How to photograph the Batmobile
As a lifelong Batman fan, certain moments in life hold a special place in our hearts. They allow us to reconnect with our childhood dreams and immerse ourselves in the world of our favorite caped crusader. Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to photograph the iconic 1989 Batmobile at the renowned Petersen Automotive Museum, and I can confidently say it was a bucket list dream come true.
A Challenge
Before going to the museum, I knew I had a challenge on my hands. First of all, the museum floor is not a proper photo studio. The museum gave me exclusive access prior the museum opening. This gave me one hour for the photo session, as museum doors opened at 10am. The museum purposely keeps the house lights dimmed to preserve the cars on display. This required me to bring my own lighting. Bringing my larger light kit would eat time for setup, not to mention carrying the kit around the museum. Another challenge, the Batmobile was unmovable. I wouldn’t be able to position the car as I wished, nor would I have a 360° view.
To keep my time efficient and simple, my light kit consisted of one strobe light (a Godox AD200 Pro) a rectangular shaped softbox, and one light stand to use as a handheld boom. This is not the ideal light setup for photographing something the size of a car, but I’ll explain further below.
Photo Time
Normally for photographing cars, it’s ideal to have a giant softbox to hoist above the car. This allows for even lighting across the length of the car. Another option is to bounce light off a flat white object, like a wall or ceiling. I had neither at my disposal. The ceiling was high and dark and the only wall was directly behind the wall.
My first idea was to photograph details of the Batmobile. The camera would be locked on a tripod, allowing me to photograph several exposures as I positioned the light with my light stand. I also used a bluetooth camera remote to fire the camera, allowing me to move faster.
While setting up, one of the first unexpected challenges I noticed was the color of the car. The Batmobile, obviously, is a black car. For the 1989 movie, I believe they made multiple versions. One was matte black, while another was glossy black. For this Batmobile, it was the glossy version. The tricky thing with lighting something shiny black is trying to find a happy medium with showing glare and highlights, while also retaining the black color of the car. Matted colors are easier. For this Batmobile, I decided to not light every portion of the car, but to treat edges as like photographing a person with a rim light. For me, this created a balance to keep the drama deserving of the Batmobile, but also make it’s physical features obvious.
Puzzles Coming Together
Having the camera locked on a tripod was a must. This allowed me the luxury to use one light to photograph each feature specifically, to later combine/mask the photos as layers in Photoshop. For those who don’t know this technique, it’s called compositing. Again, ideally it would be better to have the car in a studio where you can light it for one shot, but that’s not always an available option. Going in with the mindset of creating composite allows you to be more flexible (not sloppy, but flexible).
For most of the photos, I used a 50mm prime lens. I was trying to decide between the 50mm or wide angle lens (16-35mm), but I chose the 50mm. The wide angles created too much distortion for my taste. I also brought a 90mm tilt-shift with me, just in case. The 90mm I used for photographing a tire rim at an angle. The tilt-shift was handy to keep the bat symbol on the proper focal plane. I could also have used the 90mm to photograph the whole car, but I felt the 90mm focal length compressed the car a little too much, making it feel boring.
The final image, of the full Batmobile photo, I took several photos (about 20) with various features and details lit. In Photoshop I combined all of the layers with masks, creating the final image. But, I was left with a dilemma. Next to the Batmobile was a large pillar, holding up the ceiling. Also visible was a truck from another movie. I didn’t want to have those items. At the same time of the photoshoot, Adobe had just released a beta version of Photoshop with a new AI background feature. It took me a few minutes to think about this is a creative dilemma. Would it be cheating to use the AI feature to try and create a better (but fake) background? I decided to put the AI generator to the test. It gave me a lot of options, but finally I just settled on a simple black background, to leave the Batmobile as the focus. I felt it was something I would and could have created, but it saved me a lot of time and even made the horizon feel like the correct perspective with the camera.
Thank You
Thank you to the Petersen Museum and Laura for giving me special access. It was a dream come true to see and photograph the Batmobile in a special way.
Gear Used
Phottix Raja Rectangle Softbox
Tripod
Bluetooth remote
Canon R5
Canon 50mm RF 1.2
Canon 90mm tilt-shift
Godox AD200 Pro