Photographing a $2,500,000 Car with a $50,000 Camera

So, someone's asked you to shoot a $2.5 million car. Nice! But what camera do you use? That’s the challenge photographer Richard Thompson faced last year when he was tasked with shooting the Pagani Huayra BC on the streets of New York.

Thompson's choice? A Phase One XF 100MP medium format camera kit that costs over $50,000.

This video by Phase One above is a behind-the-scenes look at how it was done.

Thompson says he spent two months pre-visualising the shoot but soon realised for the results he was after he couldn’t make them in one location, so decided to shoot different portions on location and composite them in post-production.

For a straight-on photo, Thompson used a Schneider Kreuznach 240mm LS f/4.5 IF lens with a 2x converter, giving him a focal length of 480mm.

“It really appeals to me to shoot it through a longer lens,” Thompson says. “The focal compression makes the car look a lot more serious, even bigger than it is.”

The shoot was mostly done with available light, but Thompson did use a set of Profoto B1 strobes to mimic the natural light.

Here are some of the photos that Thompson made of the car:

You can see more of Richard's work here.