Still being a bit obsessed with my recently purchased car (don’t think I’ve ever cleaned a car so much!) and wanting to try out some new photography techniques, I got in touch with my friend, Rob Pepe from Shutter Life.
I asked Rob if he would be OK with lending me his car rig and a bit of his time to go through the basics with me so I can have a go on my own car and perhaps a few friends I knew wouldn’t pay for such photos, but wouldn’t mind some all the same.
We set off for the Butterfield industrial estate in Luton as I knew it would be fairly quiet, and hopefully we wouldn’t be ejected by security as we wouldn’t be doing much more than 10mph (think it was less than that in the end) to get the motion required for the rig shots.
Equipment wise, the rig consisted of various clamps, two heavy duty suction pads with a clamp each to hold the pole, 3 lengths of aluminium tubing and various connections to ensure the camera was held on safely via a Manfrotto tripod mount. I used my Canon 5D classic with my Canon 17-40 F4 L lens (the wide angle when mounted on the 5D can make for some interesting shots) a 0.9 ND filter and a remote trigger.
We started of with a shot of the rear of the car, one suction cup on the rear screen, one on the drivers side window, once everything was attached we set a suitable shutter speed and Rob operated the camera with the remote trigger whilst I drove as smoothly as possible between 5 and 10 mph.
We then moved on to do the above the wheel shot (one pad on the rear screen one on the passenger side window) then a shot to show the car driving forward from the front left (one pad on windscreen, one on the front passenger side of the bonnet) the same steps to get the shots were repeated as above, but with me trying different combos of moving the wheels etc..
That was then that! The hard part was then yet to come… the editing, I’d like to think I was pretty handy with Photoshop, but this was a real challenge for me, basically adding in parts of the car that just Werner there! I got a few tips on how Rob has done this in the past and persevered. The results can be seen below. I plan to do some more in the next couple of weeks with my Brothers MX-5 (he’s a hairdresser, you can let him off) and my friend Marc’s BMW M3 Convertible, I’ll update this post once that happens!
For now, enjoy the photos I took, feel free to leave any comments or ask any questions.
Dave.
After buying my Canon 5D Mkii in April 2010, I knew I’d never be happy with my 50D, or another crop body again! I’d never really understood the reason for full frame when I first started getting into photography, with my then trusty Canon 400D, all I really knew back then, was that the full frame Canon’s wouldn’t be able to use some of the lenses I had / might buy (EF-S). A few years on, and after learning about the crop factor etc.. looking at various images taken, reading tonnes of reviews I decided to make the leap and ordered the camera from Amazon.
I’m so glad I did, the IQ (Image Quality) difference between the 50D and the 5D mk2 was night and day, the full frame sensor handles noise with ease, no longer am I scared to push the ISO beyond 800, the sharpness, the colours, how much nicer it is to use my Canon 50mm F1.4 lens on a full frame, I was (and still am) smitten.
I’d been putting it off replacing my 50D out of sheer laziness to be quite honest, I’d asked my friend Stuart at Digital Depot to keep any eye out for an original 5D for me, almost to force me into sorting things out, well last weekend he did exactly that. He’d had a 5D ‘Classic’ traded in so gave me a shout.
The camera was what can only be described as ‘mint’ condition, on the original 5D, the hot shoe is black and has a tendency to wear down to the silver (of course there is nothing wrong with that), but this didn’t even have any wear on that! Even the strap had never been used and was supplied in it’s wrapper.
It was the push I needed, my Canon 50D went up for sale on the Talk Photography forums and had interest almost straight away, a day later I’d agreed a price with the new owner, he’d bank transferred the money to me and I was at the Post Office the next day sending the camera special delivery!
That was that!. I now have two Canon 5D’s, 1x Classic, 1x Mk2, my lens ‘collection’ is pretty much complete for day to day stuff too:
Canon EF 17-40 mm f/4.0 L USM
Canon EF 50 mm f/1.4 USM
Canon EF 24-70 mm f/2.8 L USM
Canon EF 70-200 mm f/4.0 L IS USM
Even though I don’t want to do much photography at the moment, it’s nice to know that for the job’s I’ve got booked up, I’ve got the full frame backup or the option to just keep the 17-40L on the 5D classic to take in some of the wide shots!
The other cheeky bonus to this camera replacement is that I now qualify for Canon’s CPS Gold membership instead of the silver I had previously 
Dave.
