# Black Car Photography



## 412 Burgh (May 5, 2011)

I do some searching on google, and didn't find anything useful. I only found "Don't light the car". and the search didn't find anything good on this forum. So, this is my question to everyone. What are some tips/tricks on shooting a black car?

I'll take any suggestions. such as angle, background, or whatever it may be


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## 06azrex (May 5, 2011)

I struggle soooo har with taking pics that are worth a crap of my car.









These are horrible, but im just trying to practice on getting the car to look right, then Ill find a better location lol.


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## 412 Burgh (May 5, 2011)

Yeah, I just got a 2005 Audi A6 and want to take some photos of it, but I had a hard time taking pics of my old black car


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## o hey tyler (May 5, 2011)

Supplemental lighting would help the situation I think. I'm going to be shooting a Mini Cooper S Clubman, and a regular Cooper S (both black). I did however, take shots of a mostly black interior the other day. 






Not really a finalized shot, but basically I stuck a 430EX on a lightstand with a shoot thru umbrella and put it in the passenger side window on 1/4 power. However, lighting the exterior of a car is a fairly different ball game due to the potential for a lot of glare or reflections of your light(s). I also shot this indoors which allowed me to control the lighting better, which may not be possible for you. 

The other thing you can try is HDR (high dynamic range). You can take 3 different exposures, exposing for the brightest brights, and the darkest shadows. You'll get a much more appealing look to your image.


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## DRoberts (May 5, 2011)

Tripod, Tripod, Tripod! I like using ambient light. Street lights in a residential area or parks makes for good lighting. The main key IMO...is having light sources behind the car to illuminate your background, obviously you can't have a black background with a black car. I like off camera flashes for highlights 




http://www.flickr.com/photos/drphotog/5690004507/


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## 06azrex (May 5, 2011)

Heres a few that a local photographer on one of my car forums did for me.


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## 06azrex (May 5, 2011)

DRoberts said:


> Tripod, Tripod, Tripod! I like using ambient light. Street lights in a residential area or parks makes for good lighting. The main key IMO...is having light sources behind the car to illuminate your background, obviously you can't have a black background with a black car. I like off camera flashes for highlights
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks for this, I unfortunately dont have that much gear but will try having some street lights lighting up the background


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## Village Idiot (May 5, 2011)

A car with pretty much any paint except for matte is going to be a giant colored mirror. It reflects everything that's shot at it. If you shoot bare flashes at the car, you get pinpoints of light reflected in the paint from the flash heads. If you shoot two flashes at the ground infront of the car, like in one of the photos above, you'll get the reflection of the lit pavement in the paint of the car. The "trick" is to light the surroundings of the car. Use reflectors, strip boxes, softboxes, etc...

This is my car and is a composite made from two photos. I used one Canon speedlight on a stand in the middle of the hood pointed a reflector being held by a friend to the left and the the right side of the hood. The reflector is circular, so it didn't light the entire like of the car like I wanted.


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## c.cloudwalker (May 5, 2011)

Here is a sample image from a car magazine.  Maybach 57S Xenatec Coupe (2011) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online
You can click on the thumbnails to enlarge them. Not so great... It is almost impossible to do a car, outdoors, without nasty reflections or without spending an awful long time in PS to recolor/repaint it. Using any small flashes or reflectors usually only makes it worse. Better off with fully natural light although it means spending time finding locations and figuring out time of day to shoot. But it is quite possible.

That's why I shoot mostly in studio using softboxes and reflectors that are larger than the car so as to get a reflection that covers the entire car/vehicle.

There are quite a few car mags online. Study their photos, you'll learn what to do and not to do. Just one tip: I don't want to see the photog in the paint job or chrome...


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## KmH (May 5, 2011)

412 Burgh said:


> I do some searching on google, and didn't find anything useful. I only found "Don't light the car". and the search didn't find anything good on this forum. So, this is my question to everyone. What are some tips/tricks on shooting a black car?
> 
> I'll take any suggestions. such as angle, background, or whatever it may be


It is majorly helpful if you learn the basics of photographic lighting: Light Science and Magic, An Introduction to Photographic Lighting - Fourth Edition


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## molested_cow (May 5, 2011)

Black car with high gloss surfaces are more like mirrors. It's not helpful to light the car because the surface will just deflect the light. You should be lighting the environment instead so that it can show up on the car.
Otherwise, you just have to do bracketing and assemble the photo together or do HDR.


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## Village Idiot (May 5, 2011)

c.cloudwalker said:


> Here is a sample image from a car magazine. Maybach 57S Xenatec Coupe (2011) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online
> You can click on the thumbnails to enlarge them. Not so great... It is almost impossible to do a car, outdoors, without nasty reflections or without spending an awful long time in PS to recolor/repaint it.* Using any small flashes or reflectors usually only makes it worse.* Better off with fully natural light although it means spending time finding locations and figuring out time of day to shoot. But it is quite possible.
> 
> That's why I shoot mostly in studio using softboxes and reflectors that are larger than the car so as to get a reflection that covers the entire car/vehicle.
> ...



Maybe if you have no clue what you're doing.


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