Recent Professional Works

[haefnerphoto]

Thanks for the compliments on the Packard front view, attached are images taken of a new car, the Chevrolet Volt.  These were shot in Los Angeles last December but I couldn't show them until recently.  Jim
[attachment=22417:volt_combo.jpg]

[AndreNapier]

Interesting proposal.

I like the concept, but the PP retouching appears kind of wired to me.
Like the model was shooted in studio and added in the context later, or the retoucher has done something wired with the masks.

It could have been on purpose, but I bet it was not because then, the effect would have been more accentuate in order to make no doubt.
I'm surprise because I know your work and your retouching is normally perfect and beautifully done. Or is it me ?

This great serie IMHO would need more pp work.

Cheers.

I very much agree. I think these are very beautiful studio shots.
Andre

[Craig Lamson]

Thanks for the compliments on the Packard front view, attached are images taken of a new car, the Chevrolet Volt.  These were shot in Los Angeles last December but I couldn't show them until recently.  Jim
[attachment=22417:volt_combo.jpg]

Nice stuff, I prefer the first image...

[HarperPhotos]

Gidday Jim,

Great shots as usual. Its been a while since I've shot a car. The third shot did you use a camera rig attached to the car or was the motion blur done in post?

All the best

Simon

[BobDavid]

Thanks for the compliments on the Packard front view, attached are images taken of a new car, the Chevrolet Volt.  These were shot in Los Angeles last December but I couldn't show them until recently.  Jim
[attachment=22417:volt_combo.jpg]

Coolness!

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

Thanks for the compliments on the Packard front view, attached are images taken of a new car, the Chevrolet Volt.  These were shot in Los Angeles last December but I couldn't show them until recently.  Jim
[attachment=22417:volt_combo.jpg]

were the backgrounds added in post?

[K.C.]

were the backgrounds added in post?

Those look like the real deal to me.

[Frank Doorhof]

Some from yesterday, shot in Groningen the Netherlands.

[haefnerphoto]

The motion shots were accomplished with rigs (which were handled by Bill Deem). The shot with the vehicle between the ponds was a strip although the car was shot for that background.  The seven day shoot consisted of one day at a pad, shooting a number of views for strip, one day in the studio (heavy rains) and the balance on location from Laguna to Ventura.  There was a tremendous amount of logistics which seemed especially complicated since the majority of my work for the last ten years has been in the studio.  I had a great producer (Debbie Krilich) and scout (Danny Thomsen) who where major contributors to the project's success.  Here's a couple of additional Packard views.  Jim
[attachment=22420:7_8_Side_009_dc3.jpg]

[attachment=22423:Interior_037_dc2.jpg]

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

The motion shots were accomplished with rigs (which were handled by Bill Deem). The shot with the vehicle between the ponds was a strip although the car was shot for that background.  The seven day shoot consisted of one day at a pad, shooting a number of views for strip, one day in the studio (heavy rains) and the balance on location from Laguna to Ventura.  There was a tremendous amount of logistics which seemed especially complicated since the majority of my work for the last ten years has been in the studio.  I had a great producer (Debbie Krilich) and scout (Danny Thomsen) who where major contributors to the project's success.  Here's a couple of additional Packard views.  Jim
[attachment=22420:7_8_Side_009_dc3.jpg]

[attachment=22423:Interior_037_dc2.jpg]

The Volt is nice, but the front end of the Packard really makes me drool! Wow!

Eric M.

[Rob C]

Isn't it the damndest thing?

Packard was always considered (at least abroad - non USA) to be luxury; so how ironic that is should have faded from the scene early on. Studebaker was always in my mind as a 'going both ways at once' sort of design and it too vanished; when I lived in India our neighbour had a DeSoto with some plastic hood ornament that lit up (or so I seem to remember it - hey, I was only a kid so could be wrong, though on that score, nothing much has changed in my life, to be honest). This was pre-'53... Kaiser-Frazer, all gone to heaven along with my Humber.

Looking back at that era, it seems to me that the US produced fantastically exciting bodies but rotten dashboards. I think Jaguar, Humber, many of those wood-users had far more aesthetic sense for inside the Batmobile; high gloss inside the cabin isn't for safe vision!

