Light Painting a 1958 Porsche 356A 1600 Speedster
On our recent trip to Florida, Joannie and I had the opportunity to light paint a mint-condition 1958 Porsche 356A 1600 Speedster. This would be our very first Porsche light painting project. You know the old saying, “Go big, or go home!” Well, we definitely went BIG on this one! This rare and beautiful automobile is just stunning!
Here’s Joannie, holding our iPad Pro, which is displaying the setup image for the Porsche light painting. Once it got dark out, we got to work!
This cool project came about at this year’s Cars on 5th Concours d’Elegance Jetport Reception. The Jetport Reception is a very special event that’s held the night before the car show. And once again this year, it was held at the Northern Jet hangar at Naples Airport. More on this wonderful charity event shortly.
We set up a planning meeting for Super Bowl Sunday, the morning after Cars on 5th. That morning, we discussed ideas for the project and then set a date for the actual light painting for the following Sunday night.
2026 Cars on 5th Jetport Reception
The 2026 Cars on 5th JetPort Reception was the elegant kick-off event for the Naples Automotive Experience. “Petals to the Pedals” was the theme for 2026. The reception, and the entire weekend, for that matter, served as a major fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity of Collier County.
Some really cool cars, as well as an EC 130 B4 helicopter on display during the 2026 Jetport Reception.
The Jetport Reception featured private jets, a helicopter, several high-end vehicles, and a whole lot more! There were rare supercars on display, such as a Maserati MC12 and a Bugatti Mistral. This was a wonderful fund-raising event featuring silent and live auctions, as well as gourmet food and great live music, and much more!
Other than the fact that it was pretty chilly that Friday night (like most of the country was in early February), it was a fabulous evening!
One of the evening’s highlights was the induction ceremony for Miles Collier into the Automotive Hall of Fame!
Here’s Joannie (trying to stay warm) in our light painting tent at the Jetport Reception. It certainly was chilly in Florida in early February this year. Thankfully, as Minnesotans, we had the proper clothing to stay warm!
1958 Porsche 356A 1600 Speedster
The 1958 Porsche 356A 1600 Speedster is a highly desirable, iconic sports car. Some of the key features on this wonderful vehicle include a low-cut, removable windshield, bucket seats, and dual Zenith carburetors. It has an independent front suspension with torsion bars, rear swing axles, and 4-wheel hydraulic drum brakes.
From Old To New Again
In the sixties, this 58 Porsche found itself in Colorado. The owner at the time repainted it green and fitted it with Empi wheels and a Bursch exhaust. It was driven sparingly in the 60s and 70s, and a handwritten odometer notation on the back of a windshield registration sticker showed just 12,388 miles.
The 1600 Speedster then slipped into long-term storage and remained tucked away for over 40 years. In the late 2010s, a new owner acquired the long‑dormant car. Choosing preservation over transformation, they revived its mechanics but left its decades of patina untouched.
Just a few years later, a new owner acquired the car. They wanted to return the Porsche 356A Speedster to its former elegance with a full restoration back to the original specification.
Today, with just over 13,000 miles on the odometer, this stunning 58 Porsche 356A 1600 Speedster once again embodies its allure – retaining its original body panels, GT gas tank, and components, all restored to the dramatic black exterior and exceedingly rare beige interior with black piping that made it so distinctive from the moment it left the factory in 1958.
Here’s the perfect interior of the Porsche. It is believed that this is the only ’58 built that way from the factory with that color combination.
Light Painting the 1958 Porsche 356A 1600 Speedster
Joannie and I arrived at the location and began setting up all of our gear. Then, once we had the Porsche 1600 in place, we took several images from different angles and focal lengths to help us make the decision as to where the final camera position should be.
We wanted it to be all about the car, so we employed a fairly tight crop. Once we were happy with the setup, we waited for it to get dark enough to begin the light painting process.
About 30 minutes before sunset, we got underway, using our strobes to light paint the setting around the car. Using strobes allows us to get started before it’s dark enough to employ long exposures.
The Dreaded Dew Point
Just after sunset, we got to work on light painting the ’58. It wasn’t as dark out as I would have liked, but I feared having a wet car, so we got going. I’m so glad we did, too, because it wasn’t long before we hit the dew point. Over the last year or so, it seems like we can’t ever create an outdoor light painting project without the dew point messing with us.
Besides getting ahead of the dew point, one of the other benefits of starting before it was totally dark out was that I could retain the warm ambient light from the sunset. I really love the beautiful, soft look it gives to the finished artwork! You can even see the glowing post-sunset sky in the mirror-like wheel covers!
It’s Shammy Time!
As we were getting everything set up, I thought we might be safe on this project because it was fairly breezy out. A consistent breeze usually keeps the dew away. Well, as it often does, as the sun set, the breeze went away.
Shortly after beginning to light paint the car, the fenders, hood, and windshield started getting wet. To combat the situation, we brought out a big bundle of shammies and worked very hard to dry off the car.
Here you can see just how wet the Porsche got (as well as the bundle of shamies we used to dry it off)!
The dew was so bad that we had to light-paint the Porsche in small sections. We’d dry off a very small portion, and then I’d make a quick pass with the light while Joannie quickly triggered the camera – hopefully before the 1600 Speedster became wet again. It felt like it might be a lost cause because the car’s surface had dew on it, it seemed, almost immediately after whipping it off! But we kept at it!
After employing that process for a while, I felt that we’d gone as far as we could because the dew on the Porsche was only getting worse. I was just hoping that we did indeed have the images needed to create the Master File in post-production once we got back home to the studio.
The Back-Up Plan
While all of this was happening, I was thinking that we might have to improvise. A possible solution was to place the car back in the nice warm garage to dry off. Then, re-light paint it all over again, right there in the garage. In post-production, I could take that light painting’s Master File, cut it out, and place it in the setting, replacing the wet version.
So, just as a precaution, that’s exactly what we did. However, I’m so very happy to say that all of our hard work drying the car off and then quickly taking exposures worked! I did not have to use that image at all!
Here’s the finished artwork! This ’58 Porsche Speedster is a real gem!
1958 Porsche 356A 1600 Speedster – The Movie
As always, I’ve created a short “Build Video” for our YouTube channel that features the images that were used to create the 1958 Porsche 356A 1600 Speedster light painting. The link to view that short movie is below.
Of the 220 images that we took that evening, over 50 of them, and 78 individual layers, were used to create the final Master File.
One More Thing
If you enjoyed this cool Porsche 1600 Speedster light painting project, please take a look at all of our other projects on our dedicated Light Painting Photography website at: www.MichaelAndersonLightPainting.com
Thank you! – M&J