NZPC Editor Peter “Pedey” Kelly and I arrived at the Redline Performance HQ at around 5pm. First to greet us was the familiar face of Mad Mike Whiddett. Working his day job as a sign writer he was applying a few last minute stickers to the car in preparation for the shoot.
My first shoot for 2011 was with the legendary HKS CT230R. It had made the journey down under for the annual 4 and Rotary Nationals event and while it will only be on display, it is very rare that we get a car of this status on our shores. Because of this I thought it would be a good prop to use for a behind the scenes look at how we shoot a car here at NZPC.
Because this shoot was going to be both at night and indoors, I took my full studio setup with me. For shooting a feature car my camera bag will usually contain two 5D bodies, 70-200mm lens, 17-40mm lens, 50mm lens, 100mm macro lens, a couple of 580 flashes, and an infrared sender.
My studio gear consists of three of these Hensel Contra E 1000 flash heads, two soft boxes, two umbrellas, and a bunch of assorted snoots. Unfortunately this gear is not portable so if I take it on a shoot I need to have mains power. I am usually pretty big on just using what the day gives me to shoot with, but working with the lights can be hugely advantageous for getting the prefect light or a cool effect. Especially in tricky conditions...
Which is the hand I was dealt on this particular occasion. We were unable to move the car from Redline Performance’s showroom where it was parked, which meant we had virtually no space to get around the car or position it. Pedey can be seen in the background taking notes about the CT230R – these will be turned into a full length article over the next few days.
Not wanting to let my glass get half empty, I devised a plan to try and shoot the majority of the exterior shots from outside the building looking back in.
Shooting for a magazine is a lot different to shooting for the web. You need to take into account room for text, headings and other images etc. Shooting from outside gave me the ability to create large areas of negative space that could easily be filled in the design stages.
Like I have previously mentioned, I like to let the environment dictate the majority of how the shots will look, but I have a list of shots that I always make sure I get for every car I shoot. Full front, side, and rear are always good angles. They best show the stance and attitude of a car in my opinion. Overall engine and interior are essential and usually take up a large amount of space in our spreads. From there it's an assortment of front and rear three quarter angles.
Due to the lack of space I was working with, I decided to go with shooting from high up instead of my preferred low down for the wide angle shots.
Capturing the finer details on a car like this is almost more important than the overall images. Noticeably absent from the dash cluster was a rev counter. You will also notice the first stages of male pattern baldness.
Turning the car for the rear shots reminded me a lot of Austin Powers and took about 20 minutes.
Here Leon from Redline plugs in the tank for a detail shot of the air jacks. A lot of work probably, but air jacks are rarely seen on cars in NZ so it was worth it to get the shot.
Every so often I stop to check my exposure, composition and to look for reflections that I cant see on the back of the camera.
My angle for side profile.
Possibly my favorite shot from the night. It can be tough coming up with different angles and looks when you shoot as many cars as I do. NZPC is one of three car mags I work for full time.
I thought I would also take a brief look at what happens after the shoot is done, and the process of getting the images to print. On average I will walk away with around 150 photos from a shoot. This means that I have about another hour or so going through the images to pull out the good ones and the ones that I think will make the most interesting spread. I very rarely photoshop any of my images.
From me the images go to our designer. Cam has been designing NZPC for ten years now and has won plenty of awards for his work. He has grown up in the NZ car scene and I really couldn't ask for a better person to work on my images. It takes Cam around four hours to put the basis of a spread together depending on how much Photoshop is involved and how important the spread is in the layout of the magazine.
nce the design is done a “proof” printout is made and the article goes through several stages of proofing by both editors and the sub-editor. Checks are made for spelling and grammar, correctness of information, and image placement.
From there the entire magazine is laid out onto a wall for everyone to pass judgement and be checked for a final time before the files are sent to the printers.
Unfortunately due to time constraints I can't show you the finished magazine so I will leave you with a sneak preview of the cover. Its looking pretty damn sharp I must confess.
- Adam Croy
Photos by Peter Kelly and Adam Croy
Source: speedhunters.com
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