Here it is folks...

I get asked a lot what I use to light cars...and the answer is a decent amount of money in big w/s monolites, skill, and a bit of luck. This past summer I was presented with a challenge, one that almost took me out of automotive photography. My 17-55 f/2.8 stopped focusing properly, AND 2 out of 3 of my monolites died and had to be sent in for repair. I didnt have the 24mm prime, in fact I the widest lens I owned was the 35mm prime. I had an old 18-55 kit lens (my now rig shot lens) laying around that I'd simply have to use. The challenge was I had an S2000 and a 240sx to shoot, I had no lighting equipment other than my SB-600, and worst of all I had a magazine that wanted these cars shot and they werent going to wait. So I improvised, and caused myself a lot of headache, and a lot of work in CS4. The reflections were terrible, but it caused a really cool effect and I posted up some sample images on flickr that I opted to leave the reflections in and see how it went. The result is the finalized images made it to print, not where I wanted but still not bad for $50 worth of lighting. It eventually landed me the feature I wanted with the S2000 on a second shoot so not a total loss huh?

Shopping list:
1 $18.94 4' fluorescent ballast. DONT FORGET BULBS (40w) BUY:Lithonia Lighting 4 Ft. Strip 2-Bulb 40 Watt T12 Fluorescent Fixture - C 2 40 120 MBE 2INKO at The Home Depot



1 $21.00, 60 (or more) foot extension cord, BLACK...I chose black because it doesnt show up as bad in the longer exposures, less PS work is good.
BUY: 50 Ft.14/3 BK-50C Ext Cord - 277-614 at The Home Depot


1 Power inverter (I already owned one), doesnt have to be a huge one since the wattage is only 80 total watts.

Thats it, presto! Now you need practice, which with a lot of...this technique can produce some jaw dropping results for dirt cheap. I still play around with it from time to time for fun, and for less than $50 you can't beat it


Unfinalized images from said crap photoshoot 1 and 2...











Now,

Since I was using a friggin' kit lens, and lighting straight out of home depot sharpness is an issue and it was rather tricky dealing with reflections on location. Even with the CP filter attached I still had them...you always will with this setup you just have to manage them later, or make them uniform. Kill the normal strobe lighting formula for this technique because it wont work. You're going to need longer shutter speeds (5-10 seconds) and walk it around the car while the shutter is open. Dont worry about yourself...if done right you wont appear in the image. The rest is all trial and error, play around with it, and have fun. Sure it isnt the best way to light a car at all...but its fun and cheap. And if $2000 worth of lighting is out of your budget then this is for you.

Enjoy!