p.1 #1 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
Hello, I am looking for an outdoor battery strobe solution that can light up a vehicle in broad daylight with and without modifiers. I like the value Godox's battery strobes offer, but I am a little lost when it comes to choosing specific models. Below is an example of the style of lighting I am going for. Under $1000 would be ideal but I can be flexible for the right solution. Thanks!
p.1 #2 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
The AD600 Pro or AD 400 Pro should be enough power and color accuracy. The AD600 Pro have had some battery issues if you do not use them frequently enough. If you take them out occasionally you should be okay.
p.1 #3 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
Agreed with the above poster but your stated budget will be a bit tight to light something as big as a car. A single 600Pro costs $900 and you’ll probably want at least one, plus a couple 400Pros (and I stress “at least”). The good news is your reference shot was probably lit with, or at least could be lit with, a $700 reflector and frame on a couple $300 stands (or they were just smart and parked the car near an object that filled the shadows nicely and fortunate that the sun was placed where they needed).
p.1 #4 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
A lot depends upon what ISO you are comfortable using. One or more AD600's are ideal but for one f/stop of difference (or ISO 200 versus 100) they are roughly equal to an AD400. Most if not all lithium batteries will go bad if not recharged on a regular basis. I have a number of Godox units some dating back quite a few years and every once in a while I will just charge them all back to full. By doing that regularly none of my batteries have had any issues. In the same way I rotate camera batteries or they will also go dead if left uncharged for too long.
If you plan to do this on a beach you need the battery models but if you are doing in a place with power the Godox studio strobes are very cheap. For example a Godox SK400II Studio Strobe which also putts out the same power as a AD400 is only $139 at B&H.
p.1 #5 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
BhPhoto and Adorama have intermittentFlashpoin/Godox kit sales.. multiple strobes including AD600pro AD400pro etc fairly often. Be careful on Adorama because I tried to order something today and the tax calculated was correct but on checkout it was 2x... On Adorama site sometime harder to find the kit sales by search only. The savings at times can be 30% or more.
p.1 #6 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
architect7 wrote:
... light up a vehicle in broad daylight with and without modifiers.
A serious challenge! If you are allowing the sun to provide rim lighting, the sky to perform fill, and your strobe to add a (point source) accent, then all is well power-wise. You will need heaps of power to replace the sky fill function because you need car-sized bounce modifiers, and the sun will just get in the way because you have to compete with its power. In the studio (or at night) you can just get your exposure by boosting ISO or firing the strobes repeatedly to accumulate photons. In summary, you cannot illuminate a shiny car with point sources (it will appear unlit), and large modifiers eat energy.
Check out this product link to see how it's done right:
An alternative to fighting the sun—and losing—is forgetting the strobes and going 100% solar. You shape sunlight itself to illuminate the car. Once again, the (white) reflectors are car-sized and you direct sunlight around the set with mirrored reflectors. This is a standard Hollywood approach and the professional-grade gear is available from Matthews.
p.1 #7 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
architect7 wrote:
Hello, I am looking for an outdoor battery strobe solution that can light up a vehicle in broad daylight with and without modifiers. I like the value Godox's battery strobes offer, but I am a little lost when it comes to choosing specific models. Below is an example of the style of lighting I am going for. Under $1000 would be ideal but I can be flexible for the right solution. Thanks!
p.1 #8 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
I about to buy an outdoor strobe kit and have been looking at all the reviews and products available. Right now, I think I have decided on the Westcott FJ400 backpack kit. I like the fact that the Westcott flash trigger is not camera brand specific. You just change a setting in the trigger to the brand of camera you are using. For those who use 1 system, that doesn't matter, but I use both Nikon and Canon gear and I would not need different triggers for each camera.
p.1 #9 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
The Wescott system looks nice and the single trigger idea seems worthwhile as long as you don't venture into Sony cameras. Godox/Flashpoint units work also work well and the cost of a trigger is prettry inexpensive in the scheme of things.
