If you analyze many of the high-end car advertisements in magazines, online and on TV you will notice that many of them are made out-of-doors under a somewhat overcast sky, in open shade and early or late in the day near sunrise and sunset. This kind of lighting produces even lighting, void of hotspots and distracting reflections, and if the vehicle is strategically placed, the good, even and smooth highlight will emphasize the LINES of the car or truck.

I realize that on the day of the shoot, you may not have exact control over the weather situation or the location of each car, where possible, you can look out for the aforementioned lightg conditions.

Obviously, the attached image, extracted from the Mazda website, is a studio shot but as you can tell from the shadow under the car, the soft ligh is coming in from overhead and is emphasizing the lies of the car with good specular highlights. If the natural skylight is available, you can easily replicate the kind of lighting effect. Slight backlighting from above is effective as well.

Try to keep the background simple and uncluttered or a scene in keeping with the age of the car.

Use a normal or slightly longer than the normal focal length to avoid distortion of the car's shape and lines.

If you shoot at sunrise or sunset and can pick up dramatic skies- that can work too. Even if there are reflections in the windshield or the paint job, that can be a nice effect.

If the event is organized by your club, you may be able to find an ideal location as per background and lighting.

Some years ago, I was called in to design a cyclorama and lighting system for shooting cars on a floating background. We bounced over 10,000 watt-seconds off of a white ceiling and further diffused the light with giant sheets of sailcloth sewn together- all to simulate a soft sky lighting!

You can try it out in advance of the shoot. If the Fall colours are out in your neighbourhood- which would be
nice, take a drive in the country on a good day and do some test shots!

Old dude with some "big" guns here. Well- I do still work out 3-time each week but the muscles ain't what used to be "guns", nowadays, and have taken on a new meaning!

Good luck on the shoot- sounds like fun!

Our local area Mazda Miata club president reached out to us members looking for who are photography enthusiasts, Pros, whatever, for advice and help. He is looking to organize a club photography shoot for us members and their cars. Now my experience, and I told him, is the lighting and setting location which affects the reflections off the car. This is something he is looking to do and seeking advice on setting, location type etc. So, me being dude with a couple of cameras, told him I would reach out to 'big guns' for some feedback. So here I am posting this post looking for thoughts, feedback, comments, just throw be some bones Hoggers on whaddya think ?
Sir Bruce tha loose.

Our local area Mazda Miata club president reached out to us members looking for who are photography enthusiasts, Pros, whatever, for advice and help. He is looking to organize a club photography shoot for us members and their cars. Now my experience, and I told him, is the lighting and setting location which affects the reflections off the car. This is something he is looking to do and seeking advice on setting, location type etc. So, me being dude with a couple of cameras, told him I would reach out to 'big guns' for some feedback. So here I am posting this post looking for thoughts, feedback, comments, just throw be some bones Hoggers on whaddya think ?
Sir Bruce tha loose.