VW Golf R32

A friend of Mine asked me to Grab some shots for his Father's Golf R32 to get some large formate prints done. It's a very nice car, amazing sounding aftermarket exhaust, Coilover suspension etc.

After arriving at his house, we set off. Of all days to do a photoshoot it was a cold rainy summerday in Sydney. After driving for 10 minutes or so to find a suitable location, we spotted this one in an industrial area. The crates were used for a windscreen shop and made for an interesting (yet cluttered) background.

As soon as we arrived, it started to rain, then stop, then start again. Finally the decision was made and I made a start setting up my gear. For this I used:

Canon 1dsmk2, Canon 70-200 2.8L
Gadget Infinity PT04 Trigger/2 Receivers
Sigma DG500 Super (optical slave setting)
Acheiver TZ-250
Sunpak 3000

I propped them all on tripods and got to work, all setup it looked like this.




Without the flash, it looked flat and boring







The whole point is to adjust my aperture and shutter speed to kill the ambient light but still capture the flash on the car, take note the shot below was taken in broad daylight (well overcast)







So I got in my flattering ground humping position.






And came up with this:





1/90th sec @ f8
ISO 200
105mm

Post processing was the clouds in background and removal of the downpipe on building, basic levels and a bump in saturation (1ds in "normal" colour mode is very flat, but accurate)

Looking back, not bad but not good. Biggest concern is the reflection on the bonnett of the car, even with the polarizer set at full tilt, the reflection remained. Background is also still a bit too busy.

In the end though, my mates father was stoked with the final image which is what really matters.

Thanks to Ben Wood for the behind the scenes shots.