Taking Car Interior Photos (Back Seat Especially)

[greenhorn]

Hello Everyone,

I am having trouble getting the proper lighting to take the back seat of a car. I am trying to take a good photo of a car seat cover but I am not getting an even exposure.

So far I have tired the following.

Pure natural sunlight in the morning and evening in the shade.

External Flash with 1 slave flash on the inside of the car

Using a reflector to redirect natural sunlight to the interior of the car.

Will show you examples later tonight.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to your responses.

 

[tirediron]

If it's a white/light headliner, place a couple of speedlights in the front seat area, tilt the heads to bounce, and adjust output to suit. You may have to flag a little here and there to deal with reflections. If it's a black/dark headliner, then pin/tape a piece of white fabric to the headliner and go as above.

 

[photo1x1.com]

One idea would be to

• wait for the night
• dress all in black (including gloves and cap)
• set your shutter speed to 30 sec ISO 100 (if it is dark enough)
• set the self timer
• put the camera on a tripod
• set your flash to a low to medium setting (maybe even cover it with an nd filter if it is still too strong)
• use white diffuser(s) to soften the shadows
• make sure the flash won't light into the direction of the camera and not on you
• fire it manually from different locations (the more the better)
• press the shutter
• fire away with the flash

The many flash triggers will soften the shadows and give the impression that you used a much bigger light source from many directions. However, the biggest challenge is to not get into the frame yourself (plus flash) and not direct the light towards the camera.