usual rig shots for the customer :D

Really happy with these ones. It was a very bright winter day again but it just seemed to work well :D

Got loads of sharp images and lots of keepers :D

Here were my favourites...

gordonfiesta28.jpg


gordonfiesta29.jpg


gordonfiesta30.jpg



The full shoot is on my page here...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...2975448&ref=notif&notif_t=photo_album_comment

If you like my stuff please give my page a "like" :D

Sammy
 
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