Firestarter
No smoke without fire, right? Well actually you can have smoke without fire. Enter the incense-stick.
Took a break from editing wedding shots from last weekend and had a go at the classic smoke against black background shot yesterday. I’ve seen this on numerous blogs and several great photos of it around the web and thought I’d give it a go. The setup is simple; incense stick, snooted strobe and a black backdrop. Then all you have to do is sit around waiting for the smoke to make some interesting abstract shapes.
I spent about 15 minutes on this as it was getting late, but spending a bit more time is probably wise as you can experiment a bit more with composition. Also, the smoke is quite unpredicatble so you might get some pretty amazing shapes there. I love the spirally thing in this image, but I’m not content with the top part of the image.
This image was shot with Canons cheapo 50mm prime and I urge you to check out the picture in 1280×800 on flickr to see some great details in the smoke. The sharpeness in this lens is amazing.
The slight blue/green hue in the smoke is courtesy of Lightrooms split toning tool but I’m sure you could accompllish something similar with gels on your flash.
I also did an inverted version of this which gives you a great image against white background, but i went a bit overboard with some color overlays on it so I basically ruined it :p
Scirocco shoot
I’ve managed to edit some of the shots from Fridays session with the Sciroccos today. Forgive me for not beeing Consistent with the “style” and feel of the pictures, need to try out some stuff and did so on these pictures. All pictures are available in 1280×853 by clicking them and then choosing “all sizes” on flickr.
First out, some rolling shots. For those curious, these were taken at about 60 km/t with me hanging out of the trunk of my car. Lot’s of failed shots, but at least some of them came out decent :D
Then some group shots with all the cars. Had been out scouting this first location when the deal was made to shoot the white Scirocco. Fortunately it was big enough to accommodate all four cars. White car is a bit blown out, but not easy to avoid when you try to expose the Maroon Black car properly.
Then some from another location I took them to. Had stuck a polarizing filter on my 10-22 Canon lens for the rollingshots. Somehow it had stuck and I didn’t manage to get it of for these shots which made focusing really hard.
After some of the group shots we set up the strobes and shot a couple of individual pics. The Vipern Green and Rising blue Sciroccos really popped when lit by the 430′s.
Then for the hard part, the Maroon black (at least thats what I think the color is called) Scirocco.
A small hell to light being black and all, so after a bit of trial and error I settled on this one.
The Candy white Scirocco is the same as the one I’ve posted before and the one I had been out scouting locations for. To bad he didn’t find time to slap his new Cayenne brakes in between those brand new Porsche 997 rims before the shoot.
I’ll leave you with the pics for now. Have a ton of work to do from last nights wedding shoot ;)
A world first?
Whoa, what a night! Been out shooting for the better part of five hours with no less then four Volkswagen Sciroccos. I’ve climbed railroad carts, hung out the back of my car, jumped barefoot into a stream to get a better angle and generally had a blast. And if it isn’t the first shooting in the world with that number of modified examples of the third generation Scirocco, Im sure it’s a first here in Norway. I have tons of pictures to edit, several which actually came out good as well. But I’m going to a wedding tomorrow so the pic’s will have to wait for a while.
Big shout out to the owners of the cars who must be the most patient people in the world coping with me and my directions…
A larger version of the picture can be found on flickr by clicking it :)
Published
Well, not on paper, but Hegnar Online and Finansavisen liked the pictures I shot with them and the Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR last sunday and ran several of them in a pictorial article on their website yesterday. Check out the article by clicking the screen shot below.
Didn’t want to put this in the same post as the Tomatoes hence the short time between posts here.
Tomatoes
In the about section here on the blog I state that I don’t limit myself to automotive photography. But looking at the posts from the last couple of months you might think otherwise seeing as almost all of my posts have been related to cars in one way or the other. About time to put my money where my mouth is and show you guys something else then.
From time to time I wander over to David Hobby’s Strobist Blog for both useful lighting tips and inspiration. Some time ago he had this article on Food photography which inspired me to give it a go. When I tried it the first time shortly after reading the article I failed miserably, and the shots went straight to my recycle bin.
Not content with this I had to give it a go again and yesterday I bought some tomatoes and set up my DIY-studio at home. The result can be viewed below. Not exactly the same as David’s shots as he has a nice shine/highlight in the acrylic his tomatoes sits on, a shine I struggled quite a bit to get rid of. (note to self: read instructions one extra time before venturing into something new). But although a bit different from David’s shots I still feel my shot came out good.
The small picture here really doesn’t do the tomatoes justice so please View Large On Black.
Picture is shot with a Canon 430 EX positioned high above an directly behind the subject.
For the Norwegian Strobists out there, who might have the same hard time I had sourcing the acrylic background, it can be found and bought at Plastkompaniet in Oslo
That Old Benz again…
Well, not old exactly. Here are some more shots from yesterdays shoot with the Mercedes Benz McLaren SLR that I like.
Because of the weather and time constraints I really had no time at all to stage any of the photos and had to take absolutely all of them on the fly inbetween the driving that was done.
This picture here I feel may have to much of the sky visible. But as long as I managed to get some detail in the clouds I think the picture works.
