Automotiverigs.com PS'ed sample shots?????

[John Rhone]

I have built a rig with the suctions and pvc from filmtools, but when I saw the pics at automotiverigs.com I thought wow, great idea, not too bad on the price and they are local....so I really looked at the samples and it SEEMS they are all PHOTOSHOPPED???? Why? When they took the time to setup the rigs and all, why not actually snap the pics and USE IT? Think there is something going on? What tipped me off was in all the moving shots, no driver....then the relationship to the buildings are all the same in the static shots as the moving shots, so they would have had to snap all the pics at the exact same time....unlikely. Just wanna know what you guys may think of this....they could just build a good product, but be horrible photogs and the pics came out lame....but it now looks a littile deceptive if those pics are all edited in photoshop, and if not...why PS OUT the driver? that makes no sense to me...Well until I get to the bottom of it, my purchase is on hold.....

[Michael Chu]

My guess is that there was only one person there. This means that he/she was the only person who could push the car along to get the motion during the shutter release, which means there would be no driver. Normally, you'd want at least two ppl working on the shot (one pushing the car, and the other sitting pretending to be driving).

And if all the shots were in the same location, that doesn't mean much. The photographer wanted to show how the rig looked while standing still, and how it looked moving. It's not uncommon to do so. That way if the motion shot isn't perfectly sharp, yes, you can blend in your previous exposure w/ the car standing still to get the car a little sharper. It's not perfectly "out of the box", but it helps.

And the relationship w/ the buildings, I can tell you from my experience that it's not very hard to make it looked photoshop. For example, since you're shooting a slow shutter speed (generally), you don't really have to push the car that far OR fast. So the photographer could've taken the picture of it standing still, and then pushed the car slowly (being that it's one person, very likely) with a longer shutter speed so the building may appear to be in the same position BUT has a motion blur to it as if a filter was applied.

I don't think you should be so skeptical of the product. It does the one thing that a rig is supposed to do: capture motion with the car in one position. As long as it does that right, it works. Then it just comes down to how stable it is, etc etc.

There's a post somewhere on the forums about this rig. Morgan Segal, a member, if I recall correctly, purchased this to try it out and had a short little review on it.

[John Rhone]

I guess I would wonder why you would push the car, as opposed to drive it at 1 or 2 mph....there is a set of pics with a guy driving, maybe I was looking too deeply....

[Michael Chu]

When the engine is on, the motor sends slight vibration throughout the car and if the rig is not stable enough, then the photos can come out blurry. It hasn't stopped me before though. Otherwise, it's just a means to minimize as much vibration as possible.

[Mike Ditz]

...or there were 2 guys and one is pushing the car and the other is snapping the pic?

It's not that easy to drive smoothly at a really slow speed.

[John Rhone]

Well I have made a rig and this is what I did....Set the camera (Nikon D2X) to intervelometer shooting...1 pic every 3 seconds or so...setup and meter, then get in the car and drive....so I could do the whole thing by myself...unfortunately when I did this, my 12-24 lens was stuck wide open....so I couldnt do anything with long shutter speeds, I had to use the speed of the car...I was doing about 40mph....The wierd color is because I stacked all my filters on the lens to try and get the shutter speeds down...I think I got it down to 1/500 or so....have not had the chance to do it again, just no time lately....

http://homepage.mac.com/jrhone/.Pictures/C4%20Cab/_D2X9107.jpg

[Mark Delbrueck]

What you need is something like this: http://hvstar.net/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=89 so you can slow your shutter way down. Either that, or watch your lighting.

[John Rhone]

What you need is something like this: http://hvstar.net/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=89 so you can slow your shutter way down. Either that, or watch your lighting.

No what I needed was my lens to go smaller than f/4...it was stuck open and I didnt discover it until I got out to the location and the rig was on the car.....if my lens was working I could have shot it at f/11 and been fine....I have a ND filter and it still didnt block enough light....

[Mark Delbrueck]

No what I needed was my lens to go smaller than f/4...it was stuck open and I didnt discover it until I got out to the location and the rig was on the car.....if my lens was working I could have shot it at f/11 and been fine....I have a ND filter and it still didnt block enough light....

Ok, you win :rolleyes: Just trying to give some friendly advice.

Shooting in the middle of the day even at f/16 isn't going to give you a slow enough shutter and produce a crisp shot... but you already knew that.

[John Rhone]

no prob, THANK YOU for the advice, seriously, I do have screw on ND's and a Lee Filter kit with a number of ND's.....I am reading stuff on here that is sooo informative....great place.....

[Neill Watson]

A pal of mine here in the UK bought the Automotiverigs.com system and the magnets do not hold with a Canon 1DS II on it.

They claim a 200lb pull from the magnets, but then consider that the underside of the car will be painted / undersealed, plus the lever of the arm and you can soon overcome the force of the magnets.

I've seen mixed reviews of that system on various forums. My friend has persevered with it and added suction cups, grip heads etc to make his own hybrid. It seems the basic arm idea is a good one for retouching, but you'll need to add additional methods of attachment.

I'm working on my own version of a rig similar to that, so I'll post some results in the next few weeks when I'm done.

Regards

Neill Watson

[John Rhone]

Thks Neill....looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Jerome André]

hi there
any "first shot" yet ?
cheers

[Cosmin Margau]

Apparently they have a new rig that attached to the pinch rail, looks a bit better than the magents.

[Richard Thompson]

can anyone who owns one of these kits (or pieces of it) tell me the diameter of the 48" aluminum tube lengths? I am trying to figure out how much the tube will flex. I am looking for the diameter at the male (small) end rather than the female end where it widens out since that is only the end.

thanks to anyone who can help :-)

[Cosmin Margau]

I believe they are 2 inches in diameter.

[Natchez Richburg]

you are correct