The Ultimate Car Rig Photography Thread!

Hi all

A friend of mine who's car I shot with my rig a couple of months ago has said that he's had circular marks on his glass and roof ever since. He says that when he polishes the car, they disappear, but they do come back. Obviously they can't be dents, as they are on the glass, and the cups I used were brand new Manfrotto avengers, so I don't think they can be scratches, so I'm thinking it might be some kind of oily residue from the rubber. Does anyone else have any experience of this?
Thanks
Andy
 
Andy Cole said:
Hi all

A friend of mine who's car I shot with my rig a couple of months ago has said that he's had circular marks on his glass and roof ever since. He says that when he polishes the car, they disappear, but they do come back. Obviously they can't be dents, as they are on the glass, and the cups I used were brand new Manfrotto avengers, so I don't think they can be scratches, so I'm thinking it might be some kind of oily residue from the rubber. Does anyone else have any experience of this?
Thanks
Andy
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That's a worry I'd have so would be interested in people's response etc
 
A rare beast, a yellow Ferrari F40.

i-JHJWB7p-L.jpg
 
Andy Cole said:
Hi all

A friend of mine who's car I shot with my rig a couple of months ago has said that he's had circular marks on his glass and roof ever since. He says that when he polishes the car, they disappear, but they do come back. Obviously they can't be dents, as they are on the glass, and the cups I used were brand new Manfrotto avengers, so I don't think they can be scratches, so I'm thinking it might be some kind of oily residue from the rubber. Does anyone else have any experience of this?
Thanks
Andy
Click to expand...

I have never experienced this and been using my avengers for 4 or 5 years now. I always spray the cups with quick detailer before they are applied and clean the contact area. What rig do you use? Is it particularly heavy? Has he tried some sort of petrol or other cleaner to remove any residue?



Mikehamilton said:
View attachment 33845

Been busy
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looking forward to seeing the shot @Mikehamilton!


Bedworth said:
a feature shoot I did for Performance BMW mag

Perfomance BMW May '15 issue by MDB Images, on Flickr
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Great shot. Must be weird shooting the rig shot and then having someone else edit it!



Me² said:
A rare beast, a yellow Ferrari F40.

i-JHJWB7p-L.jpg
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Epic shot. Bet you were nervous rigging this? They are mega money! Such an opportunity. Did you have the wheel turned slightly to the right for this shot? Love the sky.
 
Awesome as always Sammy, love the last shot. Captures that wide R35 front end nicely.

Looks like a nice GTR! Some seriously interesting stuff coming out of this thread
 
does anyone else do the multiple exposure thing? I need to get into the habit of doing that I think. Keeps the texture in the road, the sharpness in the car and the detail in the sky.

I'd have never thought before of using a static sky shot for a rig shot.
 
I've only done multiple exposures when I felt I needed too, eg. wanted to use a CP at different levels and mask reflections out.

Never thought about a static sky, suppose that depends how interesting the sky is on that day? Not really an issue with clouds.

Out of interest what were the exposure times on the GTR set?
Wish I could get mine as sharp as they look, I struggle with lining up a static shot with the rigged shot (in post) since the camera is never in the exact same position due to the movement in the rig, so can't really paint bits of the car in to get it as sharp as i'd like
 
shootthefuture said:
I've only done multiple exposures when I felt I needed too, eg. wanted to use a CP at different levels and mask reflections out.

Never thought about a static sky, suppose that depends how interesting the sky is on that day? Not really an issue with clouds.

Out of interest what were the exposure times on the GTR set?
Wish I could get mine as sharp as they look, I struggle with lining up a static shot with the rigged shot (in post) since the camera is never in the exact same position due to the movement in the rig, so can't really paint bits of the car in to get it as sharp as i'd like
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For the GTR shots I did a 30 second exposure for the car, 7 secs for the ground, 3 for the driver and 1/8 for the sky.

When I say static shot I still mean on the rig with it attached to the car. Why would your rig move if it is fixed in place with the sucion cups?

I don't tend to add any static shots of the car in to add sharpness. I usually find a 30 second exposure is pin sharp.

Then when I add the static sky I just use a soft layer mask and make sure where it meets the "moving" shot is blurred and smooth. If that makes sense?



Bedworth said:
I sometimes use a static one and a rig one to make some more sharpness in parts. Never really tried doing multiple exposures to merge all tbh
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worth a try. I'm definitely going to try and do it everytime.
 
sduk said:
For the GTR shots I did a 30 second exposure for the car, 7 secs for the ground, 3 for the driver and 1/8 for the sky.

When I say static shot I still mean on the rig with it attached to the car. Why would your rig move if it is fixed in place with the sucion cups?
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When the car is static the camera is solid on the rig, when pushing the car there is slight movement on the rig which in turn moves the camera from where it was (usually side to side). When the two images get stacked in PS they don't match up because when the car is moving the camera is always slightly off from there it is when the car is static. It might be down to shorter exposures if your saying you usually find 30 sec to be sharp I might try that and then merge to two. I've been doing around 5 sec and as I said not had much success with masking in a static shot of the car for sharpness.
 
yeah I used to do that. You'd be amazed at how sharp a 30 second exposure is. I used to wonder how on earth these other people managed to get the 30 seconds sharp but it's actually the opposite of what you think. The longer the exposure then the longer the image of the car can "burn" itself into the camera sensor. So a 30 second shot is easier to get sharp.

Even with slight movement a 30 second shot will line up. Just make sure you only move the car about 2 wheel rotations MAX during that time. It really does need to move slowly and not far at all.
 
sduk said:
yeah I used to do that. You'd be amazed at how sharp a 30 second exposure is. I used to wonder how on earth these other people managed to get the 30 seconds sharp but it's actually the opposite of what you think. The longer the exposure then the longer the image of the car can "burn" itself into the camera sensor. So a 30 second shot is easier to get sharp.

