Team Jim Richard Porsche shoot

[PiroStitch]

I'm baaaccck

Here are a few samples. Overall I'm fairly happy with the shots, but bleh my kingdom for a large studio that fits a car For the purposes for marketing, I now need to mask out the background, etc for Hankook. I'm not fussed, more $$ for me but just annoying

Unfortunately it was Jim Richards' car It was his team mate's car, Dean Grant. Still I got to hang out with Jim Richards at his workshop for the arvo Oh and another lesson learnt about why I really dislike PR bureaucracy

Ermmm...ignore the crap jpeg conversion...they look awesome in RAW, really!

Sample shot at first to test out what I settings. Obviously a bit dull

[gooseberry]

Good opportunity. Hoep you don't mind some suggestions - there seems to be a red cast in pics 2 and 3. Pic 4 has a better angle of the car, but looks slightly tilted to the left and the car is a bit too far to the left of the frame.

[MCWB]

Looks sexy Wayne! Orange, black and combinations thereof are seriously the 'in' colours in motorsport recently (check out the V8$A launch).

A bit of radial blur on the wheels in the side-on shot would give a great illusion too.

[mudder]

What a gorgous piece of engineering, any car nut would have loved it

[obzelite]

hmm, i'd like one of those.
Seeing as the wife already complains about the cost of this hobby, i think a race car would result in divorce.

My only issue with them is the hotspots from the lights, but as you said a studio would fix those issues. A job well done given the location.

[Alex]

Hi Wayne,

Very nice. Looks like the shoot is a success!

Well done.
Alex

[Jamie]

Wayne - do you know if this is the 06 race spec car or still the old 05 spec car?

I had the chance to actually go for a few laps around Calder with Jim Richards but i couldnt get out of work on that day, cant begin to tell you how pissed i was about that. A couple of mates still went though, said it was the best thing they had ever done (just what i wanted to hear ).

How did you come across this gig?

Nice pictures btw, im sure they look great in high res.

[wendellt]

wayne this shoot happened pretty quickly it was just last week you were tlking about the opportunity, must of been stressful but exciting

Noticed your nice touches with the white pieces of paper in the studio, whose studio is that or is it a big white garage?

tell us more about he shoot, like details about gettign the car in there, your initial brief and all the tech stuff involved.

I like the 2nd one side on, but i think you have to clean up the image a litle like clone out hte lines int he background which i am sure you will do

congratulations on your first pro and most importantantly paid job

[shaunus]

pirostitch,

great set of shots, better then some of the studio V8 supercar studio shots that are floating around

[Raskill]

tell us more about he shoot, like details about gettign the car in there, your initial brief and all the tech stuff involved.

Yes, I'm with him, tell us all the gory details. Shooting something the size of a car, to the standard the PR folks would want couldn't have been easy.

Speaking of PR folks, a PR mob from Victoria owes me money, make sure that the big company remembers to pay the little guy!

[Glen]

I'm jealous Wayne

[PiroStitch]

Thanks for the kudos everyone

Yeh it was a bit of a hard shoot 'cos was being directed by Hankook PR as well. Kind of cramping my style a bit, but it was good 'cos once I got his shots out of the way, I took a bit more of my own

Now to the nitty gritty. The shoot was done at Jim's workshop and conveniently enough, he has a white wall. The workshop is large enough to fit a semi-trailer, so he took that out of the workshop and we lined the car parallel to the wall.

The lighting in the place wasn't crash hot as I mentioned previously, so I had to overexpose the background to make sure it was as white as white can be. As you can see, this resulted in some hotspots. Obviously I tried to get as much of the shot right first go to reduce PP time, but there's still a bit of work as they plan on masking everything out to prep for design and brochure work (hence the white posters on the ground).

The car was already in the workshop. Overall, it took more hours faffing around and sticking the decals on the car than to do the shoot....When I got there, the smaller sponsor stickers and car numbers weren't even on yet.

What's interesting is they plan on using the side shots as cardboard cutouts....now I know the D70 is 6.1Mp and I know it can be blown up to 20"x30"...but a large cutboard cutout is a whole different kettle of fish. Hoping it'll turn out.

Gooseberry - Thanks for the suggestion mate Duly noted. I'll probably adjust the WB to have a cooler appearance and let their design mob colour balance according to what they want.

MCWB - Heh, hopefully I'll be asked to go on track to take some pics. It'll be more realistic that way

Mudder - Hell yeah! Those things are bugger all ground clearance. Can't even stick your finger b/ween the guards and tyres.

Obzelite - Thanks for the comments. I really wish I had a large studio, then again transporting the car to the studio would have been a logistical nightmare as well.

Alex - Thanks

Jamie - It should be the 06 car as that's the one Dean Grant will be racing. The cars are single seater, so I couldn't get in Was referred by a friend who's friend works for Hankook

Wendell - Thanks for your support dude Yeh I'll be cleaning up the lines, etc for them....may have to clean up the Michelin stuff as well - conflict of interest for the client.

Shaunus - Thanks mate. I dunno about being better than the v8 shots 'cos I've never seen them

Raskill - Yeah it was hard but I just made sure Hankook could be seen clearly. That's the most important part for them. I let them have a squizz at a few shots and they're delighted with it.

