***Official Photo of the Day*** -- CARS

[y0aimee_]

[Gheybe]

^ That car is clean!

[C Withers Media]

Day 1 Stevens Point 179 by C Withers Media, on Flickr

[Ryans323i]

Day 1 Stevens Point 179 by C Withers Media, on Flickr

Nearly every inch of this car is in focus, and the back ground is perfectly out of focus. It blows my mind how you do this, especially at this angle on the car. I know I'm shooting with substandard equipment, but are there any tips you can give me as far as things to pay attention to while setting up the shot. Also the lack of shadows on the car puts me in further awe.

[neil1138]

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Digging those shots, Neil.

If you ever feel inclined, I'd love to know how you take a shot like that.

Casey, very clean shot. Ryan pointed it out best: sharp car with excellent background.

Gabe, keep practicing your gradient shots. I like where you're heading.

[az3579]

If you ever feel inclined, I'd love to know how you take a shot like that.

I'm not sure how Neil does it, though I'd imagine it's the same as this process. My friend takes a rig that he built, a couple of suction cups, and sticks this looooong azzed rod down the car where the camera will sit at the very end of it on a camera mount. The other end of the rod is attached to these two suction cup mounts that get suctioned to the car to whatever angle you want. He then sets up a very long exposure shot on a timer, which gives him and a friend enough time to get behind the car out of sight and push the car very slowly. Once the camera is done taking the shot, you'll have yourself a nice long blur trail behind and around the car making it look like the car's in rapid motion. Do some touchup, Photoshop out the rig, and you're good...

Have to do it on a surface where the camera will stay stable and not bounce on the rig.

[aurelius]

Early T/A, circa 1970-71. Not exactly the typical Whole Foods shopper. I doubt his other car is a Prius...

[neil1138]

Marcus, yeah it's exactly how he described it, spot on actually. Build your own boom (or buy one), attach said boom to a car via suction cups (I use five), mount your camera at one end and go for it. Some people actually drive the car, some people push it by hand. Here's my rig setup: kinda ludicrous and I love it.



You then have to clone out the rig in photoshop. For example... straight out of the camera:



And the final:



Something like that

I can really go into detail if you want! I always get giddy when people ask about rig photography. Definitely my passion

[Marcus-SanDiego]

Neil, my understanding is that you're one of the best rig photographers around. Feel free to go into detail. I eat this stuff up. Always great to hear the inner workings from a pro.