Lighting setup car photography..help/advice?

[gambit222]

hi folks new to the forums sorry for lots of questions straight off!

Basically, i have found a great location to photograph a car, girlfriends actually. Its a pitch black industrial area, no lighting, run down buildings etc.

I have no lighting, i did have a flash gun, not a very good one which is now broke. I currently use a canon 60d with 18-135mm lens and 50mm lens.

i am looking to see what kind of flash gun i should buy? maybe two or three? equipment to fix these onto? how could i get them to fire all at once?

What about other forms of portable lighting? bulbs etc?

thanks for any help!

 

[ghache]

for cars, Personally, i would use a couple strobes with large parabolic umbrella in the 64+ inch range and use 2 more flash with large soft boxes to light up the scene a bit.. I would also use some bare speedlights or flash heads to rim the car. I would start with that set-up and see how it goes.

Get a depolarizer filter to cut some reflection off the paint as it will create unwanted reflection on the car

and you will need battery packs.

 

[tirediron]

I'm a Nikonian, not a Canonite, so I can't speak to Canon specifics. ghache's suggestion of the large umbrellas is definitely one way to go; typically professional car shoots are done in a large studio with very large (as in 4x8') softboxes and diffusion panels, however that represents many tens of thousands of dollars in equipment. For a one-off shoot (you don't specifiy a budget) I would look toward 2-3 speedlights (Vivitar 285, Yongnuo 5** series) and Younguo radio triggers, with a couple of Ezybox style soft-boxes. One of the keys to doing this well is going to be picking the right time of day; I would suggest (without knowing a lot about the area) that around sunset would be the best time; you don't want to try and do this in the pitch dark.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

BIG modifiers are key to cars and motorcycles. See the last set-up in this link. If you want amateurish photos disregard my BIG modifier suggestion.

Car Studio Photography Set-ups - Core77