Glen - I know you are

[PiroStitch]

Just a few more pics to wet your appetite

Yes I know it's not straight


Will need to remove the bkg.


Will need to remove the bkg.

[wendellt]

more behind the scens and how you did it storyline
what was the conflict of interest

the 1st int he 2nd lot is exposed better
were you using a tripod?
if nto you should off that way you could of done a longer exposure at higher f number lower iso and get a more stricking shot
if you were using a tripod, your tripod is wonky but i guess under pressure a wonky tripod was the last thing on your mind

[PiroStitch]

Heheh Wendell you really do work for a fashion mag Trying to dig out all the goss and behind the scenes dirty

Basically the requirement was to have 5 car shots:

* Side
* Front quarter angle
* Front
* Rear quarter angle
* Rear

The front and rear shots were less important as it had Michelin stickers on it. This was the conflict of interest on the car itself as Hankook is a competitor but Michelin are the official tyres used for all the cars.

With those 5 shots, variations of different angles/heights to show the car as well as the large Hankook came into play.

I did use a tripod, however as you mentioned some shots are a bit wonky. The horizon on the tripod for some reason isn't that great. I did try to get it right as much as possible, but couple the horizon issue with a really slippery floor, the angles were off in some photos

All shots were at ISO200 to make sure maximum detail was captured with minimal noise/grain. f stops varied from 2.8 to 11 and shutter was adjusted accordingly.

I bracketed EVERY single shot to make sure I could pick later on which had a better exposure (not that I didn't know what I was doing ). My initial exposure comp was about 3 to 4 stops + and I let the bracketing do the rest.

Any other questions, feel free to grill me Heck flame me telling me I've done an awful job

[wendellt]

thanks wayne informative

what was the lighting setup from the reflections i am guessing not huge softboxes which is commonly used for this type of shoot

I would guess just indoor flourescent lamps?

how did you account for proper white balance?

was the PR person a male or female, if she was a female was she nice to work with?

[Alpha_7]

Wayne - Nice work with the shots, and thanks for the indepth behind the scenes look. They didn't offer to take you for a drive ??

[redline]

look good wayne keep up the good work!

[PiroStitch]

Wendell - No PR company. Just two direct Hankook contacts, though one was obviously the senior. I'm guessing he's head of marketing or PR as he was the one doing the directing. He's a nice guy, just not really open to suggestions

Unfortunately no access to soft boxes, so just used the overhead fluoro lights - hence my kingdom for a decent sized studio with equipment Then again, might have to explore getting some portable lighting if I keep doing these.

WB i set to fluoro or flash when I used it. Now in PP, I'm having to correct it to create a cooler cast. Thank goodness for Raw!

Craig - No drive mate Stripped down and only a single seater...i can't imagine them letting me start the car let alone drive it

[ozimax]

I'm not a car afficianado (at least if it'snot a Holden ) but these shots look great. You obviously enjoyed the day, and so would I given the chance. Well done.

Max

[PiroStitch]

Just got given the heads up to do a re-shoot. No fault of mine in particular as the vinyl company didn't align the decals properly and part of the logo is cut off...

This time I'll definitely bring in my own damn lights

[Jamie]

Perhaps this time suggest that they also buy some white painting drop sheets, it might make it easier for you in the long run.

[Raskill]

Nice, thats means twice the moolah!!!!

Good luck with your own lights, looking forward to seeing the difference!

[wendellt]

excellent wayne

what type lights are you bringing in? had no idea you had some
otherwise get them to pay for a monumental lighting system
tell them if they want excellent results it all depends on hwo much their willing to invest in a proper studio and lighting setup

[PiroStitch]

I was thinking of getting some material as well, but not sure yet.

With the lighting, I have those 500W halogen work lights from Bunnings. They're a bit orange, but with WB correction it'll be fine. I plan on bringing about 4 of them in - 2 for front angles and 2 shining on the wall to neutralise the shadows. What do you think?

[wendellt]

that cool, using those work lights as studio lights i'm no expert but 4of those lights woudl giveoff harsh reflections ecven though the golden light would look really sexy, i think in shoots like these you need a soft box tent attached to them to diffuse the light make it more even

Although if you want a really sexy atmospheric shot the bare halogen lights will give you contrast and lots of cool highlights, some may obscure some of the logos and decals but this is stuff you have to consider in your art direction

most of the time when people use those sort of lights it's in an outdoor scene or a dark background so only the car is illuminated

anyway wayne your doing well, i guess there's no more urban jam sessions lined up in your immediate future

get out there and kick ASS!

[PiroStitch]

Thanks for the tips Wendell Yeah good point about the harsh highlights...I might have to call up a few places to find out how much it'll cost to hire some softboxes.

Will still have time for urban jams There ARE 24 hours in a day and 7 of them in a week

cheers,

Wayne

[Glen]

Wayne, if you are getting a chance to do it again I would consider turning all their lights off and maybe reflect the Bunnings lights. There are some heavy reflections there. Do they have a clear wall which faces a roller door? Maybe natural light? As Wendell said, your tripod is your friend, I don't even think I would take one shot (unless for myself) without tripod and remote. F8 would probably be my minimium aperture or smaller as cars are very 3D and you need a fair bit of DOF to capture every detail, even on the car side on. Good luck and again I am jealous.