Chrome sees everything

A car body is a mirror bent into a complicated shape. You are not lighting the car; you are building a room for it to reflect, and then hiding yourself inside that room.

The rig

• A twelve-metre white scrim overhead, lit from above, giving one continuous soft reflection along the length of the panel.
• Black flags at both ends of the studio, so the highlight has an edge instead of dissolving.
• The camera on a long lens through a hole in a black card.

Details are a separate shoot

Badges, stitching, dials and switchgear were shot afterward with a macro and a single small source. These frames sell the restoration far more effectively than the wide ones do, because they are what an owner actually looks at.

The client’s favorite frame in the set is a four-inch section of the dashboard.

Eleven exterior frames, thirty details, and a set of turntable stills for the configurator.