Zero ambient light Porsche rigshot incl behind the scenes
Discussion
Write up was supposed to be up last night to coincide with the pics going on flickr but first of all PH was down then I managed to lose all my writing in a Mac crash - aargh!
The story is that after collaborating with Dean Smith aka //deanphoto on a rig shot of a Ferrari 348 in an undercover car park (due to rain rather than preference) he challenged me to up the stakes and join him to produce a rig shot on location with zero ambient light. It sounded tough so needless to say I jumped at the chance.
Second time round the subject vehicle was another banker's favourite, a 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera. We met over a Wimpy at Little Chef and things didn't get any more straightforward as the evening progressed.
First assignment of the night was actually an open track session at the local oval raceway, with the usual drifting and stock car action supplemented on this occasion by stunt bikes, wheelchair racing and a seemingly ill-thought through burning caravan jump.
So by the time we left the track it was already most people's idea of late so we decided to make a couple of changes to the agenda. Firstly, rather than a ravenous stagger to the all night cafe for bacon and tea at the end of the shoot, we picked up energy drinks and pork-based snacks en-route to the location. Sure, you don't care about our diets but, as with most things in life, you'll read later how this decision had its consequences. Secondly, rather than spend 80 futile minutes cleaning the car in cold damp conditions (as we had the Ferrari) we left it unwashed. Hell, the shot shows it being driven and when you drive a car it gets dirty.
At the location Dean set about configuring the rig whilst I got a brew on and had a quick stab at lighting the dirty car (the shot below is straight from the cam hence sloppy light trail at the top of the frame):
Head over to youtube for a short video of this shot being produced if you're interested in the process of lightpainting
With the rig set up we wasted no time in rolling the car off down the hill (beats pushing for sure) for a first attempt, which turned out hopelessly overexposed. Still, much easier to tone down your light than try and add more. Whilst discussing the lighting strategy I left the camera running so we had a record of ambient light - it's still on the rig in this shot. If you're geeky like me and want the numbers: 5 mins at f/5.6, ISO200
Head back up to the top and start again. As we refined elements of the shot we found ourselves getting pretty creative with the equipment to get the desired result. In case it''s not blindingly obvious, that's an Elinchrom D-Lite in modelling mode, hanging off the wing mirror by zip ties and flagged with a clipboard to prevent light spill towards the rear of the car
(pic from Dean's iPhone)
With a couple more attempts under our belt we paused to rehydrate and take on board some much needed sustenance before continuing with what we both agreed would be the final attempt of the night. The shutter cable stayed locked in place for bulb mode; the interior light remained off; and the power to the D-Lites held up - all of which problems had cursed us through the evening - and it was feeling pretty tidy when the shutter closed after 93 seconds. Dean jumped out the driver's seat and joined me to zoom in on the camera's preview screen. Exposure was good with useable shadow areas; spill was nicely controlled and the whole minute and a half thing didn't stop the car from looking pretty sharp. And then we saw the roof...
Dean's (rightly) too much of a perfectionist to leave his bottle of Lucozade in his edited shot so I've left it in my more amateurishly edited version, just for giggles. It's no harder to remove that than to clone out the rig so we took this as a cue to pack up and give the forest back to the owls before the sun started rising.
Even with a paragraph of text subtly placed between our two images you can still see the extra finesse of Dean's fluency in PhotoShop. That said, there's minimal processing in either from the original camera file.
There's just one more shot from the evening I'm looking forward to seeing and that's the star trail from Dean's D3 that was running amidst the trees the whole time we were working. Hopefully he's had chance to process the stack by the time he's read this mammoth post
The story is that after collaborating with Dean Smith aka //deanphoto on a rig shot of a Ferrari 348 in an undercover car park (due to rain rather than preference) he challenged me to up the stakes and join him to produce a rig shot on location with zero ambient light. It sounded tough so needless to say I jumped at the chance.
Second time round the subject vehicle was another banker's favourite, a 1987 Porsche 911 Carrera. We met over a Wimpy at Little Chef and things didn't get any more straightforward as the evening progressed.
First assignment of the night was actually an open track session at the local oval raceway, with the usual drifting and stock car action supplemented on this occasion by stunt bikes, wheelchair racing and a seemingly ill-thought through burning caravan jump.
