I get to spend time around a lot of beautiful cars in my line of work. But every now and then something REALLY special comes along…
Like the £1.2 million, 903bhp, 2.8-to-sixty, 217 miles per hour McLaren P1 hybrid super car.
Continue reading for more photos of this epic machine…
I’m going to put this out there from the get-go – this is my favourite car that I have had the pleasure of shooting to date. It has to be the most exciting shape and design for a car I’ve ever seen. The way the light dances off the paintwork and carbon to reveal the curves and edges of the bodywork is breathtaking.
I spent half an hour just walking around the car, soaking in the lines before I even picked up my camera.
We were shooting the car in a tiled wash bay, looking to get two main shots – one head on with the gull wing doors up and the other from behind, doors closed.
Space was tight, given the P1′s menacing width which meant light stands were out of the question. To be fair that probably wasn’t a bad idea anyway as it meant less possibility of scratching the oh-so-immaculate paintwork.
For the gear nerds, I was shooting on a Canon 5D MK3 with the Sigma 50mm ART and lighting the P1 with the Lencarta Safari 2 and a Lencarta folding strip softbox.
When I’m shooting cars with lights, I like to use strip softboxes for their specular highlight shape. Notice in the shot above the direct reflection of the light is a nice smooth line, rather than the ugly hot spot you’d get from a bare flash.
The majority of my lit automotive work are composites, so I’ll get my framing nailed and lock of the camera on the tripod. Then Wayne my assistant walks around the car being a VAL (voice activated light stand)…“Hold it higher, rotate it clockwise, feather it across the bonnet”…while I shoot frames with each panel being lit separately.
Once I’m happy with the lighting on the car, I’ll light the background. Either I use available light or i’ll sometimes pull the car out of the frame and continue using the strobes to shape the light on the background.
I then take each exposure in post and using layers in Photoshop build up the picture with the various lit panels, until eventually I’m left with a final image.
Oh, sometimes I also like to throw a smoke machine in to the equation too…