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Jun, 2015Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I've probably taken this photo hundreds of times in my head as a young kid growing up and imagining what driving one of these GTHO's would be like once I was old enough to drive. When the opportunity finally came I headed out riding shotgun in a chase car as it tracked the GT while it cruised a southern freeway. Then all I had to do was hang out the side window, frame, and drag the shutter and those childhood visions were suddenly reality. No fancy setups. Just a camera and lens was all that was needed for this frame.Time
Its no secret why the Golden Hour is sort after by photographers the world over and this was no exception. That last hour before sunset when the light is still bright but soft in its shaded lines. It was a cloudy day and this diffused the light even more while still giving the car the light it needed to properly expose its shape and lines.Lighting
Nothing but good old fashioned natural ambient light in this frame. Once into post I did play with the levels in Photoshop to achieve even more impact though.Equipment
The hotrodded (well it's got it's own custom pinstripes!) Canon 5DMarkIII with trusty 24-70 f2.8L was all I needed here, and most other times too. I dragged the shutter at about 1/50th sec to introduce road speed and I used short bursts of shutter drive to give me a chance of getting that one shot where I wasn't being bounced by road bumps while braced against the door sill of the chase car. Focus point was about the drivers side A-pillar of the GT using about an f8 aperture.Inspiration
Probably a good 3 or 4 dozen Street Machine magazines I bought while growing up coupled with a really famous car-culture picture taken from inside of one of these Phase III GTHO Falcons with two hands gripping its skinny steering wheel while the car was flying down the road with the speedo past 140mph and the tacho almost hitting 7000rpm. Natural light photographers like Tony Rabitte really inspired me to want to make my own images back then. GT Falcons featured heavily back in the 80's and everywhere you looked someone was writing about Australia's fastest 4 door sedan in the world. When the opportunity came up to shoot this immaculate big blocked version of those cars I'd dreamt about as a youngster I couldn't get on the road quick enough!Editing
Of course! I think photography goes hand-in-hand with post processing now much like darkroom dodging and burning did in the film days. I added in even more road speed to this image using a path blur. The background colours were adjusted to give the Vermillion Fire of the GT more pop. I cloned out some catenary wires and their poles in the backroad. Cleaned up some specular highlights and reflections in the panels, and finally added in a sun flare behind the clouds.In my camera bag
Back when I shot this all I had was a Kata backpack with one body, the 24-70, and a speed light. Those were the days haha. Now there's the 5DIII, 16-35f2.8L, 24-70f2.8L, 70-200f2.8L ISII, Profoto D1's & B1's, a bunch of light modifiers, 2 Canon 600 speed lights with radio controller, Manfrotto 055 tripod and 4 light stands, and an LED panel I use for light painting. Still, for road shots I still use the bare bones setup I used in this photo with the addition of a CP filter to try to cut down on the panel reflections. All the other stuff is for once the cars or bikes are standing still.Feedback
Don't hang out of the car! In all seriousness it's not something I'd recommend given there are ways of doing this now that don't require another vehicle as a chase car. Using a camera car-rig and rolling the car a few feet gets spectacular results. Or using software like Virtual Rig will get you similar results too. Or if a side on shot is more your thing then using a longer lens and standing well back from the road while panning with the car will work a treat too. If you happen to see a nice car driving next to you though and you'd like to get a nice shot of it then set your camera up to drag the shutter. Usually around 1/50-1/80 is fine. At about 4-5m to subject an aperture of f8-f11 will be fine but if you're not confident in manual mode then decide on which feature you'd like the most to achieve. Whole car in focus? Then use aperture priority at a low ISO. Road speed more important? Then use shutter priority at 1/50-1/80th sec and a higher than normal ISO. Use a focal point about a third of the way along the car if at a similar distance but getting hold of a good Depth of Field app on your phone can really give you a good idea where the sweet spot is for your parameters. TrueDoF is a good one and it's free. If it takes a few attempts don't worry as you're not alone in the slightest. Just keep at it.
