Light Painting Part II

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So a day or two after I finished the initial light painting of the RSX, I kept having an itch to try it again to get better results. I wasn’t happy with how the car appreared to “glow” and looked too close to poorly done HDR. I figured that the glow was a result of the light source being too strong, so I took the Cobra LED torch and wrapped a piece of ordinary printer paper around it to diffuse the light a bit…a poor man’s softbox, if you will.

I concentrated much more on getting each individual panel lit evenly this time so that there wouldn’t be as many hot spots. I stayed about 5-8 feet away from the car and moved the LED torch in smooth, arcing motions. I also concentrated on getting dynamic shadows and highlights too, since that is what always catches my eye when I’m looking at studio shot images.

In post, I took a lot more time blending the panels together, keeping a close eye on all the shadows and highlights and taking time to remove any hot spots. Again, it was a very laborious process, but worth it in the end. I think that the end result turned out much better this time, and I will definitely use this method from now on.

The final result:

A short video showing all the layers slowly being added to the final image. It’s best to watch this in full screen so that you can really see everything coming together:

Hoping to do some rig shots of the RSX this afternoon if time permits. I’ll be sure to post them up here if I’m able to shoot today!

Theo