Composite Lighting a Hyundai Sonata

A couple weeks ago, my beloved Scion tC was rear-ended.  Luckily, no one was hurt and the car is being repaired.  In the meantime, I was given this Hyundai Sonata to drive around as a rental.  I decided to look at this annoying situation as an opportunity and photographed the slick looking car this past weekend.  I tried something new that I’ve never done before when shooting with lights like this.  Continue reading for some behind the scenes photos and tips on how I lit the car.

So here’s my setup.  I used a Vagabond II to power three lights with my camera on a tripod.  I used two JTL-160’s and a JTL Mobilight 200 all with reflectors.  After taking the initial shots, I found myself wishing I had at least two more lights, one for the interior and one for the front-left tire.  So what was I to do?

With my camera on a tripod and remaining in a fixed position, I decided to experiment a bit.  I took a few shots with my lights set up like you see above and got my main image to work with.  With the camera remaining in that position, I moved one of the JTL-160’s around the car to light different areas that would later be part of the final composite image.  I also took a shot (not shown) with only available light so I could have a nice natural lit background for the finished product.  Sure creating a composite image means spending more time in Photoshop, but the final result is worth it.

As a side note, I’m a big fan of making do with what equipment you have until you outgrow it.  In this case, I think it’s really time for me to upgrade from my $20 Walmart tripod I got back in 2004 when I first started shooting.