Photographing Exotic Cars and Glamour Models

So if there one thing I get asked a lot, it’s “Hey Nino, how do you go about shooting a car with a model?”. Sadly, there simply isn’t a short answer to such a question. For the most part, I think on my feet at these type of shoots, improvising as I go, but there are definitely some standard approaches I try to take. After all, getting consistent results is the hallmark of any photographer worth their salt, no?

Answering the question as best I could in the form of a “tutorial outline” video back in October 2014, I put an article together on Fstoppers to augment it. While I intend to produce a proper, full length and hyper detailed Exotics + Model Photography Tutorial some time in the future, this is the closest thing I have for now. There are many details involved, as I said, and no two shoots are generally similar enough to declare “This is how you should do it because I said so” or anything remotely close to that. However, there are some key aspects I believe should be considered, especially if you’ve never attempted such a thing.

To quote Jeremy Clarkson, “How hard can it be?”

Don’t answer that.  

Anyway, I started shooting glamour models with exotic cars in 2011 when I rather brazenly approached Autodynamica in Houston, quite simply asking if I could show up one afternoon with models in tow and see what was what. Shockingly, they agreed and thus my journey into this subgenre, if you want to call it that, began. Since then I guess you could say I’ve become somewhat known in my hometown for doing it a lot, but these days it is unfortunately seldom that I do anymore. A problem I mean to fix going into 2017!

To that end, here is my quickie tutorial on shooting glamour models and exotic cars, showcasing a project I did with model Amanda Paris, shooting inside Potresse Automotive in north Houston:

And be sure to check out the series of shots that came from the project:

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Nino Batista

Ron “Nino” Batista is a commercial glamour and exotic automotive photographer in the United States. HIs work is regularly published in lifestyle and men’s publications all over the world, and he is regarded as one of the premier glamour photography and retouching educators in the U.S.

He works with Fstoppers.com and as a Senior Writer, and has taught photography and retouching in dozens of cities, including at ShutterFest 2016 in St. Louis, as featured instructor on CreativeLive, the AIBP Retreat in Ojai CA and New Orleans LA, as well as his own workshops in many cities around the country and, as of autumn 2016, various cities around the world.

Nino founded the Spekture brand in 2012 and has partnered with Alex Ventura to create the all new Spekture publication in 2016.

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