So by the time we left the track it was already most people's idea of late so we decided to make a couple of changes to the agenda. Firstly, rather than a ravenous stagger to the all night cafe for bacon and tea at the end of the shoot, we picked up energy drinks and pork-based snacks en-route to the location. Sure, you don't care about our diets but, as with most things in life, you'll read later how this decision had its consequences. Secondly, rather than spend 80 futile minutes cleaning the car in cold damp conditions (as we had the Ferrari) we left it unwashed. Hell, the shot shows it being driven and when you drive a car it gets dirty.
At the location Dean set about configuring the rig whilst I got a brew on and had a quick stab at lighting the dirty car (the shot below is straight from the cam hence sloppy light trail at the top of the frame):
Head over to youtube for a short video of this shot being produced if you're interested in the process of lightpainting
With the rig set up we wasted no time in rolling the car off down the hill (beats pushing for sure) for a first attempt, which turned out hopelessly overexposed. Still, much easier to tone down your light than try and add more. Whilst discussing the lighting strategy I left the camera running so we had a record of ambient light - it's still on the rig in this shot. If you're geeky like me and want the numbers: 5 mins at f/5.6, ISO200
Head back up to the top and start again. As we refined elements of the shot we found ourselves getting pretty creative with the equipment to get the desired result. In case it''s not blindingly obvious, that's an Elinchrom D-Lite in modelling mode, hanging off the wing mirror by zip ties and flagged with a clipboard to prevent light spill towards the rear of the car
(pic from Dean's iPhone)
With a couple more attempts under our belt we paused to rehydrate and take on board some much needed sustenance before continuing with what we both agreed would be the final attempt of the night. The shutter cable stayed locked in place for bulb mode; the interior light remained off; and the power to the D-Lites held up - all of which problems had cursed us through the evening - and it was feeling pretty tidy when the shutter closed after 93 seconds. Dean jumped out the driver's seat and joined me to zoom in on the camera's preview screen. Exposure was good with useable shadow areas; spill was nicely controlled and the whole minute and a half thing didn't stop the car from looking pretty sharp. And then we saw the roof...
Dean's (rightly) too much of a perfectionist to leave his bottle of Lucozade in his edited shot so I've left it in my more amateurishly edited version, just for giggles. It's no harder to remove that than to clone out the rig so we took this as a cue to pack up and give the forest back to the owls before the sun started rising.
Even with a paragraph of text subtly placed between our two images you can still see the extra finesse of Dean's fluency in PhotoShop. That said, there's minimal processing in either from the original camera file.
There's just one more shot from the evening I'm looking forward to seeing and that's the star trail from Dean's D3 that was running amidst the trees the whole time we were working. Hopefully he's had chance to process the stack by the time he's read this mammoth post
Another good collaboration gents. I really enjoy reading these seeing that both of you bring something different to the party, creatively speaking.
Dean - can you expand a bit more on the technique for the star trails? I'm interested in doing this so am reading as widely as possible about the subject
Dean - can you expand a bit more on the technique for the star trails? I'm interested in doing this so am reading as widely as possible about the subject
CVP said:
Another good collaboration gents. I really enjoy reading these seeing that both of you bring something different to the party, creatively speaking.
Dean - can you expand a bit more on the technique for the star trails? I'm interested in doing this so am reading as widely as possible about the subject
Don't know about Dean's specific shot but usually with stacking you want to let as much light in (ie starlight) as possible so wide aperture/ high iso is common. Then use consecutive exposures up to 30seconds each depending on ambient light to record the path of the stars. Hold the shutter open with a cable release. If stars are your aim the big advantage this technique has over a single long exposure is you can shoot up to the limit of the ambient light where a single file has to stop when it reaches the ambient threshold.Dean - can you expand a bit more on the technique for the star trails? I'm interested in doing this so am reading as widely as possible about the subject
Included in your stack you can shoot a light frame (ie longer exposure) to illuminate foreground detail and a dark frame (with lens cap on) for noise reduction purposes. Can be done by a photoshop action or using freeware from http://www.startrails.de/
AndWhyNot said:
[snipped]
Can be done by a photoshop action or using freeware from http://www.startrails.de/
Thanks for the update. Looks like I can use the built-in intervalometer on the D3 then Can be done by a photoshop action or using freeware from http://www.startrails.de/
Unfortunately startrails.de is Win only and I'm in the black polo neck wearing club so will see if I can write an action for the stacking.
