How to light paint a black BMW M850i

These BMW M850i Gran Coupes were made available by Circle BMW in Eatontown, NJ. I purchased my X3 from them, and it was one of the best car-buying experiences I’ve had. And I’ve had a lot.

Good vs Evil

When Circle said I could have my pick of cars on the lot to shoot, I wanted something a bit different from the standard BMW fair I normally see. The BMW M850i Gran Coupe is, in my opinion, the best-looking car BMW currently makes, so I grabbed an Alpine White and Carbon Black Metallic one. Then I took them…absolutely no where.

With the weather being what it is during a typical New Jersey winter, I asked for the cars to be prepped in the delivery bay. However, the lighting for the dealership was controlled by a single switch, and I did not want to interrupt normal business flow. So I took them to the service bay welcome area.

If you’re familiar with any modern BMW V-8, they might be accused of being to quiet. Not the M850i. It has a beefy roar at idle that honestly reminds me of the vaunted S65.

Light Saint

The reason for picking both a white and black car is simple; to see the difference in how light reflects. I’ve shown how to light paint before, but doing it with a black car requires more patience. Let’s look at the Alpine White M850i first.

A typical light painting exposure for this car was 1.6 seconds, with an ISO of 64, and an aperture of f/4. For those wondering, I’m mostly on the Nikon 24-70mm Z lens.

Background matters

Moving to that Carbon Black Metallic BMW M850i, I was able to fire off one shot on the Delivery Bay. With just one exposure to work with, you’ll need some post production work to make sure the background isn’t blown out. Also try to maintain the light reflections on the edges of the car to help define the surface. You don’t want it to seem like it’s one flat black slab.

Light Painting with a dark background

So now let’s look at a shot of the Carbon Black BMW M850i.

Same ISO and aperture, but now the exposure is longer, at 3 seconds. Even with a light wand, you can still overexpose the background, so don’t hold it to long.

The background in light painting shots is typically dark, so you need just enough light to separate the car from the background.

Use the lights of the BMW M850i

Headlights and brake lights not only look cool, they add another source of light for a black car. This head on shot shows the additional definition that comes from hitting the brakes for an exposure.

If you’d like to get that star burst on your headlights, make sure to raise your aperture. Here, f/16 was enough to bring out the shape. Remember to adjust your exposure time, given the headlights are brighter, but aperture is higher.