p.1 #10 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
If you like the lighting in the sample that you have provided look closely at the shot and it will tell you much about the lighting. A long continuous highlight on the side of the car and a soft shadow under the front bumper reveal that large light sources were used. So like c.d.embrey and RKneck have said, big reflectors were most likely used. This could have also been done with two large Chimera soft boxes but a single AD600 would not be enough power or coverage to give you this look in a soft box.
p.1 #11 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
What happens when you use Sony and Westcott triggers? I have a number of Godox strobes and use Fuji and Sony-- and once I brought the wrong trigger with me.. That is the only downside.. So just more careful these days when packing up the gear.
jmmaher wrote:
The Wescott system looks nice and the single trigger idea seems worthwhile as long as you don't venture into Sony cameras. Godox/Flashpoint units work also work well and the cost of a trigger is prettry inexpensive in the scheme of things.
p.1 #12 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
I am unaware of any issues with the Wescott trigger and Sony except you need an adapter for it to fit Sony that add a bit of height to the trigger and it looks like it might make it a little awkward (however this is just from the pictures so it may be fine). Also if you add up the price of the Wescott trigger and Sony adapter you could have bought two (Flashpoint R2 Mark II TTL 2.4G Wireless Transmitter For Sony Cameras (X2T-S)) Godox/Flashpoint triggers.
p.1 #13 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
Got it.. Thanks for the clarification...
jmmaher wrote:
I am unaware of any issues with the Wescott trigger and Sony except you need an adapter for it to fit Sony that add a bit of height to the trigger and it looks like it might make it a little awkward (however this is just from the pictures so it may be fine). Also if you add up the price of the Wescott trigger and Sony adapter you could have bought two (Flashpoint R2 Mark II TTL 2.4G Wireless Transmitter For Sony Cameras (X2T-S)) Godox/Flashpoint triggers.
p.1 #14 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your recommendations. I have a 2kw quiet generator I would not mind bringing when I need to softbox a vehicle, so battery powered isn’t critical for all strobes. I also appreciate the reflector idea, and having both options will be nice for my toolkit. Would two 1200w strobes on large softboxes be enough?
p.1 #15 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
Having enough power to illuminate a vehicle is one thing and yes you could do it with two 1200 w/s strobes by turning up your ISO to get the depth of field you will need.
The bigger issue(no pun intended) is the size of the modifiers. There is a reason silks of very large dimensions are used. Cars are essentially all reflective and small light sources will reflect just that, small highlights. Back in 1996 I worked on a 45 day campaign shooting Honda cars in studio with hot lights and strobes on 8x10 film. We had canvas custom made to suspend on overhead bounce rigs that were massive and $$$$$.
The question is, are you trying to mimic a commercial auto shoot or just gets some nice photos of cool cars? If its a commercial standard you are seeking then you will be challenged to achieve it with softboxes.
If you are adept at post production you could use a very large softbox and combine multiple shots to achieve a 30 foot silk look, as in a full reflective side body shot. Shoot lots and bracket your flashes so blending in post gives you some options.
p.1 #16 · Strobe recommendations for outdoor vehicle photography
Completely agree on the other comments about needing huge light modifiers to get that effect with strobes.
Portable strobes, even in 6-foot softboxes won't get you the result in the example image. As already stated, you need really large light sources to evenly light a large, reflective object like a car. The general rule of thumb in studio lighting is a modifier similar in size to what you're photographing... to give you an idea. But because cars have curved surfaces, you really need much larger modifiers
In that example photo, my feeling is it's 100% sunlight. Whether reflectors were used, I'm unsure. I'm very sure it was a lot of Photoshop work and stacked exposures (HDR) to allow for the open shadow areas on the car to be revealed while also allowing a pleasing sunset exposure. That would be very challenging to do in one shot. So if you're on a tight budget and trying to keep it simple, it might be a matter of working from a tripod and doing exposure brackets from which you can then extract shadow details and persevere highlights, as required.
You could use a bare bulb strobe to pop some fill and retouch the specular highlights, but you have to watch the hard shadows it will create...
(or they were just smart and parked the car near an object that filled the shadows nicely and fortunate that the sun was placed where they needed).