In a slightly misleadingly entitled release, Luxion, developers of KeyShot (one of the replacements for HyperShot) has just sent out a press release about how “Ford relies on KeyShot Technology for Press Images.” While the statement is a wee bit accurate, the truth of the matter is that this is about how critically acclaimed car photographer David Burgess has been using KeyShot as a key part of his workflow for sometime and has just delivered press images for the 2012 Ford Focus – which made its worldwide debut at the 2010 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit.
Since 2006, critically acclaimed car photographer David Burgess has repeatedly used Luxion’s technology to deliver photographic masterpieces of many vehicles – right from his studio, hotel room, or wherever else he may be. Previously, David would photograph cars on location and depend on weather conditions and several staff members to assist with setting up the actual car model. Luxion’s technology gives full control over the lighting and the corresponding reflections in the car model, which in the end, delivers the ultimate artistic control.
This is a growing trend for many within the professional photography space, particularly those working with the automotive field. Automotive photoshoots are hugely costly in terms of time, the resources (camera crew, ground crew, staff from the auto-company etc etc) and shear bloody hassle of shipping five of the next hot car to the gobi desert, Icelandic glacier or indeed, getting permits to shut off a street in Chicago for morning, There’s also the issue of security and those cursed spy shots ruining the expensive launch at a tradeshow. Taking things digital makes huge sense. But what counts is getting the right photographer, with the right team behind them (in some cases) doing the render work and making it look jaw droppingly realistic.
