In this video I will show you guys how I
use one speed light, to shoot a car on
location. Welcome back to The Breakdown,
my name is Miguel Quiles, and I am here
on location. Actually here in a parking
garage in New Jersey, and I'm going to show
you guys how you could use one speed
light, to light paint a car. Now this is
going to be really fun. I actually have a
2014 Chevy Corvette, which I have called
Venom... so I'm gonna be photographing my
car Venom in this parking garage using
one flash, and my camera, and so let's go
ahead and let's break down exactly what
we're going to use, to take these photos!
On this tripod, I have the Sony a6500
and I'm using a Sony 12-24mm
f/4 lens. Now the key is that
I'm using a wide angle lens, because I am
shooting on a crop sensor body. If you're
shooting on a full-frame camera, then you
could probably go with something a
little different, like a 16-35mm because
that is pretty much the equivalent of
what I'm using on this crop sensor
camera now.
I'll talk to you guys in a
few moments here about the lights, but
what I'm doing is, I'm using the live
view on the back of this camera to kind
of frame my shot and see how this image
is going to look, and from this particular
angle actually looks pretty good. So Ia
think this is what I'm going go with. I
have this sitting on a Benro, it's a
Travel Angel carbon fiber tripod.
Whatever tripod it is that you have, as
long as it's sturdy, you don't touch it,
should work great, so we're going to go
ahead and get this thing positioned, and
I think we've got it. Okay, so let's go
ahead and let's talk about how we're
going to get this thing started.
Now the first image that I'm actually
going to shoot, is what I'm going to call my
base-plate shot. This is going to be shot
with the flashes turned off, and what I'm
trying to do is to capture the ambient
light. I need one frame that captures the
ambient light in this area in its
totality, so using the live view as I
look at the back of the camera. My
settings are going to be f/8 two-second
exposure at ISO 100. You want to use the
lowest possible ISO, and the longest
possible shutter speed, to expose for
your ambient light being the garage, the
background, if you're in a different
location whatever that location might be.
So those are the settings that I have,
now so I'm going to go ahead and I'm going
to take this first shot, to have our base
plate and there we go, so we have our
shot, two second exposure, and it's
looking really good. Let's talk about the
lighting, and the modifier that we're
going to be using for these shots. Now I
have a Sony Flash, and I'll put the model
number on the screen for you, but it's
just a single Sony speed-light. Now I'm
using this speed light however, whatever
speed light it is that you have, so long
as it has a decent amount of power. You
should be perfectly fine. So we have this
Sony flash and I actually have it
mounted with a Profoto speed ring
that's made for speed lights. And what's
really cool is that this modifier that
I'm using now is technically one that I
would use with one of my Profoto
studio lights, except the adapter allows
me to put up to four flashes. So let's
say if I need it to get more power, I
could easily put more flashes in there.
I'm only going to do one because I want to
make it really simple for everybody to
follow along. So as far as the light
shaping tool, I have a Profoto 1x6
strip in, technically you could use
one that's a little bit smaller if you
have one available to you. This will help
you to really carve out the lighting as
you go around and light paint your car,
and then it's just on a basic, this is a
kupo light stand, but again whatever
light stand that is that you have should
work perfectly fine. So what we're going to
go ahead and do, is I'm going to bring this
light in to start light painting
different parts of the vehicle, and I'm
actually going to trigger this, using the
Sony PlayMemories app that comes with
with that camera now. If you're shooting
Canon or Nikon - some of the newer cameras
allow you to have this remote
control feature, and it's really great,
because I could actually just go ahead
from here and trigger the camera to take
the photo, and just walk around and light
paint the car, so with that being said
let's go ahead and let's get started -
because I'm only using the one speed
light. I am having to fire these off at
full power, but as each of these photos
comes through, I could basically go into
my app and zoom in just to make sure that
the car is being lit the way I want it
to be lit, and if I need to make
adjustments that's fine. I could just
bring the lights in closer, and take
another shot, and this looks pretty good
so I'm just going to go ahead and walk
around the car, and just start to light
paint different parts of the car. Now you
might be wondering how is this going to
work. That you're taking a bunch of
different photos, and what's going to end
up happening is we're going to go into
Photoshop, and we're going to stack up all
of these photos together, and only mask
in the parts of the car that we want to
show. So we'll keep walking around here,
it's very simple, I'm just triggering
this using the app, and I'm kind of
following the lines of the car.
All right everybody, so there you have it,
a really simple way to use one speed
light to light paint a vehicle. Now
obviously if you don't have a Corvette
to photograph, photograph whatever
vehicle it is that you have. It's a lot
of fun. It takes a little bit of practice
but I think you'll be able to dial it in
pretty easy. While you're here make sure
you subscribe to AdoramaTV. They have a
lot of great content here dropping
almost every single day, as well as the
Adorama Learning Center where you can
read more about photography and
videography and all sorts of great
topics. Thank you so much for watching
The Breakdown and I will see you all in
the next episode. Bye everybody!