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Master Photographers Tell You How

Brad Miller Automotive Photographer Framing the Ride Interview by Tina Maas Article rating: 1.70

Brad Miller is known internationally for his technically sophisticated and stunningly beautiful automotive work that he shoots in amazing locations with the help of natural lighting. After attending RIT he started assisting his father, Ardean Miller, who is known for his pioneer color photography, with commercial work.

TakeGreatPictures  caught up with Brad recently who was in between shoots and happy to discuss the often elusive task of taking great automotive pictures. 

Be sure to check out 'Brad's Tips & Techniques' section at the end of this interview for some important picture pointers that will come in handy time and again.

BM: Well, that is why it is important not to pick too prominent a landscape. Ideally you want to go for something subtle, like this beautiful location at a dry lake with a red car that you can see in the following illustration.  On the other hand sometimes a backdrop that has contrast but is harmonious in color can enhance a car, like the majestic mansion at an outdoor opera in England did. It was for a program for the opera and the car and the building worked beautifully together. Sometimes contrast can be good, especially if a car is placed against other textures and doesn’t clash with the background. If you place a light car in front of a darker background it really makes the car the star. But be careful when positioning a black car in front of a light background, the contrast can easily get too strong and you will encounter technical difficulties, so I would recommend keeping to a medium to dark background for both car types.

BM: I am more known for my work in natural light but sometimes there are situations when the weather is simply too unpredictable and that is when I shoot a car in a studio. I did that a lot when I was working in Paris and feel quite comfortably in a studio environment. To rent a studio is very expensive though, it can cost anything from $3000–$4000 a day, whereas the lighting on an outdoor location comes for free.

BM: For a normal shoot we basically come up with a concept or the agency does then we hire a location scout, who will find a location for us and report back to the agency or photographer. We narrow down the choices and then go out on a location scout before the shoot to choose the location not only for its content but also for its position and quality of light and how much space there is to do the picture in. When we get ready to shoot we have a coordinator that handles all the permissions and location fees. If there are models involved we have a casting before the shoot and stylists at the location, for young kids we also always bring a social worker. When we are shooting in a national park or near a forest we usually bring a fire truck on location with us in case there are any problems. It is quite a complicated affair. I usually travel with 15 cases of equipment that will also include a whole case only on cleaning materials and one for white sheets and black cloths to reflect certain shapes in the car. Generally I have 2 assistants with me and then there is the car wrangling crew, the people that bring the car to location, clean it and be on standby in case it gets dirty. If we are doing driving shots there is almost always a stunt driver who is insured to do that kind of work. It gets to be quite an ordeal. But what is interesting is, that if you are not shooting for a commercial job it doesn’t have to be all that complicated. I just did a shoot for the mentor series in Cody and Maui and if it is your own car you make sure it is clean, put it in the right place in relationship to the light and you can get beautiful photographs even without all those people helping you. 

BM: That is an interesting point. It used to be that car photography, especially when I worked in Germany and France years ago, required to be shot in the10x8 format. Anything smaller was not considered serious. Then it went down to 4x5, then 2 and a quarter and now 35 and digital. Most car shoots now are shot digitally, I use a Canon digital camera myself, although some film is still being used. We are sort of in a transition period. But for most people either one works quite alright. If people are thinking about ebay and trying to get their car to look beautiful on a website they will need to get their images digitized and uploaded to the web at some point anyway.

BM: Generally we do what is called pre-touching; rather than just doing a picture and taking things out later in Photoshop, we try to get everything to look right in the picture already on location. So if we see something like a chair or a garbage can reflecting on the car, we take it out of there so we don’t have to retouch later. That’s pre-touching for you. And then afterwards sometimes, when you have things like a telephone pole in your photograph, things you can’t control, then we usually use Photoshop as a correction tool to remove unwanted objects and also sometimes to accentuate color. But for the most part we try and get it right and be aware of what’s in our picture at the location.

TakeGreatPictures (TGP): Locations and weather conditions seem to be a crucial aspect to a successful picture. How do you handle these unpredictable factors?

Brad Miller (BM): Some shots are intentionally in the rain, like when you want to show the dangerous conditions the car can handle, but generally clear skies are best. When I was in a situation where it was raining, in Bavaria for example I would always wait for better light. The clear light is always the best, sometimes clouds can be rather distracting in the windshield, which you want to avoid either by positioning the car differently or by using a polarizing filter.

>>Click Here to read Brad's Tips & Techniques...

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