Car photo shoot..

[BMW-M6]

Hi all,

I'm new here, but I'll introduce myself in a sec in the special forum


Next week, I'm gonna do a photo shoot with the BMW 5 series.

I saw the new BMW 5 driving Amsterdam yesterday, I thought it wasn't gonna be released until September.. so I went down to the garage and have a look.

A salesman asked if he could help me, so I told him about my passion for BMW's and my hobby photography and I asked if I could do a photo shoot with a BMW.

So he asked if I wanted to use the new 5 series, so I said yes

So, next week I'm gonna do my first "car" session, since I mostly use B&W films, I wanted to do this photo shoot in B&W too.

Now, since it's my first shoot, what would be better to use, a grey/silver car or a dark color.

I don't have a location yet for the photo shoot, but with suggestions posted here I try and find one which would give the best result.

Personally, I'd prefer the grey/silver, since I was thinking about shooting pics in and/or near a forrest and I figured the trees will be dark, so the car will stand out nicely.

Thanks in advance

 

[e_]

 
...you get an opportunity to shoot the latest BMW5 series - and all you need/ask for are suggestions on deciding the colour scheme (???)

lol!

Technically, photography - in simple terms - is all about making decisions

In this case you have a choice between grey/silver or black...so:

Make a decision!



I suspect it's more than that, though

You just wanted to share your excitement with us...correct (?)

Welcome to the forum and best wishes on your shoot

Cheers!



e_

 

[BMW-M6]

Well, yes I must say I am excited, I mean, I don't work for a magazine or anything, and they are giving a 60k euros car away for a day.

The thing is, I haven't done B&W photography yet, and I just don't want to screw this photo shoot, because I promised a poster size copy of my best pic.

I'm gonna do 2 completely new things, shoot B&W pics, and use a car as my subject.

I think I'll go for the silver car.

I'm gonna do some color as well, gonna look for some nice surroundings this weekend. Do some forrest, maybe try find some country houses and/or small castles just across the Belgian border.

I wanna show both sides of the BMW, the sporty side and the business side.

I hope my brother has the day off next week, so I can try make some pics of the car while driving. (that'll be the 3rd challenge btw)

I'll put up some pics as soon as they are developed.

 

[e_]

 
Kewl!

...thanks for some extra details and filling in the blanks

I'd be happy to offer some suggestions - but need go for a walk right now

Will pop back in later on and check if there's anything "specific" you'd like some assistance with

Caio!



e_

 

[BMW-M6]

well, my simple question would be:

what are definately B&W no-no's?

I expect a very hot and sunny day (thank god that thing has airco LOL)

so lots of sunlight


what if it rains? will the photos come out extremely dark?
I don't have artificial light equipment

 

[voodoocat]

An overcast day would actually be godsend. Bright sunlight is so harsh.

Oh, and if you want to blow one up to poster size, you better shoot with some fine grain film. You're going to see grain regardless.

 

[BMW-M6]

that's a thing that has questioned me, cuz someone else mentioned that
to me as well.

what about the posters that you can buy in the shops? I don't
see much grain on those, or just a slight bit.

i was thinking about 50x70 for the photo and then a border around it.

I think I'll bring my digital camera as well, handy to take
shots and see how they work out a bit before taking the actual picture.

today was a day with sun and overcast at the end...
so hopefully I'll get a bit of both then next week.

 

[voodoocat]

Posters like that are taken with large format cameras. When the negative is 4x5 or 8x10 it isn't enlarged very much.

50x70!? Even the finest grain 35mm film is going to show quite a bit of grain at 50x70. Even ISO50 film enlarged to a standard poster size is going to show some grain.

 

[BMW-M6]

Mmm, will have to take a smaller size then

or get myself a large format camera

might be worth the investment, since I'm planning on
more poster size photos.

but then again, only got one week.....

what would be a reasonable size bigger format
for normal film?

please note I'm talking 50x70 cm, not inches

sorry for that

 

[voodoocat]

oh, cm's makes much more sense. You'll see some grain, but if the image is not completely sharp it will really show up at that size.

Large format cameras are expensive. Mostly due to the film and processing costs.

Another option would be to get a medium format camera. A 6x6 would be 10x to get what you're after. Where as a 35mm negative would need to be enlarged over 20 times.

 

[photobug]

You might check local camera shops to see if any of them rent camera equipment. Unless you're looking to do a lot of large prints medium or large format can get a little pricey.

Jim

 

[voodoocat]

Good suggestion Jim.

Here I can rent a 4x5 view camera with a 120mm lens for about $65/day or $85 for fri-monday. 4x5 sheet film is about $2/shot.

 

[tr0gd0o0r]

I'm sort of confused. One of your posts I thought you siad you mostly used black and white and then later I thought you siad that black and white is something new for you. Personally in this situation. You've got all day with this car right? I'm guessing your going to use at least 5-10 rolls. Get some black and white and some color. I'd also suggest a couple different ISO speeds (just for the heck of it.) But make sure you have a few rolls of 400 just for tha tall purpose situation. And as far that moving picuture of the car It won't be too difficult. Focus on a point on the road w/ a high shutter speed (i'd say at least around 500) and wait for the car to show up. Hope my advice helps a little.

 

[MDowdey]

just use the b+w and the silver car. use a background like a busy street or some thing, and bounce some light of her somewhere...case closed, who's up for a beer?

seriously, gppd luck with any setup you have, and make sure to post em here when you get um...


md

 

[BMW-M6]

Sorry about that tr0gd0o0r.

dunno how I came up with that sentence.

I recently started a B&W film, but it isn't full yet.

I like B&W photos more than color photos, so I guess I screwed
up my sentence there somewhere