Morris Minor 1000
By Leigh Cousins 12/12/2015
Canon 5D Mark II 16-35 USM 16mm 20secs f/8 ISO100

Light painting is something extremely interesting. The idea, the set-up, the creativity... The ability to visualise a scene and create a stunning shot is simply rewarding. I had the opportunity to work with a couple of cars at a local car repair garage, Minerva Motors in Park Royal, so equipment ready I headed to the garage just after nightfall. After having to clean the car I set up my camera and used a 20 second exposure time at f/8, aligned and focused before turning the lights off and finding my way back to the camera, the idea is to use several torches, lightbars and coloured lights to produce a somewhat custom showroom look to the vehicle. By producing different varied light projections for each shot I can then combine them in post production and produce an almost unique look to the shot.

Vauxhall Astra VXR

I also had the pleasure to photograph this gorgeous custom Vauxhall Astra VXR. Talk about spotless, the condition and attention to detail seemed like a full time job to me until I saw all the magazine prints and double page spreads all over Europe, it may be a cool hobby but also a job, a very good job at that!
Below you can see some of the images I used to combine in post production, taking parts from each photo and painting them over a blank canvas, in total I used 12 shots. Some problems I encountered was the yellow glow from the street lights outside causing a shimmer across the roof of the car and also the background visable through the windows, in hindsight I would have brought a black sheet to put up in the background depending on the shot I was taking. Also stronger lights are definitely needed!