[68RATVT]

If nobody cares about this subject, please let me know and I'll come in off the ledge and shut up about it. :evil:
Being a veteran news photog, I lend myself to believe that most photos from respected venues are real and not staged. By staging, I mean removing or adding items, changing from it's original state, to make a subject to look better in a shoot. It's highly unethical where I come from. Lighting tricks, sribs and such are fine.
Ok, that being said, in the Aug 09 issue of a respected magazine, while reading the article and perusing the fine pictures, I dug the idea this rodder had about installing my battery in a ammo can in the bed of a truck. Funny thing, in the opening picture, his battery is strapped to the frame rails, turn the page and it's gone, the caption reads something like, what a better way to stash a battery. Well, I email the mag and get a response that just didn't seem quite right. Does anybody care, or am I being nitpicky????

 

[4 Jaw Chuck]

OMG you mean those photos in the magazines are staged? I would never have thought this could happen...where are the ethics comittees meetings to discuss this and prevent it from happening. Perhaps a letter writing campaign?

I feel violated in some way. :mwink:

 

[68RATVT]

Alright, I'm naive I guess! Stupid fancy mags, should have known, I'll stick to Playboy!!!

 

[wretched ratchet]

Alright, I'm naive I guess! Stupid fancy mags, should have known, I'll stick to Playboy!!!

right, there's no photo-editing there

 

[KoTT]

wait... are you saying those girls ACTUALLY exist?

 

[68RATVT]

Oh, they exist alright, every time I close my eyes!!!!

 

[smoke]

Goto a car show and see how many of those fancy looking motors will start. Basicly ths samething.

 

[MARTINSR]

If nobody cares about this subject, please let me know and I'll come in off the ledge and shut up about it. :evil:
Being a veteran news photog, I lend myself to believe that most photos from respected venues are real and not staged. By staging, I mean removing or adding items, changing from it's original state, to make a subject to look better in a shoot. It's highly unethical where I come from. Lighting tricks, sribs and such are fine.
Ok, that being said, in the Aug 09 issue of a respected magazine, while reading the article and perusing the fine pictures, I dug the idea this rodder had about installing my battery in a ammo can in the bed of a truck. Funny thing, in the opening picture, his battery is strapped to the frame rails, turn the page and it's gone, the caption reads something like, what a better way to stash a battery. Well, I email the mag and get a response that just didn't seem quite right. Does anybody care, or am I being nitpicky????

Well first things first, the mag only can report to you what they have been told by the car owner, be it truth of fiction.

I have seen MANY cars that I know about being in mags with erroneous info. From different motors than are really in it to giving credit to someone who didn't do the work. Hell, I know of a custom painter who has his name all over the work and does next to none of it! I don't mean hes shop does it and he gets the credit, that is fine. I mean he literally is said to have handled the tape and gun doing a mural on the car when he did NOTHING to it.

Second, I have had a few cars in mags (not mine personally but ones I co-built) and I don't care what you tell them, they will make up or screw up!

My brothers Roadster clearly has coil springs in the rear with shocks in them. Yet in the caption right under the close up photo it says it has "Coil overs".

Third, many times the photos in the article are a mixture of photos taken by the owner during construction and photos shot by the mag photographer doing the "shoot". So the battery could have been on the frame during the build and then moved to the ammo box by the time the car was shot.

You are taking this stuff way too serious, it isn't a crime scene for goodness sakes!

Brian

 

[61bone]

I'm not so sure. Some of the things I have seen done on some pretty famous cars has been a crime.

 

[68RATVT]

Martin, your right, it's not a crime scene, but I do expect honesty...
I'll post the response email I got:

"Hi Sheldon,

Of course we stage photos. Every photographer worth his/her/its salt stages photos to one degree or another. You’d reel if you saw all the reflectors, scrims, and strobes we employ on a high-profile car. In fact, it’s not beyond us to merge several photos taken from the same perspective but lit differently to create a perfectly balanced image. It’s what separates a magazine feature photo from a simple snapshot. Just as tax accountants have tricks that please you, so do we.

But that doesn’t mean we trick you. Josh really did use that ammo can for his battery box. It’s just that he hadn’t gotten the time to make the brackets to mount it securely to the bed floor (you can probably see the rubber strap holding down the battery in the photos). It’s just one of those things you do when it’s 11PM the night before the big show and you just have to make it come hell or high water.

Thank you for noticing, though. Sometimes we spend way too much effort on something seemingly insignificant, so it’s good to know that people actually take the time to study our work."

This was truck they said was a daily driver almost, so my ***** is, why are you doing a shoot on a truck thats not done and lying about it. There's no need for it, plenty of cool rides to shoot, reminds me of FOX News, blowing something way out of proportion...

 

[MARTINSR]

Your thinking about this too much, really you are.

The photographer gets over to this guys house to shoot the car and the battery isn't mounted, is he supposed to leave and say go to hell there are finished cars out there to shoot?

I had the good fortune of watching one of these pros shoot my brothers roadster and truck, it was amazing how the shots were staged. Like wetting the black top to make it look new, and waiting until the sun went down so there would be no shadows and climbing up on the roof of his shop to get the shot.

It is an art, it is a skill and it must be done or the mags would be full of cars parked in driveways with a Honda Accord next it like your typical snap shot.

If you only saw some of the cars you see at shows....the day before! LOLOLOL One America's Most Beautiful Roadster had it's interior being sown in the back of a rental box van on the way to the show! Or getting PAINTED the day before! I have seen it, I have been around the indoor show scene a bit and it would blow your mind the amount of cars that are being put together after buffing or something by a team of guys all night long before a show! :sweat:

The photographer gets out to a house or shop and the guy doesn't have a battery mounted, what is he supposed to do?

It really isn't that big of a deal.

Brian