I have been looking at a lot of photographs of cars as well as behind-the-scenes photos and videos. Although my car is fairly new I don't have the space and the light modifiers to shoot such a large object. So to play around with lighting a car I bought a cheap 1963 Corvette remote control car.
I started with putting a diffusion panel directly over top of the car. I played around with moving the light until I liked the coverage area and the gradients. I like the shots with the light source closer to the diffusion panel so that the light didn't just end in a sharp line but instead created a smooth gradient along the top ridges of the car.
Next I added a light on the right side to fill in the shadows along a majority of the side. I then took several shots using white cards to fill in various areas of the front, wheels, underside of the car and windshield.
In Photoshop I composited together the various highlights and then fixed the gradient on the windshield. The last thing I did just for fun was put the car in an outdoor setting using a photo I found online. I don't advocate grabbing random pictures online and really wasn't even planning on posting t on the blog but I thought the final result was fun and worth sharing.
As always I see room for improvement. I don't like the way the underside drops off as it moves toward the back tire. At the time I though is was a neat gradient but in the final I think it looks unnatural and strange.