BBDO Beijing commissioned the Australian transportation photographer and GoSee member Darren Capp with T&W International to shoot four motifs of the MERCEDES BENZ E400L. The E 400 Long vehicle, which boasts 338 PS and is supported by a 27-PS electro-motor, is sold exclusively in China – and also manufactured there.
"The images of the E400L project the esteemed, powerful nature of the successful - in business and life - in China. But the images are not as they seem. Due to the uncertain winter weather of Beijing and the time-frame involved the shoot was completed in a grey full-cyclorama studio in Beijing. With the weather hovering around freezing, achieving the look of the cars being outdoors took a lot of planning, skill & lighting.
To create the natural realism of outdoors, reflections on panels are crucial so images of the backgrounds were projected onto the studio walls & white flats. Building up these many images across all the panel planes required patients as a small area of panel can reflect a huge area of the studio. Lighting needed to look natural and coming from the one light source. Darren needed to keep in mind how the sun would work it’s magic in an outdoor setting. To achieve this, complicated lighting set ups where required for many areas of the car’s panels. At times you could hardly see the car for the stands, black velvet & lights. Once all this is captured the task of putting it all together falls to the retouchers at T&W International and art direction of Martin Gruenhoff…"
