Help me fix the lighting in this automotive studio.

S

Stuart Hatch

New member
I've been tasked with fixing the lighting in this studio:



It's ok, it's somewhat even. Above the frames of ripstop nylon are 9 banks of 6 Kino T8 tubes.

It's pretty dull and the frames cast a horrible reflection on cars.

I'm looking for where I can source the largest diffusion I can that should fill the ceiling and any other general tips you may have.

Thanks
 
Depending on the look you're after and the angle you're seeing the car from determines how much flexibility you need. Cars are essentially reflective objects, so start thinking about lighting the surfaces surrounding and reflecting onto the car, rather then the car itself. Three ideas to start you thinking.

We purchased 8'x16' diffusion material from chimera and velcro attach that to a frame that raises and angles on C-stands. Can barely edge highlight a compact car end to end depending on the cars angles, but beautiful for details and drama shots. Essentially this without the frame. http://chimeralighting.com/products/lightbanks/overhead/f2x/

Traditional car studios sometimes use huge white panels attached to pulleys that can be angled and adjusted. The panels are lit from lights placed below and behind the car.

Classic approach is to build a seamless cyc out of all corners, the bigger the better, and light with bounce lighting as mentioned above.

Lighting a car correctly requires huge amounts of space and light. Take a car outside at sunset into the biggest open area you can find. Put the sunset at your 2:00 position and watch the lighting slide across the car as the sun sets and immediately after. Now duplicate that :shocked:
 
Ceiling's way too low. Unless you can get it way up, not worth spending a lot on it.

Cars are often done with sort-of huge softboxes... I've seen the 20-foot tubular diffusion rigs, I think some are even inflated. Anything that velcros together, you need to make sure there are no seams reflecting.

But seriously, you need 12 - 15 ft. ceiling height or your options for lighting just get way too limited. Had a client dump a bunch of money into a studio space with 9' ceilings, and it sucked until he bit the bullet and tore out the existing ceiling - he had an extra six to ten feet of trussed ceiling up there. Now the place is booked like crazy.
 
Thanks for the replies, very helpful.

To give a little more information, the studio is used to give product demo's with talent of the vehicles we sell. However, as we are a very large (Over 150 branches) dealer group, we have a lot of vehicles to get through typically we go through 8 cars in 3 days. Day one is vehicle prep and scripting, Day two is cutaways, day three is filming with the actor.

Thus any lighting solution that we come up with needs to be quick and a one size fits all solution.

I did look into using a Ultrabounce, but with a 33ft x 40ft room space is limited and it would take more time than an overhead lighting solution.

Current ceiling height is 10ft 6in. I think I can get another 4ft out of it.

My thoughts are raise the ceiling, try and get a huge sheet of diffusion for the whole roof with no seams (Any ideas where I can source this from?) and double up our lighting.

Then create my own Kino-Flo blanket lights to light the front and side of the car.

We've nailed lighting the talent with Kino's and Dedo's, so no issues there.

Thanks again

Here is a quick video of a car in the room to give you an idea of what I'm working with!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkkq5VBDjXQ&feature=youtu.be
 
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I think I'd look at one of the Chimera f2x systems as my base lighting, beautiful light. Shoot into the flat wall rather then the corner if you've got the space. You might also consider soft cornering all the 90 degree angles and use the walls as light wash, putting spots here and there for accents.

I've seen similar setups to yours in Detroit. Their turntable was built up about 3 feet so lights could be placed in front of and behind the vehicle and hidden from view. Overall I think your room is pretty tight for car shooting, but lots of testing and ingenuity make up the difference. The Chimera I think would give you a great base to work with.
 
Whatever holds up the ceiling will still be there - I'd simply forget any form of ceiling, get the height up as far as you can and then sort the walls - into 100% white, and I'd do the floor too, camera positions up a little and don't include the ceiling at all - then you can have proper soft lights you can control. Overall soft ceilings don't look that good, as the light is very uncontrolled and bland. The setting just looks a bit grubby.
 
If you can get that ceiling up, your options multiply.

PaulEars is correct about the ceiling being "one big white panel". I'd consider something like strips of ripstop that cross the whole ceiling with lights above. Or do an all-white ceiling but have black curtains that can be rolled across? Cars are like beverage cans/bottles on their sides - very long strips of white are what really work.

You can buy cinema fabrics on-line (the rag place I think?) but I'd just look into a wholesaler for ripstop, if you can find someone to sew the stuff as needed.

I've done tons of shiny packaging, and having very tall (or long) white sources is pretty primary - a car's about the same. Look at the can below - the white strips needed to extend several feet higher than the can, so that the "shoulders" of the can (which taper to the top) get lit as well.

ICE-FLAT.jpg
 
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