Ok this might be a little more advanced but I get asked about this all the time. What I’m going to talk about today is a technique known as a “rig shot.” What exactly is a rig shot? A rig shot is essentially a photo taken by affixing one end of a boom to the subject vehicle while attaching a camera to the other end of the boom, and then triggering the camera with a remote control while the vehicle is moving. This technique gives you much more control than a standard rolling shot taken from another moving vehicle. By using this technique, we can create motion in the shot while closely controlling our lighting. At the same time, we can also position the car in a restricted environment. It may not make sense just yet, but continue reading, and I will show you the steps involved in creating the “rig shot” on this Ferrari F430.

Rig set up. Note: A very wide lens (10mm on a crop body or about 16mm on a full frame camera) is needed to pull of a shot like this.


I am also going to show how I light the car using only one small flash. The first step in the process of doing a lit rig shot (after attaching the rig) is so walk around the car with a remote flash and light each of the parts of the car individually. This can be done more easily with larger strobes, but this was all we had to work with when this shot was taken. About fifteen photos go into creating the final photo (back left, back right, diffuser, and so on). These are all layered on top of each other in photoshop and pieced together in the final image. This is possible because, since the camera is attached to the rig, it stays stationary relative to the vehicle throughout the shoot.

One of the frames that will be used in the final lit version of the car


After we were satisfied with the number of lit photos, we moved on to the rolling part of the rig shot. Here, as you can see, there is a 15-foot aluminum pole stuck to the roof with two pump suction cups. The camera then hangs off the end of the pole from what is known as a Magic Arm. This piece lets us move the camera around to frame the shot and finally lock the framing in place. The car may look as if it is moving really fast, but in reality, it was only slowly rolling forward. By leaving the shutter on the camera open for a second or two while the car is moving, we create the illusion of speed.



After this we were done shooting and the painstaking work of editing all the parts into one seamless image began. Once all the lit parts of the car were layered on top of this last image, it was time to Photoshop the rig and all of its shadows and reflections out of the picture. When everything came together after several hours of editing, this was the final result.

 

The result is awesome! A lot of work in the set up!

 

Getting that rig out can't be fun. Seems like an awful lot to clone out, is there any other method to remove it?

 

That's the easier part of that write up to be honest. Its really not bad. If you have CS5 you can try using content aware fill to get it out.

 

Ho ho ho!

 

lol, Kris Kringle you're not very good at hiding your identity.

 

Ho ho ho! Santa forgot to "log out" on his phone

 

I just hate cloning. Never looks quite right to me, and every time you try to fix something you make it worse.

 

a lot of the time I copy/paste/blend textures from close by rather than straight cloning

 

Fantastic thread guys! Don't know how I missed it, but I'm subbed for moar