custom bike shoot
- This topic has 9 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated Jul 29, 2011 at 11:32 am by
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It’s friday afternoon, I’m sick of working, and haven’t posted any content here in quite a while. Here are some shots from a father/son team that buy old bikes, and rebuild them all custom. Pretty sweet stuff. They were friends with a guy at a local scrap yard – a spot i’ve always thought would make a great shoot, and got us access to shoot for a couple hours.
Man those are killer…
Excellent lighting, would love to see the lighting diagram?
Thanks for the look in.
Mike, most of them were basically shot with one or two alien bees set to each side and acting as fill with the sun in the background. The first one, I staggered the lights down the line of bikes, so there was fairly even light down the line. The second and third had a light to each side, and slightly behind the subject. I used just the 7″ reflectors for a lot of them since i needed all the power i could get to kill the ambient when the sun was still up. Once the sun set, I put a shoot thru umbrella on one of them for the front light, and was using the bare 7″ reflector as a back light. On most of them, you can see some of the shadows to get an idea on the light placement. The 7″ reflectors can be a little harsh, but I thought it actually worked pretty good considering the subject.
I’m still learning a lot with the off camera flash, and looking at some of the shots now, some seem a little overlit. But, when you get it right, there is definitely a different look to the images that can’t be achieved with natural light.
Here is the one setup shot i took – need to remember to take a few more next time.
Agreed – great stuff!
Just recently bought a bike myself (Yamaha FJR1300) and about to head out of Texas on a run west – Phoenix, San Diego, L.A., San Francisco, Reno, Yosemite, then – not sure yet how I’m heading back…can’t wait.
Kendal (…yeah, not been posting much, but am getting back in the groove after some surgery downtime)
Eric nice stuff – images and bikes. Just bought one of these plus chaps a leather thong and waistcoat :)))) so I can relate :))))
http://yamaha-motor.ca/products/products.php?color=SL&model=2912&group=M
Will
I’m still learning a lot with the off camera flash, and looking at some of the shots now, some seem a little overlit. But, when you get it right, there is definitely a different look to the images that can’t be achieved with natural light.
Great shots Eric and well done for steeping on the natural light !
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
I’ll take a look at some of the silver brolly’s too… Any other advice on modifiers? I have a 28″ sb, a cheapy 50″ sb, a couple of Alienbees shoot thru 60″ umbrella/PLM’s. What’s the big deal with the octaboxes – I see a lot of people raving about them?
The Octa light IMHO (original Elinchrom) is by far the best light shaper you can get – I use mine about 80% of the time.
Price is another matter.. ::)
There are some cheaper copies getting around and also a few really big brollies that seem cheep enough.
FWIW, there’s two kinds of softbox, direct where the flash fires out of the front of the box through a diffuser and indirect where the flash fires back into the box and if reflected out through the diffuser.
The direct box has more punch and would be better for lighting larger spaces and things and the indirect is really good for close up portraits.
(That said, the size of the box is a big factor in it’s look as well.)The original Octa is indirect with a silver lining and has two diffusers that can be removed to make it just a big brolly.
You could get the same sort of effect with some of the cheapie silver brollies with white diffusers I’ve seen around.The thing I like the most about Octa lights though, is it’s the only light you need for most shoots and that saves a lot of set-up time.
Another thing to look at would be beauty dishes.
Silver for things and white or silver for people.
A dish has a harder grade from highlight to shadow (generally) than an brolly so they are a little less forgiving, but more dramatic.
The dish is also great on location because they’re rigid and the wind wont damage them – I’ve had them up in some seriously bad weather and with a couple shot bags had no problem.Here’s a couple Octa light samples.
This one is with the light a few feet away from the subject for a softer look –
In this sort of shot the Octa light has no equal IMHO.
And here’s one with the Octa about a foot out of the shot and at a hard angle from the side.
This is about as hard as they get.
There’s lots of lights will do this sort of look, but few will be as forgiving with the light so close.
And here’s a couple from a white beauty dish.
This is with the light a long way back and used as just a fill light to keep detail in a backlit shot.
We didn’t want hard shadows or background.
The white dish has no equal in this sort of shot IMHO.
Last, the dish but very close and at a hard angle.
Sorry I don’t have any examples of bikes – I’ve been begging the wife for a new W800 with no success.. :'( ;D
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
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