The rig shot has been the secret weapon of car photographers for a long time. Quite frankly, I can’t think of any better way to capture what cars are meant to do: move. For me, there’s nothing better than a good solid roller. The technique involves fixing an arm to the car with industrial suction cups and then hanging the camera out from the car via the arm. There are some pretty fancy systems out there too. For me, there’s nothing better than a good solid roller.

In order to capture motion in the photo, I drag the shutter (around 3.5 seconds is my sweet spot) and push the car, rig, and camera together. It’s a little bit of photo magic, but since the car and camera move together, the surrounding elements in the frame like the wheels, road, and background all become appropriately blurred. This is one of my favorite rig shots to date, and the image edited so easily and clean that I thought it would be fun to share a before and after comparison.

Granted there are some risks associated with hanging the camera from a pole attached to a moving car, but it’s always worth it for the shot. Check out my other rig shots in my Flickr album

Here’s a nifty .gif with the layer build up in Photoshop.