HOW2: Shoot a mini Saab!
It’s often I get crazy photoshoot ideas in my head that just seem nearly impossible to create. Us photographers are guilty of constantly dreaming of being in another place or having access to fancier cars and better equipment. I’ve personally always wanted to photograph one of the original Saab rally cars, however most seem to be impossible to find, or in a museum thousands of miles away. Well, I’ve found a temporary solution to fulfill my rally-photoshoot dreams, and maybe any other photographer who wants to photograph a specific car they just can’t seem to find.
THE PREP:
My concept for this shoot was a ‘winter rally’. First thing I’ll need is snow. I bought two bags of baking soda and a bottle of hair conditioner. I mixed the two together until I had a “fluffy snow” consistency. Do note that I’ve never cooked a thing in my life, so measuring ingredients wasn’t a thought here.
Next step is to set up our ‘landscape’. For this, I used two studio lights (don’t be fooled by the fancy lighting equipment, some utility clamp lights from Home Depot would work great as well), a white seamless backdrop, and a large piece of plastic as the landscapes surface. I diffused both lights to create a soft look.
The overhead light acted as an ambient moon light, and the lower light I used to shine directly onto the cars headlights to create a glowing effect on the front end.
THE GEAR:
For this shoot I used my Canon 5D mark IV, with a 100mm macro Canon lens. You could pretty much use any lens you’d want for this kind of shoot, however I really wanted to get all the cars tiny details clear and crisp to simulate realism.
THE SHOOT:
Once you have your set up ready, you’re halfway done! The most fun part of this process is actually shooting. I tried a ton of different lighting set ups for this, however the above one I listed seemed to be the most successful for me. Make sure you don’t give up after a couple of shots. Move your lights, change the landscape around, and place the car in different positions. I spent a total of 90 minutes shooting until I had a few results I was happy with. Some won’t come out as great as you’d like, but keep changing it up! The more options you have, the better.
THE POST:
My favorite part of every photoshoot is post processing my final selects. I’m no Lighroom or Photoshop wizard, but I enjoy it enough that I always come out with something I’m happy with, even if that means going a little over the top in Photoshop.
Below are some of my RAWs from the shoot, with absolutely no processing done to them.
To make things easier, we’ll focus on the first image. I did my normal Lightroom tweaks… cropped to a vertical, played around with the white balance and made other basic adjustments before pulling the image into Photoshop.
Now, as I stated above… I’m no Photoshop wiz. For this image specifically, I added some light to pour out of the headlights to make it more realistic. I then (made an attempt) at fake falling snow. I’m sure there’s PS snow brushes online, however I simply used a brush I already had and then added a motion blur filter to distort it a bit.
I made a few more Lightroom tweaks… and voilà! A rally car hauling through a snowy terrain.
Trust me, as someone who is petrified of shooting in a studio setting… this is as easy as pie. No matter what kind of set up or equipment you have, anyone can make this happen! There are tons of awesome Youtube tutorials on how to properly use Photoshop as well, to get an even better effect than what I did.
My next goal is to create a desert styled shoot. A little more tricky then snow, but after having better success with this than I had originally expected, it’s worth a shot!