Light Painting Part II

I went out to shoot last night with the intention of getting a better grip on light painting. I hadn't really done any since my last post and was itching to try it again. I wanted to get the Houston skyline (cheesy?) in the background, so I did some hunting on Google Maps first for locations that I thought might work.

After driving to the location, I found that the view was perfect; a nice, unobstructed view of the skyline - rare to come by in Houston, it seems. There was only one issue that turned out to be a real problem though. The parking lot had large overhead lighting that bathed the car in an intense white light, which I was worried would make light painting very difficult.

It did.

I spend about 15 minutes painting the nose of the car with limited success, and completely struck out on painting the sides of the car. No matter what settings I used (I mainly stuck with 10sec @ F8), the overhead light simply overpowered my little torch. I decided to take a few ambient exposures to get as much detail as I could, then packed everything up and headed home a bit defeated.

Looking at the photos in post however, I saw that they might actually have a chance. The skyline looked great, as I caught it right at the last hint of dusk and the exposures of the nose when combined added up pretty well.

I started with the original shot of the skyline and built upon it:



I added all the individual exposures that lit individual parts of the nose:



After that, it was a TON of editing to remove annoying and distracting elements like light poles and fixtures. Heavy use of the clone stamp and healing brush here!

As far as editing, I did some minor individual RGB curves adjustments, some sharpening, minor gradients and fiddled with the selective color settings a bit. I also raised the levels just a touch so that the image wasn't TOO dark, although I kind of liked the dark look for this one.

With all that said, I now know that I need a more powerful light source or need to shoot somewhere that is close to pitch black. I did find a good spot though, and I plan on using it again soon in future attempts.

Thanks for looking!

Theo

New Rig Shots with the Acura RSX

I set out last weekend to get a little more practice with the rig. I hadn't used it since the Ferrari shoot and was itching to give it a try again. The RSX hadn't been washed recently, but due to the lack of rain was still decently clean.

I set out to find a good location and settled on an industrial area in North Houston that had railroad tracks and a nice open area next to them. It was a Sunday, so I figured that traffic would be fairly minimal in the area.

My girlfriend Ashleigh was nice enough to tag along, since it's much easier to set up the rig with two people. We call her the resident "flash-girl". As we were setting up the rig, I saw a worker from one of the factories pop his head out of a door on the side of the building to have a look. He came walking over, which I figured meant that I wasn't going to be able to shoot there. But the first thing out of his mouth was "What the hell is that thing?". He was fascinated that these are the types of tools used to create rolling shots in ads, and had a lot of questions about how the final images comes from this huge "thing" hanging off the car. After his curiosity was satisfied, he walked back towards the door and disappeared into the factory again.

Once I started shooting, I realized that in my haste to get outside and practice, I really didn't think logically. It was midday and the sun was beating down in full force, limiting to no more than a 2 second exposure even with a 3 stop ND filter stacked on top of a CPL. The car was under the cover of a roof extending off the factory, which helped to cut some of the harsh shadows and highlights, however.

As I was shooting, I heard the whistle from a train coming. I quickly set up the car for the shot and was able to take a few with the passing train as a backdrop, which I thought was pretty cool.

I tried taking a few static shots, focusing on different portions of the car so that I could graft them in if the rolling shots had some soft spots. I also took a few while spinning the CPL around to minimize reflections on various body panels and windows.

In post, it was just a jumble of layers, layer masks and cloning. I learned my lesson on using a shorter exposure on rig shots - all the photos still had recognizable backgrounds which made it pretty tough to clone the rig out. Next time I will definitely stick with an exposure time of at least 3 seconds so that I get a nice blur and cloning doesn't take another few weeks off my life.

Once everything was cloned out, I dropped in some donor sky images that I took while in New Mexico to get a more dramatic effect. I also did some high-pass sharpening, some color overlays and slight desaturation to get the final look. I think they both came out well, but the rear rolling shot is clearly the best one. A bit disappointing, as I'd hoped the rolling train would be a great backdrop, but the lack of light on the side of the car in that shot keeps it from being the best it could have been. I'm still happy with both, however!

On to the images!





And the before shots:





Thanks for checking in!

Theo

Light Painting Part II

So a day or two after I finished the initial light painting of the RSX, I kept having an itch to try it again to get better results. I wasn't happy with how the car appreared to "glow" and looked too close to poorly done HDR. I figured that the glow was a result of the light source being too strong, so I took the Cobra LED torch and wrapped a piece of ordinary printer paper around it to diffuse the light a bit...a poor man's softbox, if you will.

