Abstract motorcycle art

Motorcycle Art or Photography?

Here is an unusual take on Motorcycle Photography, this slightly surreal picture is a top down view of a Triumph Bonneville’s fuel tank. To get this shot, the camera was mounted onto a tripod which has an arm that extends horizontally.

A black background was set on the floor and the sides of the bike illuminated using the ‘light painting’ technique. Two light sticks were used in separate exposures, which create a neon like glow. Cropping the photograph in tight adds to the overall effect.

Light Painting a Triumph Thunderbird

Light Painting a Triumph Thunderbird

Motorcycle Photography: Light Painting a Thunderbird.

This photograph is the initial result from a ‘Light Painting’ motorcycle photography shoot using a Triumph Thunderbird.

The image has been saved ‘as is’ but could form the basis of another project to cut out and replace the background; maximising the potential opportunities offered by digital photography and modern post processing techniques.

Want to give motorbike the Light Painting treatment? Well if you live in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, or Avon and Somerset; please feel free to get in touch.

 

Motorcycle Photography Light Painting Project: 2

Light Painting Project: Triumph Bonneville

Light Painting Project: Part 2 – Triumph Bonneville

The above photograph is the result of having used the ‘Light Painting’ technique to capture this image of a Triumph Bonneville SE. You may have read in the previous post how attempting to capture an image in one 30 second exposure caused the photographs to look drab and underexposed. Whilst I may have been able to tweak things in Photoshop, I’ve decided to show you  those first shots so we can see the difference when multiple exposures are used.

Light Painting involves using a light source [1] to ‘paint’ in sections of the bikes detail using long exposures. These can typically be between 10 to 30 seconds or longer. However the difference in the image on this page compared to those in the previous post is that this wasn’t achieved by one exposure, but rather eight separate exposures where different sections of the bike were illuminated each time.

Once the multiple exposures are imported into Photoshop, it then becomes a matter of layering and blending them to achieve the desired effect.

Whilst the above bike photograph is pleasing, it can also be used as a starting point for something more elaborate, something more artistic.

Step 2: Light Painting Project art work

Step 2: Here we see the project start to develop into something more like a poster.

To carry off this sort of picture art work convincingly, you need to pay attention to things like the colour tone and brightness of the  added art work. For example the lightning has had a slight blue tone added to match the cool feel of the overall photograph.

This second version formed the basis the project and had all the elements in place, but it still wasn’t quite right?

The skull artwork is too prominent in the above photograph and also the lighting on the ‘face’ doesn’t match in with the overall scheme of things.

Step 3: Below is the final finished version with some subtle revisions having been made. The Skull has been resized, repositioned and toned down to make it less prominent. The aspect has also been changed to make it seem as if it is gazing at the bike.

Lastly, but also very importantly; the skull artwork was edited to take into account the lighting effect that was desired. By that I mean that right hand side (as we look at it) has been taken into shadow, which creates the effect that the light source is coming from the lightening. That attention to detail has also been carried out on the hood. Notice how the sides of the hood facing away from the light source are now in shadow.

These very subtle changes convey information that makes the picture more plausible and so have quite an impact on the finished product.

Step 3: Final image with adjustments.

Notes:

[1] The light source can be almost anything, from a strobe flashgun on larger projects to smaller LED pen light torches. It was the latter that I used for this shoot.

 

Motorcycle Photography Light Painting Project: 1

Light painting technique

Motorcycle Photography: Light painting.

Here we have an example of the ‘Light Painting’ technique. The subject used was a Triumph Bonneville SE photographed using a Nikon D700 mounted on a tripod with a 30 second exposure, f16, ISO 1000. The light source was a small hand held pencil torch used sparingly to ‘paint’ in the detail. With this method of bike photography, sometimes more is less and the generous use of what in photography terms is called Negative Space, adds an edgy feel to the photograph.

Motorcycle Photography South West

However these photographs represent a first attempt at this slightly tricky technique and the resulting images look flat and underexposed. Using an effect called tone mapping during the post production also hasn’t helped.

It was done to deliberately try and inject a cool feeling, but has in fact contributed to the images looking drab.

The other main problem was I had tried to capture the image in one 30 second exposure and that is not good practice.

To see how the project progressed and the changes made to improve the outcome, read the second part: Motorcycle Photography Light Painting Project: 2