This shoot was in “The Spine” at the McLaren Technology Centre, the brief was to show off the Papaya parts of the MCL60 Formula 1 car, with lots of atmosphere. I split this set in to two halves, first was the hero shots, lit in a cold light with a hint of warmth coming through the smoke from above. We used a haze machine to fill the room and add the atmosphere for real, which always presents challenges with showing a car off in a vivid way, so there was a lot of waiting for smoke to clear and sit in the correct place to fit with the lighting.
For the detail shots, we went for a less stealthy look, and more vivid and eye-catching. Papaya smoke, blended with a subtle cool light on the car to show off the carbon.
As you can see, the photos went down well with the McLaren fans, with over 300,000 likes on the post!
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To finish the set, here are an extra two very moody Papaya shots. When shooting Formula 1 cars, the sponsors are the biggest priority, when editing I was wondering what it would be like if you just treat it as a car, with no brief. They’re super moody, and don’t show off the car like the above shots do, but I enjoyed putting these together.
I especially love this real smoke ring that I managed to capture!