Chris
//dean said:
Well, this thread went down like a lead balloon, didn't it? Either it was lost or nobody really got it?
I think it may have been the thread title. I read the first few words of that, got a bit confused, then incorrectly saw 'rimshot' 
Now I have had a look, I am grateful I did. I often wonder what goes into making pics like these, they 'look' easy to do, but know different now.
Thanks for sharing
CVP said:
Thanks for the update. Looks like I can use the built-in intervalometer on the D3 then
Unfortunately startrails.de is Win only and I'm in the black polo neck wearing club so will see if I can write an action for the stacking.
Chris
In PS - File>Scripts>Statistics>Stak mode = Maximum.Unfortunately startrails.de is Win only and I'm in the black polo neck wearing club so will see if I can write an action for the stacking.
Chris
CVP said:
Thanks for the update. Looks like I can use the built-in intervalometer on the D3 then
Unfortunately startrails.de is Win only and I'm in the black polo neck wearing club so will see if I can write an action for the stacking.
Chris
Using the intervalometer you might find the one-second gap between frames is too great and leaves visible spaces between your trails. With a cable releas you can take full advantage of the same minimal frame lag that brings you 9fps Unfortunately startrails.de is Win only and I'm in the black polo neck wearing club so will see if I can write an action for the stacking.
Chris
Startrails.exe is Win only but can run on a PC from a memory stick without needing admin rights or installation. Output is JPG only max 96dpi
Super, thanks chaps.
Edited to add:
More research shows Russell Brown has a free action & guidance to make star trails, see
click here and scroll a long way down to the CS3 section called "Animated Star Trails" . There look to be quite a few other interesting things to learn here too
Edited to add:
More research shows Russell Brown has a free action & guidance to make star trails, see
click here and scroll a long way down to the CS3 section called "Animated Star Trails" . There look to be quite a few other interesting things to learn here too
Edited by CVP on Wednesday 9th February 17:27
Love this shot lads, epic result considering the circumstances - would love to come along and give this a bash with you sometime. If you fancy an NSX (or, er, Mondeo) as a subject give me a shout 
I like the feel of it, its got a real 'driving into the night' theme to it, which I guess is what you were after. I'd prefer the car to have more highligh/shadow areas to give the body more form, its just a little too overtly artificial at the moment - but presumably thats what your first go is all about! Quite a technical challenge to get all this done in one frame, can I ask how many takes you had?
I like the feel of it, its got a real 'driving into the night' theme to it, which I guess is what you were after. I'd prefer the car to have more highligh/shadow areas to give the body more form, its just a little too overtly artificial at the moment - but presumably thats what your first go is all about! Quite a technical challenge to get all this done in one frame, can I ask how many takes you had?
trackdemon said:
Love this shot lads, epic result considering the circumstances - would love to come along and give this a bash with you sometime. If you fancy an NSX (or, er, Mondeo) as a subject give me a shout
I like the feel of it, its got a real 'driving into the night' theme to it, which I guess is what you were after. I'd prefer the car to have more highligh/shadow areas to give the body more form, its just a little too overtly artificial at the moment - but presumably thats what your first go is all about! Quite a technical challenge to get all this done in one frame, can I ask how many takes you had?
Pretty sure this was the fourth attempt, with the #1 being overexposed; #1 and #3 suffering from too much light spill to the bottom right of image; and #2 being a dud as a result of me not locking the cable release (a pre-emptive strike against Dean's Lucozade fail. I like the feel of it, its got a real 'driving into the night' theme to it, which I guess is what you were after. I'd prefer the car to have more highligh/shadow areas to give the body more form, its just a little too overtly artificial at the moment - but presumably thats what your first go is all about! Quite a technical challenge to get all this done in one frame, can I ask how many takes you had?
I know exactly what you mean about the definition by light of the car's form but in this specific scenario we were up against it as the light on the car was done in a single frame rather than built and composited in layers. Didn't have to be that way, but that's the challenge
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