Short Video Shows What Goes Behind a Professional Car Photo Shoot

Even though photography is all about mastering light - and light is the same no matter what you shoot - it's also about the subject. Knowing when to shoot, how to do it, using what equipment and from what angle is something that comes with the experience gained, and it's not something you can consistently improvize.

This here is Anton Watts, an Australian-born photographer who can make an awful piece of crap car look desirable. But if you're thinking about hiring him to shoot your old car that's about to be put on sale, think again: one session might cost more than the vehicle's value. But that's not just because Anton has a reputation, and that reputation is expensive. It's everything that goes together with one of these shootings.

There are countless of people involved in making those images we see whenever a new model is being launched. From the most simple and obvious roles - the drivers, for example - to the more complicated ones - the lighting assistant, the scouter - there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into these sessions. And the fact that all the flashes and studio lights in the world can't compensate for that elusive five minutes of perfect natural light doesn't make it any easier.

So if you're passionate about photography, if you love cars in general or Tesla in particular or you just like to know how things get done, have a look at this short clip. Anton uses a Phase One IQ250 camera system, which is a 100 Mpx medium-format camera that captures a scene in great detail, but isn't as fast as other professional digital cameras (so it's not ideal for action shots).