On Location: Classic Car Photoshoot

Step Four

Tom Bols

Why just stop with one accent light? I decided to use another accent light. This time I put a 20° grid on the head so the light wouldn’t flood all over the car. Lighting is just as much about what you want to light as it is about what you want in shadow. Grids are a great tool for sculpting light into a scene. By this time the sun was setting and a nice, warm glow was hitting the garage in the background. We shot some frames, and once again I felt like I had a good shot. But I kept noticing a black void beneath the car. Wouldn’t it be cool to stuff a light under the car, and add dramatic highlights skimming across the ground under the car? So much for using one light and keeping it simple!