An E-Type Photoshoot – How we captured our 1967 Jaguar Series 1 Racing E-Type for Auction

Our 1967 Jaguar E-Type Racing Series 1 is for sale by auction right now on Car & Classic.

To prepare for this, Tom and Myself headed over to the former RAF Bentwaters to shoot the car during the worst flooding scene in our area for nearly 40 years.

After gently driving the road-going racer across the site and into the infamous Hush House (the former engine test facility when the base was active). After getting the car in position, we took our time to carefully clean down the car ready for the shoot. It looked incredible under the down lights in the stark and industrial building, a complete contrast against its vibrant and eye catching Volcano Orange paintwork. After the car was cleaned down, we head into the control room where so many test engineers had gone before and hit the lights…

This wasn’t going to be like any other shoot though. We had decided to try something different and really push ourselves creatively in a short amount of time. Thinking back to the incredible photo shoot with our Chevron Formula 2 car, which had been shot by Freddie several years before in the same place, we decided to capture the racing E-Type using long exposures and carefully painting light across the bodywork and accents of the car as well as trying light painting through the background to give it a little more of an ethereal, artistic feel.

Here are some of the results:

Using our tripod and the cameras exposures set to around between 10 and 30 seconds, with the cameras light sensitivity turned all the way down. We began capturing the exterior shots of the car. With myself on the controls of the camera and Tom armed with a single diffused studio light (connected to a portable power pack), we began to slow work our way around the car using the studio light to paint the light over certain areas of the car to give it correct exposure but also to amplify the wonderful form and curves of the vintage E-Type.

Because of the amount of moisture in the air (we shot this at the height of the local storms, and hence why the car was shot inside) the headlights remained fogged up which adds to the vicious look of this road-going racer.

To capture the detail shots of the car, or ‘beauties’ as we refer to them here in the marketing department, we adopted the same approach of carefully dancing the highlights across the bodywork after triple checking the triple checks to make sure the focus was laser sharp on the area we needed.

Things like the Monza filler, a distinct feature on our E-Type, or the quintessential rear lights all had to be captured this way. Although more time consuming, allowed us to achieve the best result. For a few hours, it was a case of systematically going through every angle and aspect of the car with Tom, to capture everything that we needed. The trickiest part of the shoot, was actually the interior.

Because most the interior is covered by the roof, it tends to be the darkest aspect of the car. It’s also the easiest part to be able to see reflections in as almost from every angle you have a glass surface.

Once all of the essential photos were ticked off the list, it gave myself and Tom a bit of time to experiment with some more ‘artistic’ style shots to round off the shoot and add a sense of flair to this one of a kind classic.

Continuing with the use of long exposures to capture enough light to correctly show the car but also show off the menacing and purposeful character of our E-Type, we decided to play with highlights and framing. Using the torches on our smart phones, we worked our way round the car at speed to highlight the haunches and lines, while also creating patterns and shapes to display the car inside of what was essentially a stark and empty background.

The results, are something that we as a team are very proud of capturing for the auction of the car with our friends at Car & Classic.

Also, we offer full photo shoots with your pride and joy by the team here at Bridge Classic Cars. Click here and inquire.