Bruzilla
Well-Known Member
I was talking to an engineer who just started working with us a month or so ago, and he told me this morning that in the late 60s and 70s, his Dad was one of the premier photographers for car advertisements in the US, and he used to work with him on shoots. In addition to hearing him talk about spending time with Farrah Fawcett (very friendly), William Shatner (total dick), and Ricardo Montalban (awesome impressionist... who knew?), he was telling me about some of the tricks they used to get the best pics of cars.
Trick #1 is they only shot at sunrise and sunset. He said that's when the distribution and angle of the light is at it's best. As the sun comes up, you have about a 30 minute window of optimal light, and about an hour at sunset. Which looking at ads now I can see where they were likely shot in those light conditions.
Trick #2 was they would wet everything down around the car so the pavement, sand, ground, whatever the car is sitting on has a uniform appearance and there's no differing texture areas to pull the eye away from the car.
Trick #3 was they would always have a container of white latex house paint, and they would dab this onto any chrome parts that were showing (bumper, lettering, trim, etc.) We were looking at some ads, and this one popped up. See the areas of the front chrome and mirror that look extra shiny? He said that's most likely dabs of white paint that are there to make the chrome look more reflective.
When I get some time, I'm going to sit down and get some more of these insights as I think they'll help anyone who's wanting to give pics of their car a more vintage ad look.
Trick #1 is they only shot at sunrise and sunset. He said that's when the distribution and angle of the light is at it's best. As the sun comes up, you have about a 30 minute window of optimal light, and about an hour at sunset. Which looking at ads now I can see where they were likely shot in those light conditions.
Trick #2 was they would wet everything down around the car so the pavement, sand, ground, whatever the car is sitting on has a uniform appearance and there's no differing texture areas to pull the eye away from the car.
Trick #3 was they would always have a container of white latex house paint, and they would dab this onto any chrome parts that were showing (bumper, lettering, trim, etc.) We were looking at some ads, and this one popped up. See the areas of the front chrome and mirror that look extra shiny? He said that's most likely dabs of white paint that are there to make the chrome look more reflective.
When I get some time, I'm going to sit down and get some more of these insights as I think they'll help anyone who's wanting to give pics of their car a more vintage ad look.
