Updated: Nov 25, 2020
The high-quality in-studio photos arrived today...and they're awesome!
These were professionally photographede and digitally processed by Jordan Mo in the Crestec U.S.A. studio (Torrance) along with the help of Michael Fleder. Jordan is a genius and has clearly worked his artistic magic on the G.T. 350. What do you think?
Thank you, Jordan and Michael!
December 15, 2014 Original Post:
Spent the day in the Crestec U.S.A. [www.crestecusa.com] photo studio in Torrance with Jordan Mo, a really cool young man who knows his way around a photo studio, cameras, lenses, lighting, and graphic design. It's a fascinating process to do a professional photo shoot with a guy like Jordan.
While he was shooting professionally, I was his part-time gopher: moving the Shelby around (Shelby drivers will note that's a chore in a confined space!), moving the lighting systems around, tripping over extension cords, usually in the dark, etc.
While Jordan was preparing shots and figuring out the lighting, I took a few photos of my own that I thought you might like to see. I used a handheld Sony NEX-3...no tripod and just snapped random photos while elements of the Shelby were illuminated with his special LED lightbox (more on that lightbox later).
This is how the studio looks, raw and unlit. So this is what we started with.
Next, we turn off the ceiling-mounted fluorescent lighting to darken the room, and add a very unique and very bright LED lightbox (about five feet long and a foot tall) to highlight an individual section of the Shelby with 'daylight' quality light. The lightbox does not 'flash'...it simply stays on (think of looking into the sun, if you'd like a comparison!).
Here's several examples...
So, by using the LED lightbox, Jordan can light (and cast intentional shadows) on specific parts of the Shelby thereby creating some very dramatic colors and shadows that can dramatically highlight some of the Shelby's styling creases and folds. He's able to eventually light the entire car by a combination of moving only the lightbox and shooting multiple photos.
Meanwhile, Jordan sets his EXPENSIVE camera and lens for extreme slow (long!) shutter speeds, and we move the lightbox, which is on a special stand with casters so we can roll the lightbox around at will while the camera shutter remains open (some exposures were 10 seconds or more!).
This process enabled Jordan to light the Shelby in literally any way he desired! This also means there's hundreds of digital photos that make up the project.
So now comes the tedious part: Jordan begins to select and digitally overlay a number of photos and ultimately stitch together what will look like one singular image of the Shelby with his dramatic lighting and shadow techniques to give the finished studio image extreme quality and emotion.
Just a reminder here...these were my hand-held photos you see here. In the meantime, stick around, I'll post Jordan's finished works in the near future! Stay tuned!
Cheers!