Rangefinder Magazine
November 2004

Rf Cookbook by Larry Singer
David Wendt Meets the Challenger Challenge

To get his shot of a 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A, for an upcoming calendar tentatively titled “Extreme Muscle Cars,” vehicle photographer David Wendt needed a location that provided a bright, colorful and contrasting color scheme.

Wendt had to shoot the car near where it is permanently housed in Cincinnati, OH. He was fortunate to find the ideal location within five miles of the owner’s home—a parking lot containing a number of bright yellow school buses.

Wendt chose the buses for a background because he wanted a colorful backdrop that was interesting, but not so interesting it pulled attention away from the vehicle.

The photograph, which Wendt describes as fairly simple, conveys a subtle message aimed at every guy who’s lusted after a sexy muscle car in high school but had to use a far less glamourous form of institutional transportation.

To photographically preserve the perfectly purring machine on August 8, 2004, Wendt used a 70–200mm lens on his handheld Canon EOS-1Ds. The exposure of 1/800 at f/5.6 was 2⁄3 of a stop underexposed. The picture was taken around 5 p.m. In addition to natural sunlight, Wendt used only one Flexfill Reflector Disc for fill to keep the shoot as simple as possible.

To get the yellow speed bump in the foreground that matches the buses, Wendt positioned himself flat on his stomach on the hot blacktop. After the car’s image was in the camera, Wendt used the Color Range selection under Select in Photoshop to tweak the school bus colors and darken the upper corner of the sky. “If you play with color ranges as a selection tool,” Wendt says, “you get this dialog box that comes up. The creative things I can do with this box has changed the way I use Photoshop forever.”

To see more of Wendt’s photography, and learn how he shoots a variety of vehicles, including big trucks and trains, visit his web site: www.wendtworldwide.com/.

INGREDIENTS
• Camera: Canon EOS-1Ds
• Lens: Canon Zoom Lens EF 70–200mm, f/2.8
• Lighting: Daylight, 5:00 p.m.; Flexfill Reflector Disc
• Meter: Internal camera metering & bracketing
• Printer: Epson Photo Stylus 1280
• Software: Photoshop 7.0
• Paper: Epson Matte Heavyweight & Premium Glossy