Recent Professional Works

[Dick Roadnight]

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.

I was thinking that the rig could be attached to a vehicle attached to (or towing) the target car with a (more easily post-removed) rope. if the rig vehicle was a truck, and the rig a space-frame ¿carbon-fiber? jib, greater distances would be possible.

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

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

hmm, yea I guess it is impossible to move both car and platform at the same exact speed.

[Dick Roadnight]

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

hmm, yea I guess it is impossible to move both car and platform at the same exact speed.

You could use a tow rope to ensure the same speed, or shoot car to car on a motorway ¿runway?... the problem is, I think, that on a less than perfect road, bumps in the road world blur the car, but you would get no blur if the camera was attached directly to the car.

[hilljf]

I was experimenting with water shots.  Upon reviewing them I came accross this one.

I love it when magic happens:

Its called "living life over the edge".

Taken with Broncolor Scoro and a D3.

John

www.johnfhill.com

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

I was experimenting with water shots.  Upon reviewing them I came accross this one.

I love it when magic happens:

Its called "living life over the edge".

Taken with Broncolor Scoro and a D3.

John

www.johnfhill.com

lol that is amazing, i mean nothing is missing even his @$$ is there in full detail

[haefnerphoto]

Guys, There are lots of possibilities but they've all been tried before.  We've been doing the rig shots for 15-20 years now and it has evolved during that time to being the best way of approaching a still-motion image of a car.  The mount utilizes clamps, speed rail and holes in the chassis with hardware adapted to fit in them that rarely damages the car.  I haven't shot a rig shot with a vintage vehicle but there's no reason I couldn't.  The average cost of the rig and rigger with his assistant is $2000-2500.00/day.  Very few photographers have their own equipment, I actually had one constructed in the 90's and it was way overbuilt (we could put an 8x10 on it).  Honestly, no one today knows how to put it together either!  I'll dig up an unretouched capture with the rig still in the shot so that you'll have a better idea of what I'm talking about tomorrow.  Someone sells a small 12-15' arm/rig, if you're interested in it you can Google it.  Glad that the Packard shots are well received, the American vehicles from the 1950's were definitely very distinctive.  I see the origins of late model Rolls in the Packard design.  Jim

[feppe]

Glad that the Packard shots are well received, the American vehicles from the 1950's were definitely very distinctive.  I see the origins of late model Rolls in the Packard design.  Jim

Wind tunnels killed great car design*, and there's not much motorcycle design left, either.

* before the flaming starts, there are exceptions here and there. Unfortunately one has to pay six or seven figures to get that kind of design. Detroit does have some good-looking affordable ones out there, though.

[Dick Roadnight]

Guys, There are lots of possibilities but they've all been tried before.

¿has the "shifting the back during the exposure" technique been tried?

I think I could do something for $2,000 per day!

[K.C.]

Video clips to answer some of the questions about rigs.

http://www.move-n-shoot.com/us_movies.html

[Jozef Zajaz]

[attachment=22198:ny_window.jpg]

Contax 645

Very nice James!

How did you light this?

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

Video clips to answer some of the questions about rigs.

http://www.move-n-shoot.com/us_movies.html

Thanks for posting. So they record the car with rig barely showing from one side and then they reshoot the road without the rig and paste both scenes together?

[JoeKitchen]

All this great work being posted has inspired me to post some.  Shot these 2 weeks ago and just got done editing them.

PS, I want to use just one of the living room shots on my website (and the other in a promo mailer), which do you think should go on the web?

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

All this great work being posted has inspired me to post some.  Shot these 2 weeks ago and just got done editing them.

PS, I want to use just one of the living room shots on my website (and the other in a promo mailer), which do you think should go on the web?

Thanks for sharing those pictures and asking for our opinion. I think I understand the reason for asking, the pictures are pretty close, hence hard to choose one. The three that I thought would have most impact are the kitchen facing window, bedroom, and living room. I would go with the living room (last picture) because it has the best lighting, most natural arrangement, and best composition. My second pick would be the bed, but it is too dark compared to the background taking away from the picture's impact.

[JonathanBenoit]

All this great work being posted has inspired me to post some.  Shot these 2 weeks ago and just got done editing them.

PS, I want to use just one of the living room shots on my website (and the other in a promo mailer), which do you think should go on the web?

I think the shot towards the kitchen would be the most effective overall.

[JoeKitchen]

Thanks for sharing those pictures and asking for our opinion. I think I understand the reason for asking, the pictures are pretty close, hence hard to choose one. The three that I thought would have most impact are the kitchen facing window, bedroom, and living room. I would go with the living room (last picture) because it has the best lighting, most natural arrangement, and best composition. My second pick would be the bed, but it is too dark compared to the background taking away from the picture's impact.

Thanks for the opinion.  I see your point with the bedroom shot, but disagree.  I did take an exposure with the strobe a third stop higher, but it appeared flat with no contrast and looked like it was lit.

I am very conflicted on the living room shots though, the second one is a formal and traditional shot, whereas the first is not and you really get a better sense of the sunlight entering the room.  Hard to decide the better of the two.

I pulled the curve a little in PS with the bed shot, not sure which looks better.

[marc gerritsen]

Thanks for the opinion.  I see your point with the bedroom shot, but disagree.  I did take an exposure with the strobe a third stop higher, but it appeared flat with no contrast and looked like it was lit.

I am very conflicted on the living room shots though, the second one is a formal and traditional shot, whereas the first is not and you really get a better sense of the sunlight entering the room.  Hard to decide the better of the two.

I pulled the curve a little in PS with the bed shot, not sure which looks better.

i think there is really nothing to to say about it then, well done! very clean!
very difficult circumstances with so much light outside and hard shadows
i am sure the client must be happy
cheers
m

[K.C.]

Thanks for posting. So they record the car with rig barely showing from one side and then they reshoot the road without the rig and paste both scenes together?

In my experience, limited by comparison to the others here, the rig is just retouched out, no second shot.

[haefnerphoto]

K.C., That's correct, an experienced retoucher will make it go away in 5 minutes.  I ran out of time today to post the Volt shots with the rig still in them but will do that tomorrow afternoon.  Jim

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

Thanks for the opinion.  I see your point with the bedroom shot, but disagree.  I did take an exposure with the strobe a third stop higher, but it appeared flat with no contrast and looked like it was lit.

I am very conflicted on the living room shots though, the second one is a formal and traditional shot, whereas the first is not and you really get a better sense of the sunlight entering the room.  Hard to decide the better of the two.

I pulled the curve a little in PS with the bed shot, not sure which looks better.

I like this one much more, the interior and background match with each other better now.

What do you mean by a third stop higher, you were trying to use fill in the interior to match lighting outside and you set it three stops higher than ambient light? That's what did not work?

[Abdulrahman Aljabri]

In my experience, limited by comparison to the others here, the rig is just retouched out, no second shot.

clear enough, but I was referring to the video, can the rig be retouched out of the video also as easily?


Thanks