Shooting a Ghost
May 4, 2016 By  malc birkett With  0 Comment

Not the spooky kind but the rather special Rolls Royce kind. Actually very special – the first time in a Roller and certainly didn’t disappoint, from the sumptuous cream leather through to the gentle rumble of the V12.

Not my cup of tea to be perfectly honest (I was much more interested in my client’s collection of Land Rovers!) I think I’d be too petrified of parking it and coming back to find it engraved with the initials of the local yoofs, but you really have to admire the attention to detail and the sheer quality of the workmanship.

And no, you can’t hear the clock ticking. It’s a myth because it’s a digital clock!

Before I started college I was lucky enough to get a week to work experience with automotive photographer Les Smithers – he’d just started the Bentley brochure which, to a keen young photography upstart like myself, was pretty much heaven. Obviously, it was back in the days of 10×8 film, dulling spray and multiple flashes (about 60 flashes I think!) then the endless making of tea and polishing and cleaning and polishing…you get the picture. Needless to say, it was a great experience/baptism of fire but the recent Range Rover shoot was so well received that we were commissioned to shoot this Ghost.

And, apart from a few judicious tweaks to the contrast and color balance, no magic tricks in photoshop either. Les would be proud!


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