As for this one below I think I may have overprocessed the picture a bit. But at least it gives you an impression of just how wet it was yesterday.
Again, the pictures are avalible in higher resolution on flickr. Please let me know if you want to make use of the pictures for any purpose.
Early Bird
Now, usually I am not one for getting up early on Sundays (or any other day either really), but today I couldn’t resist getting up before the sun, birds, most other people and whatnot. People who know me are well aware that this is out of the extraordinary, but so was the photoshoot I was headed to. -A two car showdown at Gardermoen Internationl Raceway. The culprits; A Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and a 500 bhp Supra-engined Nissan Silvia.
The Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a 617 bhp front-mid-engine supercar that retails at about USD 500 000 (and even more when Norwegian taxes has been brougt into the equitation) was there courtesy of Bertel O. Steen, the official Mercedes dealership and a reporter from Finansavisen.
The Nissan Silvia belongs to, and is driven by Stian Jacobsen, a driver competing in Norwegian drift-series Powerdrift, as well as regularly heading of to mainland Europe to race for the Dotz drifting team. A complete opposite to refined supercar with its leather interior, sat-nav and electronic aids, the Silvia has nothing but two bucket seats, some gauges and a full roll cage, but still puts on a decent show with its 500 bhp engine sourced from a Toyota Supra.
Allthough perfect for any classic western movie showdown , the weather couldn’t have been worse for both the drivers and for me as a photographer as the sky consisted of one great, boring grey cloud and the track was wet as a dog from the rain. I had hoped for both better and more photos during the day but we didn’t have the track for long and had to make due with what time and conditions we had.
After some warming of both engines and tires the guys went at it and ripped down the strip, both cars struggling for grip but still seeing top speeds well above the 220 km/t mark.
Curious about who won? I’ll keep that to myself untill the newspaper with the story breaks cover ;)
Meanwhile, check out the pictures in higher resolution on flickr by clicking them.
Durty dub
Ok, so I said I’d wait with the other shots from yesterday but I managed to sneak away to edit one of them. as for the title, I thought the car was clean, but the flashes proved me wrong. Not happy about the highlight on the B-pillar, but overall i find this to be a decent shot.
Check it out on flickr by clicking the image.
For the stobists out there, the car was shot with two Canon 430EX’s on light stands at full power zoomed to 35 mm.
Real motion
After yesterdays post with some faked motion in it I felt I had to post something with real motion in it. Or not really, the picture you see below is far from the sort of picture I set out to shoot today. I went for a drive to practice my car strobist skills and spent a couple of hours shooting, changing batteries on the 430′s, cursing the wireless triggers and beating myself up for being out to early to catch the blue hour.
Fed up with my mediocre shots I called it a night and headed home. Then somehow it all came together. I saw this cool warehouse from the freeway, the blue hour had set in and an idea of using my Manfrotto tripod as a rig sprung to mind. I bungeecorded the tripod to some cargo hooks in the trunk, hung the 50D with the 10-22 upside down about 3 feet away from the car, dialed in 6 secs of exposure and pushed the car forward…
I’ll have to be honest and say that I am more than pleased with the result. Check out the the picture in higher resolution on flickr by clicking the picture.
The strobe shots I took earlier will have to way till the day after tomorrow as I am celebrating my girlfriend Ida’s birthday tomorrow. Head on over to her blog and wish her happy birthday while you wait ;)
Playing around
Just finished this quick photoshop of Volkswagens Scirocco. The picture was originally shot at Volkswagens official showground at the Wörthersee Treffen this year, and as you may have guessed, the car was of course stationary. I was inspired by a fellow photographer over at www.khfoto.no who had done something similar to a picture of his Audi TT, and felt like trying it myself.
On another note, I was out scouting locations the other day and found some pretty decent ones. Hopefully going there with a Norwegian Scirocco sometime next week and may also be able to shoot some Porsches, a BMW 645 and a Range Rover Sport there soon as well. Stay tuned!
Bug(s)
So, it’s been a while since my last post, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy. After the making of the event posters I’ve made some layout/design suggestions for a magazine i write articles for now and then. Personally I think the layouts came out great and I’m exited to see if they’ll ever make it into the magazine. I’ve also had a couple of shoots lately but I’m not at liberty to post the images here.
Other then that I’m enjoying the summer and the fantastic weather. With the temperatures being high and the sun shining I’m really looking forward to my vacation next week. I’ve wanted to practice my strobist skills lately, but the sun doesn’t set until after 22:00 and even when it does, it really never gets dark outside. But, after I had washed my girlfriends 59 Volkswagen Beetle I decided it was dark enough and brought out the flashes and their stands. I had hoped to catch some more of the setting sun, but my China triggers has some kind of bug and does not want to cooperate. So by the time I had them dialed in, the sun had disappeared over the horizon. Still, I like how the shot came out.
Clicking the picture will take you to the flickr-page where a higher resolution version is available.
I also decided it is time I invest in some Elinchrome Skyports and will be doing so shortly. Also, I know that my pictures appear a bit dark on some screens so I’ll finally be getting my monitor recalibrated within a short while.