I concentrated much more on getting each individual panel lit evenly this time so that there wouldn't be as many hot spots. I stayed about 5-8 feet away from the car and moved the LED torch in smooth, arcing motions. I also concentrated on getting dynamic shadows and highlights too, since that is what always catches my eye when I'm looking at studio shot images.

In post, I took a lot more time blending the panels together, keeping a close eye on all the shadows and highlights and taking time to remove any hot spots. Again, it was a very laborious process, but worth it in the end. I think that the end result turned out much better this time, and I will definitely use this method from now on.

The final result:



A short video showing all the layers slowly being added to the final image. It's best to watch this in full screen so that you can really see everything coming together:



Hoping to do some rig shots of the RSX this afternoon if time permits. I'll be sure to post them up here if I'm able to shoot today!

Theo

1978 Ferrari 308 GTB - All that's missing is my Magnum PI mustache.

I was fortunate enough to be able to shoot a 1978 Ferrari 308 GTB after Thanksgiving Lunch/Dinner (Linner?) this past week.

With full bellies and a turkey induced tryptophan high, we set out to find a good spot to photograph this beauty. This Ferrari is not just an inanimate object - it is very much alive. I felt the personality come through as I drove onward. She doesn't like to be shifted quickly, but rather slowly and deliberately with a good amount of time between gears. If you didn't give her enough gas off the line, you are reprimanded with a good shake from the drivetrain (what were you thinking?!). The pedals are biased towards the right and are so close together that my foot would sometimes graze the brake when I pressed on the accelerator. Not the easiest thing to drive, but would you expect a vintage Ferrari to be low-maintenance when you're behind the wheel? Part of the allure of driving this beautiful machine is the fear of her biting back!

We wandered off 290 a bit onto some country roads and eventually found a suitable spot that didn't have any traffic, and spread all the gear out to get started. I had the d700, two flashes (SB600 & SB900), Nikkor 105mm VR, Nikkor 24-85 and my rig set up.

I shot first with the 105mm. It is fantastically sharp, and focuses so quietly. I shot the interior with the SB600 at 1/4 power on the side of the driver's seat pointed at the footwell and the SB900 on the passenger's seat pointed at the ceiling.

For the exterior static shots, I placed both flashes at 1/4 power pointed at the front and rear wheels and shot multiple exposures until I had the entire car covered. I like this method much better rather than using lots of strobes since I can "paint" the light where I need it. In retrospect, I wish I had pulled the flashes further away from the 308 so that the light wasn't so harsh. I was working with the D700 in flash commander mode, so my range was severely limited. Damn, I need some wireless triggers!

With the weather deteriorating quickly, I affixed the 24-85mm (along with 2 polarizers stacked on one another...I need an ND filter badly) and set up the rig. As this was my first car to test the working rig on (no pressure, right?), I was basically guessing as to what would be good placement for the Avengers. My first test shot seemed to turn out well, so I set the D700 at aperture priority (f22) and set the timer. I sat my girlfriend in the driver's seat and told her to do her best "cornering at 120 mph" face, clicked the shutter and ran like crazy to the back of the car and started pushing. After a few tries, I got one that looked like a keeper - which was fortunate because I was out of breath and tired from pushing the damn car around for the past few minutes. You can see the unedited shot of the rig here.

As I was setting up the rig for a rear shot, the skies opened up and we aborted the rest of the photoshoot and scrambled to get all the equipment back into our trusty "chase car" (my girlfriends CR-V). We tore home in the deteriorating weather, trying to get the precious Ferrari out of the rain before it melted. Unbeknownst to me, there was a secondary headlight switch under the dash, so after trying in vain to turn on the headlights, I was forced to drive home with the hazards rapidly blinking, mimicking my thumping heartbeat perfectly.

Not a moment too soon, I arrived back at the owner's house and nestled the Ferrari back in the garage, where it belongs. I bumped my head on the low-slung roof while getting out - surely it was the 308 scolding me for having her out in the rain.

I really enjoyed this shoot. While newer supercars may be stunningly beautiful and striking to the eyes, they lack the soul that cars like the 308 possess. This car is not that fast by modern standards and has many quirks that have since been smoothed over by newer models, but all that is forgotten with just one look at it.

Enjoy the photos,

Theo
















A video of the clown horn on the Ferrari. People probably worried seeing someone in a Ferrari laughing crazily while honking the horn repeatedly.


And a terrible video of driving the 308. Probably should've concentrated more on driving...