Lovely shots. Is your book distributed by any mainline company these days? I find it very difficult to get anything in Spain that doesn't have a Spanish distributor. The French produce excellent photo books, as I know from the reviews in French PHOTO, but only the ones produced via Germany's Taschen are easilly ordered out here, and that's because they have a local presence.

I don't like using setups like Amazon; their delivery costs as much as the freakin' content! In fact, I detest all the delivery sevices. I am awaiting a new Capture NX2 from London; it was supposed to come by mail but I got a call from UPS on Friday telling me they had a delivery to make... their place is in Palma and I am an hour's drive away. They say they will come on Monday. So I am stuck here house-bound, until they 'phone to say they have arrived. I hate that. With the mail system, I can go to the post office when it suits me, a far better option.

And all you did was post a Packard.

Rob C

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

The motion shots were accomplished with rigs (which were handled by Bill Deem). The shot with the vehicle between the ponds was a strip although the car was shot for that background.  The seven day shoot consisted of one day at a pad, shooting a number of views for strip, one day in the studio (heavy rains) and the balance on location from Laguna to Ventura.  There was a tremendous amount of logistics which seemed especially complicated since the majority of my work for the last ten years has been in the studio.  I had a great producer (Debbie Krilich) and scout (Danny Thomsen) who where major contributors to the project's success.  Here's a couple of additional Packard views.  Jim
[attachment=22420:7_8_Side_009_dc3.jpg]

[attachment=22423:Interior_037_dc2.jpg]

Very nice, thanks for the detailed feedback. Now excuse my ignorance, but what are rigs?

[Dick Roadnight]

The motion shots were accomplished with rigs

Were these "rigs" arms attached to a following vehicle, or to a vehicle traveling parallel, or a cine-type rail system...?

Other options to achieve this type of shot might be:

aircraft
panning with a long lens from a distance.


¿You achieve motion blur, typically, by moving or rotating the camera relative to the subject/background during exposure....?

If you pan from a great distance you can get the effect you might get from a parallel vehicle, but the perspective of the vehicle might be unacceptable... ,,, and the blur would increase with distance..

edit: panning will cause blur on the car, but less blur from a greater distance.

Moving the camera parallel can be difficult if there is not a parallel road, rail or surface to move the camera/vehicle/rig along.

...what occurs to me is that it might be possible to achieve the blurred background by shifting the back of a digital view camera during the exposure.

edit: this would also cause some parallax blur... it would work with a co-planar subject.

...Hartblie use a motorized sliding back, and if this technique could cut half a day or more off the duration of the shoot,,,

...but you could achieve the same results by merging several shots, shifting a little between each, with one shot including the car

...but you would have to mask out the background in the other pix, and you would have to re-invent the blur on the wheels.

edit: It would be possible to move the camera on a robotic rail, and the car on a similar rail that took a small proportion of the weight, leaving the wheels on the ground... you might need some laser surveying equipment to set it up.

[haefnerphoto]

A rig is usually a carbon fiber rectangular tube that is attached to a aluminum plate which is attached to the car's undercarriage.  The camera is attached to the other end.  It can be configured a number of ways from it's length to angle relative to the vehicle.  The car doesn't have to travel more than 10 feet or so and usually isn't even running, either coasting in neutral or being pulled by assistants.  The effect of traveling the 10 feet with a 4 second shutter duration has the visual effect of the car going 40-60mph.  While there are many options of creating motion in a still photograph this method produces very predictable results with the only drawback being the camera's distance to the vehicle.  Generally, the distance is limited to 30-35 feet so a longer lens draw is not going to happen.  A very close approximation of this look is to shoot backgrounds from a vehicle with cameras mounted to the bumpers or hanging out the rear of the car and stripping in static cars which have then been jacked up to allow for a few wheel spin captures.  With the exception of profiles, photoshop doesn't allow for good looking wheel spins (IMO).  Panning and shooting car to car both work well but these methods don't always allow for consistent results or image sharpness.  Also, shooting with a rig makes it possible to shoot in low light which can shape the sheetmetal beautifully.  Attached are a couple of Infiniti images of studio lit cars (with wheel spin captures) stripped into  backgrounds shot in a parking structure.  Jim

