Light Painting of a 1964 Corvette
Time to share a cool light painting of a 1964 Corvette Stingray! I had the opportunity to light paint this Corvette on one of the last nice evenings in the fall of 2020. Our friends, Gary and Carol, have owned this classic car since 1993.
This is the second light painting that I’ve done of one of their Corvettes. Back in the summer of 2017, they let me “borrow” their other Corvette, a white 1977 Stingray nicknamed “Snow White”. I light painted her right here at our Portrait Park!
Light painted photograph of Gary and Carol’s 1977 Classic White Corvette “Snow White” in our Portrait Park.
That was my very first attempt at light painting an automobile after attending a week-long class on how to light paint with John Hartman in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It didn’t go very smoothly as it started to rain about an hour or so into the light painting. So I aborted the project and put Snow White in our garage and tried it again (successfully and rain-free) the following night!
Since Snow White was a captive audience that second night, I also created two other light paintings, one from the front and one from the back too. Why not, she was staying in my garage! I learned a lot about light painting cars that night and I have Gary and Carol to thank for that valuable experience!
The Story of Cyclone Cy
“Cyclone Cy” is the nickname that Gary has given his 1964 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe. It is painted in Riverside Red. “Cy” got its name from the fact that 1964 was the same year that Gary graduated from Iowa State University. Their mascot is Cy the Cardinal. Let’s just call it a late graduation present for Gary!
The “set-up” shot, just waiting for it to get dark so we could light paint.
Gary purchased the car in 1993 from a local dealer. Carol discovered it sitting in the dealer’s showroom when she took one of their cars in for repairs. After a test drive with his son-in-law and also having some friends look it over, it just followed him home!
The car was built with a Chevy 327 V8 with 300 horsepower that was a one-up option and a four-speed transmission. The only other option of note is an AM/FM radio which Gary says is pretty worthless due to the noise in the car. It’s been a good car that runs well most of the time. Over the years, Gary’s had to do a body off-frame restoration and a complete rebuild of the engine and transmission. He thinks of Cy as a “20-footer” rather than a show car meaning that from 20 feet away it looks great!
1964 Corvette Stingray Light Painting
We set it up for a Wednesday evening and the weather didn’t disappoint this time around. A perfect night, albeit a bit on the cool side (which means no mosquitoes!). I talked them into using their home as the backdrop for Cyclone Cy’s light painting. Gary and Carol have lived there “forever” so why not make it extra special and include their home in the artwork?
A cool light painting of Gary & Carol’s home along with “Cyclone Cy”.
Gary also asked me to light paint the front and back of the Corvette, just like I did when I light painted Snow White in 2017. So, this time, rather than using one camera and moving it around (in the dark) between the different light paintings, I set up three of my cameras on tripods before it got dark. Then, once I finished light painting from one angle, I just simply moved to the next camera angle and kept going. As you can see, it worked out really well! Here are those two light paintings!
Here’s the front end light painted photo of Cyclone Cy!
Here’s Cy from the back!
The (Short) Movie
I’ve put together two short “build videos” with the actual images that I used in creating all three of Gary’s 1964 Corvette Stingray Coupe light paintings. You’ll see each of them all come together, one photo and one layer at a time in Photoshop.
Thank you for reading our post and have a great one! – M&J