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Once in awhile, I’ll get emails regarding my shots, particulalry, how I captured them…the techniques involved, my gear, lighting, etc. So, I’ve started this new category, Behind The Shot, sharing methodologies behind those shots readers are most interested in.

This photo of a friend’s orange Lambo Gallardo, taken in Phoenix back on April 2007, is a good example and gets plenty of inquiries.

Back Story: We were on a week long Arizona-Cali road trip, which I was covering. The cars were all rolling out following dinner. It was obviously dark out, nearly pitch black, but I wanted to capture this roll-out in a different way; something compelling but technically viable with a super quick setup having only a couple minutes to sort something out (it wasn’t life or death, just hoping to get a great, quick shot).

The Technique & Setup: I chose a slow shutter speed with a pop of flash. This exposed for some of the ambient light while creating the trailing lights. My SB-80DX flash was set to Rear-Curtain Sync on full power (1/1), popping just as the long exposure ended, exposing the Lambo’s front-end.

As the car drove by, I simply panned at 1/5 sec (no tripod) creating the nice blur/camera shake. The flash was placed on the curb, and fired just at the right moment; to trigger the SB-80DX wirelessly, I set the camera flash mode to Commandar Mode, turning the on-camera flash power to zero, using it to simply trigger the flashhead.

Camera Info:

• 1/5 second
• F/5.6
• 18mm wide
• ISO 1600
• Camera: Nikon D200
• Flash: SB-80DX
• Lens: Nikkor 12mm-24mm 4.0 DX

Here’s how it looks without the flash with this Ferarri355…looks cool, but obviously out of focus and unsuitable for print:

Overall, a fairly simple shot. But the end result is pretty cool: a slow moving car that appears to jet out of the frame. Very “flux capacitor.”  Something a little different.

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