Even with slight movement a 30 second shot will line up. Just make sure you only move the car about 2 wheel rotations MAX during that time. It really does need to move slowly and not far at all.
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Will give it a go on the next shoot, thanks Sammy. Amazes me how honest and helpful everyone on here is compared to most threads about rigging, most seem to like to keep their techniques secret.
 
sduk said:
Epic shot. Bet you were nervous rigging this? They are mega money! Such an opportunity. Did you have the wheel turned slightly to the right for this shot? Love the sky.
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Not nervous at all really, a mixture of confidence in the new kit (and awesome cups) and the owner basically leaving me to it and showing little concern himself, despite it's mega value! You should see how he drives it - apparently he bought two, a red one and a yellow one - this yellow one was Rod Stewart's I believe and depending on who you listen to, is the only yellow one straight from the factory. He kept the red one mint and sold it which given it's condition basically paid for the yellow one, which he literally throws around. Was out in it last weekend in the driving wind and rain bombing it down the M6, which was basically a river. Can't say many with these cars would do that!

P.S. Yep, turned wheel slightly right.
 
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Bedworth said:
ye its very strange lol, was the same with all photos from the and my other feature shoot for them lol
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That's strange, mags always want edited and finished shots from me. Perhaps it's your editing style? PBMW don't have an inhouse picture editor anymore, since like most mags everyone but the editor is freelance, so I wonder who is editing your images, I guess the designer.
 
Well I've finally taken the plunge and bought some bits. Been reading this thread for a couple of months and narrowly missed out on a rig for sale in the forums back in Jan. Now spurred on by how great and open this thread is I've bought three superclamps, a magic arm and some Wood's powr-grip cups (which I've heard are quite good and will do till some manfrotto avengers come up for sale at my budget). Off to homebase/b&q to grab something for the boom pole tonight. Can't wait to have a go.
Thanks to SDUK for compiling a great asset for someone looking at dipping a toe.
 
awesome mate. Keep us updated with your progress. Loads of pics!

Are the woods cups not supposed to be better than the avengers? I was thinking of upgrading.

Glad the thread has helped. My first rig (in the first few pages of this thread) was just an aluminum aerial mast. Then I got some exhaust piping (steel) to make joining sections.
 
Will do I like to take plenty of bts pics during projects anyway. I've heard they are quite good but they're not ball head's. Or do you find that you don't overly need the ball head on the cups?
I was looking at a few steel pole sections connected with bolts to make it easier to transport or I've seen Ally Box pipe used too.
 
ahh I see, you could do it without the ball heads but it would slightly limit you. It is handy to slightly tilt them so the superclamp is parallel to the rig. Plus when on the windscreen it allows you to keep the suction cup shaft vertical which I imagine to be safer as the pull on the cup is not amplified by the angle.

Interested to see what you build. Have you got yourself an ND filter? I wire or ratchet strap type tensioner will be a great help to you also as the joins in the rig will add flex. I would say try and keep the sections as long as you can to reduce it.
 
Yeah I've got a few ND filters from landscape work and I was looking at your ratchet strap style tensioner which I think I'll borrow the idea of if it helps with reducing bounce. I'm wondering if I can get a pivot head to fit onto the suction cups allowing me to adjust them. Something that would fit between the suction cups and the superclamps. Might be worth a google anywho.
Will keep you updated anyway cheers again.
 
The Wood's cups (32kg low marking) will be better than Avengers, the ball head is where you're missing out so would get a swivel head to fit whatever thread size the pin on your cups is rather than wait for Avengers.

Having moved on from Avengers, the rubber is so hard compared that you can't actually use them on half the surfaces you can with Woods/CCR cups.

What you want is something like this for your Woods http://www.carcamerarig.com/shoppin...by-Swivel-Adapter/p/15332640/category=3601713
 
Simon Kitt said:
Tom they're really nice but the price is a bit steep for me at the moment. was thinking something more along the lines of the Manfrotto 026 (http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-manfrotto-mn026-lite-tite-swivel-and-umbrella-adaptor/p1005217) but if I can find the CCR ones pre-used for less I'll splash on them
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Careful, I've made a similar mistake with something like this, the depth of the female end of the adapter doesn't look nearly long enough to cover the length of the male pin. If you're putting it on the 5/8th pin for sure that won't do the job as it will need to extend over the full length of the smaller diameter middle. Hope that makes sense.
 
Me² said:
The Wood's cups (32kg low marking) will be better than Avengers, the ball head is where you're missing out so would get a swivel head to fit whatever thread size the pin on your cups is rather than wait for Avengers.

Having moved on from Avengers, the rubber is so hard compared that you can't actually use them on half the surfaces you can with Woods/CCR cups.

What you want is something like this for your Woods http://www.carcamerarig.com/shoppin...by-Swivel-Adapter/p/15332640/category=3601713
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Can't help but think there must be something out there that's similar at a lesser price than the CCR stuff. I'd imagine there's a similar piece of hardware out there for use with drum kits, to mount cymbals etc.

You could try your luck here and go straight to the supplier but I'd assume after paying shipping the CCR price is similar http://www.kupogrip.com/ez-grip-finger-baby-16mm-stud-receiver/
 
Wow Matt they look perfect. I found the avengers equivalent which were about £35-£40 each but these look spot on.
 
Digitalize said:
That's strange, mags always want edited and finished shots from me. Perhaps it's your editing style? PBMW don't have an inhouse picture editor anymore, since like most mags everyone but the editor is freelance, so I wonder who is editing your images, I guess the designer.
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I dunno he asked for all unedited and same with them from Matt's 8 series shoot.
 
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