The Flash Photography Field Guide

Vehicles

There are more similarities to shooting vehicles, still life shots, and people in glasses than may first appear! The common denominator is that when working with anything shiny—like a car, chrome kettle, or pair of shades— you are essentially photographing a reflection of the light source.

This is why pro still-life photographers often use large light tents to get rid of nasty reflections where they don’t want them. Professional car photography studios are like that, but even bigger.

Often a floating ceiling is lowered over the car and all lights bounced off that, and then huge black cloths are draped around the floor to create reflections in exactly the right places. It’s highly scientific, takes years to learn, and entails a big, expensive ...