[attachment=22429:g_coupe_3_4_rear.jpg]
[attachment=22431:g_coupe_...t_motion.jpg]

[feppe]

A rig is usually a carbon fiber rectangular tube that is attached to a aluminum plate which is attached to the car's undercarriage.  The camera is attached to the other end.  It can be configured a number of ways from it's length to angle relative to the vehicle.  The car doesn't have to travel more than 10 feet or so and usually isn't even running, either coasting in neutral or being pulled by assistants.  The effect of traveling the 10 feet with a 4 second shutter duration has the visual effect of the car going 40-60mph.  While there are many options of creating motion in a still photograph this method produces very predictable results with the only drawback being the camera's distance to the vehicle.  Generally, the distance is limited to 30-35 feet so a longer lens draw is not going to happen.  A very close approximation of this look is to shoot backgrounds from a vehicle with cameras mounted to the bumpers or hanging out the rear of the car and stripping in static cars which have then been jacked up to allow for a few wheel spin captures.  With the exception of profiles, photoshop doesn't allow for good looking wheel spins (IMO).  Panning and shooting car to car both work well but these methods don't always allow for consistent results or image sharpness.  Also, shooting with a rig makes it possible to shoot in low light which can shape the sheetmetal beautifully.  Attached are a couple of Infiniti images of studio lit cars (with wheel spin captures) stripped into  backgrounds shot in a parking structure.  Jim

Thanks for this insight into behind-the-scenes! I'm very surprised to learn that the backgrounds and wheel spins are not done in post.

Exquisite work as always, love the shot of the front of the Packard, especially.

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

A rig is usually a carbon fiber rectangular tube that is attached to a aluminum plate which is attached to the car's undercarriage.  The camera is attached to the other end.  It can be configured a number of ways from it's length to angle relative to the vehicle.  The car doesn't have to travel more than 10 feet or so and usually isn't even running, either coasting in neutral or being pulled by assistants.  The effect of traveling the 10 feet with a 4 second shutter duration has the visual effect of the car going 40-60mph.  While there are many options of creating motion in a still photograph this method produces very predictable results with the only drawback being the camera's distance to the vehicle.  Generally, the distance is limited to 30-35 feet so a longer lens draw is not going to happen.  A very close approximation of this look is to shoot backgrounds from a vehicle with cameras mounted to the bumpers or hanging out the rear of the car and stripping in static cars which have then been jacked up to allow for a few wheel spin captures.  With the exception of profiles, photoshop doesn't allow for good looking wheel spins (IMO).  Panning and shooting car to car both work well but these methods don't always allow for consistent results or image sharpness.  Also, shooting with a rig makes it possible to shoot in low light which can shape the sheetmetal beautifully.  Attached are a couple of Infiniti images of studio lit cars (with wheel spin captures) stripped into  backgrounds shot in a parking structure.  Jim

[attachment=22429:g_coupe_3_4_rear.jpg]
[attachment=22431:g_coupe_...t_motion.jpg]

Thanks for this detailed feedback, your description reminds me of the Yamaha bike shot done by Dean Collins in his video series. Regarding the rig, it sounds like its going to show up in the picture, how do you remove it from the final picture?

[haefnerphoto]

Abdul, It's retouched out.  Jim

[SeanBK]

Jim,
    For new cars, the manufacturers can correct the modification done to under carriage but do you ever run into problem when shooting those priceless antique cars, the owners would object to attaching the arms (albeit temporary) to the under carriage. Do you always have to drill holes & bolt the the arm to undercarraige or some sort of clamps/vice can hold te arm at that precise angle?
    Coun't the arm be mounted on a dolly under the car & just clamped to the car so they both are travelling at the same snail's pace? Just wondering?
       Thanx for posting, as always the images are awesome.

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

Abdul, It's retouched out.  Jim

ok that clears things up.  

Which is easier, to retouch the rig out or to put the camera on a platform and follow the car at the same speed (if space permits that of course)?

Although I will probably never do this type of photography it sounds very interesting to learn about, perhaps because the process is very resource intensive and sophisticated.

[feppe]

Which is easier, to retouch the rig out or to put the camera on a platform and follow the car at the same speed (if space permits that of course)?

With 4-second exposures it would be impossible to get sharp pictures from another car.