Shooting at McLaren F1 HQ

I’ve just come back from a great shoot at McLaren’s incredible futuristic Tech’ centre where they build the F1 cars and develop the road cars.Like many large organisations McLaren are very particular about who they let through their doors so it’s always exciting to visit and there are a special set of challenges to work there. Once through the security luck was on my side as I was able to park right outside the area where the 1968 M7C was located. They had moved it into a broad side passage off their boulevard where it is usually on display and I set up my ‘studio’ blocking off one end.

McLaren M7C-
McLaren M7C-

The magazine require a studio style portfolio of images for consistency and I have developed a way of shooting using black cloth to surround car and lighting with flash. It’s not ideal as flash is hard to control and requires quite a bit of post production work to smooth out the background but the result works well. The issue here were the high wings that meant I had to build a wall higher than the taller rear aerofoil. I balanced powerful mains Bowens monolights at the rear shining forward with soft boxes saving the less powerful battery powered Elinchrom Ranger lights for the foreground with daylight, this gives depth to the images with bright highlights drawing the eye into the picture. With only 3 hours allocated to my full shoot there was no time to waste and I finished just in time to clear the area and pack everything back into my estate car.

McLaren M7C-head on-
McLaren M7C-head on-