Picture Perfect Ferrari


The first images that reveal the appearance of a new Ferrari are naturally very important, but how exactly do you photograph a new model? The angles, lighting and the stylistic details that characterise the car are just some of the factors involved in a launch photo shoot. Here, photographer Max Sarotto reveals the secrets



Our visual sense is the most immediate way in which we perceive the world around us, and the sense on which we most depend. The wave of reaction worldwide to a new Ferrari model illustrates this perfectly; after all, the media’s comments tend to focus on the car’s design and its aesthetics. It is, therefore, not surprising that Ferrari spend a lot of time on the photographs with which they launch new models. When it comes to creating the first images of a new model, Ferrari normally uses a static photo shoot, rather than a dynamic one, as it enables the photographer to capture most accurately the car’s beauty without distractions. The resulting photographs will be used for the initial distribution to the world’s media, and then afterwards for the car’s brochure and a series of other uses.

The launch of a new car is very secretive. Ferrari never comments about its new models – even the intention to develop new cars – choosing instead to announce everything at the launch, eg: name, pictures and technical details. The whole launch process starts in Maranello, where Ferrari management decides on the launch date of the new model and the publication date of the launch. Then it decides on launch colours, which can be the subject of a lengthy debate that takes into account the marque’s history, the design of the car and the way a colour underlines its character, and trends in colour preferences. Finally, the photographer and the image style are decided upon. For the last six years, Ferrari has worked with the young and talented Turinese photographer Max Sarotto. About three weeks prior to the launch of the car, the static photo shoot takes place behind closed doors, in a studio with no public access. The cars will typically arrive in the middle of the night and are unloaded on the inside of the studio, with a cover hiding their forms. Those allowed inside can’t enter with cameras or even their telephones and the resulting image files are sent encrypted via secure FTP sites.

For the next one to two weeks, Sarotto and his team of two assistants, two light technicians, and one postproduction expert spend most of their waking hours in the studio. They start by checking the car, which they see for the first time, to see if it is all in order and to familiarise themselves with its shape, its lines, its volume, its colour and its personality.

Seeing a brand new Ferrari model for the first time in the flesh – before anybody else – is an emotional moment for Sarotto and his team. No matter how professional they are, they are also car enthusiasts and working for Ferrari for them is a dream come true.

The photographic process starts with a so-called ‘angle search’
which normally takes two days. Moving around the car – at different heights and with different focal lengths – the photographer takes around 500-600 shots of the car, at 15-degree intervals. The purpose of these shots is to establish the main angles at which to present the car.
The shots get sent to Ferrari, where Brand Management together with the Design Centre decide which angles to use. These are chosen mainly to explain the car and its design, its volume and its stand-out qualities; to capture in a two-dimensional image the emotional impression one gets when one encounters the car in real-life. At the same time, the images should communicate the car’s personality, involve the viewer, and they should of course demonstrate the car’s beauty in a contemporary manner.

The images should communicate the car’s personality
In addition, Ferrari management decides on the backdrop in which to present the car and on the style of lighting; an area which may seem of little bearing, but which actually impacts greatly on the perception of the car. By changing the colour, the texture, and the shadows one can turn a picture of a ravishing car with personality into a dated and uninspiring image, and vice-versa. While the car’s angles are being chosen in Maranello, Sarotto and his team are already working hard on the lighting set-up. This is particularly difficult for Ferrari cars because of the fact that mosts new model are presented in pastel red (rosso corsa) rather than in metallic colours. While a metallic colour more easily displays its true volume in a static image – and with more random or indirect light – pastel colours need carefully calibrated direct lighting.

During the first days of the actual shoot, people from Ferrari Brand Management and the Design Centre are normally present to examine and discuss the lighting details with the photographer and his team. These discussions often focus on small details of the design – eg: which curves to underline and materials to highlight, and the personality to bring alive. Each photo takes about one day of work, 95 per cent of which is spent on the lighting. An average of 50 lights are used for a single shot of the entire car. Most of the lighting is direct tungsten lighting – which is close to natural sunlight. A variety of other lighting sources are, however, used to underline the physical characteristics of specific materials, such as neon lights to show metal and curved carbon fibre panels; small so-called ‘dedolight’ which are particularly soft to highlight details, and yet other lights to best illustrate the CCM-brake discs or the car interior. To achieve one particular shot, five or six different shots with different lighting set-ups are normally made, which are subsequently put together in post-production. Sarotto has been using a digital camera for 11 years. Even though he admits there are still differences between film and digital photography, these differences are so minimal that film is no longer consider superior. More importantly, shooting with digital means we no longer experience the wastage and trial-and-error shooting that we used to experience with film. The digital camera Sarotto uses creates 60 megapixel images, which are of such quality that they can be blown up to very large sizes without experiencing a loss in quality (something that’s very important in car photography when you consider the distance required to shoot the entire vehicle). As for how much his camera equipment costs, Sarotto grins and says: ‘about the same as a Ferrari. One has to make choices in life’, although it is not entirely clear if he is convinced he made the right one.
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When all the images are taken, the next stage is ‘post-production’. Dark rooms are a thing of the past, and large Macintosh screens with Photoshop software have taken over. From the raw shots, the best exposures are taken and the shots with the different lighting set-ups are retouched together, rendering them homogenous. any defects in the images are corrected. At times it may be that a particular piece on the car was not yet available, so the image is corrected based on prototype parts/images. Interestingly, the screens on the dashboard are digitally reproduced on the computer as the camera does not capture them well. Other elements of the car, which seem different on a picture than they are in reality – such as the windows of the car, which tend to turn a green-blue colour – are also corrected to bring the picture closer to perceived reality.
Recently, some car manufacturers have turned to computer-generated images, based on the car’s CAD (computer-aided design) mathematical models. Ferrari has also experimented with this technique. When asked whether entirely computer-generated images will be able to fully take the place of an actual photo shoot, Sarotto is reflective. ‘There is no doubt in my mind that they will, but we are certainly not there yet. at least for still pictures, video is a different story. When compared with real pictures, computer-generated still images are not realistic; they lack volume and, strangely enough, the variations and defects of the real world. More importantly, the time to prepare a high-quality computer-generated image is two to three weeks, which is much longer than a normal photo’.

Finally we asked Sarotto in which way working for Ferrari is different from working for other car manufacturers. He smiles and says, ‘Well, a Ferrari is like no other car. Making a beautiful picture of something so beautiful is easy. i would do it for free!’ He then adds, ‘Working for Ferrari is in reality much more difficult for a photographer. First because of the pastel colour red, which requires a much more complicated lighting approach to make the car come out in a modern way: sporty, aggressive even, yet at the same time Ferrari pictures should exude an elegant and classical feeling. Most importantly, the people in Ferrari make it a challenge. They search for perfection and have attention to detail, which is clear from the performance of their cars and their results in racing. Believe it or not, they show the same perfection in the photo shoot! ‘For most other car manufacturers i only talk with the agency, which – in turn – talks with their client’s communication department. With Ferrari I have, instead, a very intense contact with many people in the company, from designers to communication people to engineers to top management. There is a lot of expertise, also in photo shoots. Pictures get checked in a very detailed way, from my direct contacts up until higher management, prior to being approved. And all are very knowledgeable about car design and photos, and care a lot about the result. really, for a photographer it’s a dream come true working with a client that cares so much about your work. In fact, it has made me grow as well.’