Light Painting

I am finding it fascinating how car photography lighting has evolved over the years since i started shooting cars commercially in the early 1980s. Whilst i was serving my apprenticeship we used Strobe of London flash lighting in the studio bounced off the floating ceiling, 2 x 5000 power generators with 4 strips light and 1 ‘’swimming pool light’ and 100’s of flashes of the lights to build up the exposure shooting in the dark studio. When i set up our studio in Cape Town we bought 4 x 2K ‘’blonde’’ tungsten lights and I lit every car and trucks using these 4 lights bounced off the ceiling. Over the years i have purchased and used more and more lights until i ended up with 52 tungsten lights, but still bouncing the lights off the white bounce and off the studio’s infinity curve walls. Direct lighting was ‘’forbidden’’ and 1 tiny ‘’hotspot’’ would lead to the shot being rejected. Fast forward to the age of digital and i could start exploring new lighting techniques due to the film