Cars are incredibly challenging objects to photograph well. It requires time, preparation and specific equipment to get consistent results. Vehicles are made from a collection of very different materials, from matt plastics and rubber to high gloss automotive paint, glass and chrome. The vehicle's design is a mix of large flat areas, compound curves, overhanging wheel arches and hard edges. Light reacts in different ways across each of these different areas and surfaces. Capturing a strong photograph of all of those shapes and surfaces well takes experimentation, patience and an understanding of how light will play on the car and how best to manage it.

If you hold up a metal spoon and look at the back of it, you can not only see yourself but also much of the room, from the ceiling to the floor and any ceiling lights will be bright spots. Reflections on a car behave in the same way. Much of the complexity will come from managing the way light and reflections behave on the surfaces of the car. When photographing a car on location, how and where the car is placed in relation to its surroundings will be incredibly important. The car will reflect the sky and anything in front of it, trees, houses, fences, people and the road. With the car parked in an open area on the side that's being photographed, it is possible to get clean and even reflections over the full length of the car. I aim to get as much of the final shot in camera. So pick up rubbish or sweep an area and get the space as presentable as possible.

The location is a huge factor, as what’s in front and behind the car will influence the photograph equally. Finding a great location will take planning and effort, and it needs to be accessible when the light is right to get the photos you need. If photographing cars for commercial purposes in a public space, you will potentially require permissions from local the relevant council or national parks.

The site for the shoot needs to be safe. Cars worthy of the expense of a professional automotive photographer tend to be worth a lot of money. You need to be doubly aware of your surroundings and the risks present to the car, the client, to you and your gear. I will do everything I can to have the minimum amount of physical contact with the car and always let the owner move the car into position. If I am in close proximity to a car, I'm extraordinarily careful that my gear is secure. If an accident does happen on location I do not want to be the cause.

There are some specific tools needed to photograph cars in natural light to get strong results. A circular polariser is a filter that reduces glare and reflections from highly reflective surfaces, adds contrast and pumps up the saturation a little. It does this by only allowing light that is bouncing directly from the subject towards the camera to pass through the lens and all other light rays are eliminated. A polariser will reduce the light getting through the lens by about a stop, so another indispensable piece of kit is a tripod. A tripod allows for exposures long enough to manage the reduction of light passing through the lens for all of the required settings. Detail is very important so slower ISO's are best and the lens needs to be closed down to get a decent depth of field. The tripod also facilitates the ability to take various exposures from precisely the same position. I ensure that I leave with a set of photographs from each setup with various exposures from an identical position. If I need to, I can combine them in post-production and show good detail in all of the areas of the car and surroundings.

Car photography is scrutinising the vehicle in the most exacting way and a professional quality camera and lens will pick up the smallest of details. It is essential that the car is fully detailed just prior to the shoot and that there are cleaning products on location during the shoot. It’s unbelievable how much crap a car can collect just sitting in one spot, let alone driving. A car detailed a week ago will be covered in a thin layer of dust.

The time of day will massively influence the look and feel of the photographs. Any time of day or conditions can be viable for car photography but the decision needs to be around what is appropriate storytelling for the photos you want to make. Overcast days can make for very soft light but the quality of that light is unidirectional so very flat and dull. Full midday sun creates loads of contrast and spectral highlights that are way brighter than the rest of the light falling on the car. Light from very late in the day will be easier to manage but will still have a bright highlight and will also have a colour cast of the warm light of the sunset. Just after sunset may be the peak time to shoot a car in natural light. It’s a way of reflecting a natural lighting event in the paint and glass to elevate the look and feel of the car. The light source is the entire sky, there are no spot highlights from the sun and the horizon becomes a line that can be used to split the light on the top half of the car. The sky acts as a huge, soft light source that can result in impeccable light across the whole car. It's a quality of light that is softly graduated and seems to glow. This light will have a colour cast, so this might not work for some commercial photography where colour accuracy is important.

Composition for commercial car photography will depend on how the images a going to be used. If shooting for a collector or restorer, the images will predominantly be all about the car. The compositions will be tight and not have much in the way of background. If the photos are for a car magazine or automotive advertising, then it's important to leave adequate negative space for headings, text and inset photographs. Most work for car magazines will be in a landscape format. If so, no important details should be dead centre or they’ll get cropped by the spine down the middle of the page.

Some cars are way easier to photograph than others and every car is different. It’s important to really observe the car on its own merits and move around it until an optimum angle is found. Wide-angle lenses from a low position will emphasise solidity, making the car look menacing and dynamic. Longer lenses will eliminate distortion and show a truer sense of the design as a whole.