Triumph Bonneville joins the jet set
Triumph Bonneville: Flying High.
This photograph is of a Triumph Bonneville SE 2012 with an aircraft hanger as a background. The cool colour qualities of this setting create almost a black and white feel to the photo, which allows the warm colours of the bike to stand out to good effect.
Also the Bonneville is a retro bike, which looks good set against a modern jet set backdrop.
Light trails
Street lights: Photograph depicting a Triumph Thunderbird 900 stood beside a highway back light by passing traffic light trails.
Triumph Thunderbird goes urban
This shot depicts a Triumph Thunderbird 900 on an urban grunge style photo shoot which features atmospheric lighting. The predominantly silver/blue/grey backdrop to this image blends in beautifully with the bike. Even the two people walking away in the distance blend in, the red coat picking up with the red/maroon paint on the bikes fuel tank.
I’m looking for more bikes to photograph as subjects, so if you live in the South West, particularly Exeter, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, then drop me a line. I’m looking for some stunning examples of either customised bikes or Harley Davidsons.
Bonneville on a blended background
Here’s an example of Motorcycle Photography made into poster artwork by using blended layers to form the final image. In this picture a total of three photographs were used to create this slightly surreal looking effect.
BikePix covers Devon, Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset.
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.
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.
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
Motorcycle Photography Editing
Motorcycle Photography: Editing techniques.
Here we have a photograph of a Triumph Thunderbird photographed outside of Greenway House, a famous National Trust property which was once the home of Agatha Christie.
The bike looked good against the cream wall, but now has a different ‘grunge’ feel to it after textured layers were added and then blended in Photoshop. This style of post processing editing would also work well for motorcycles photographed in an urban setting.
Motorcycle photography on location
Motorcycle Photography:
This photograph of a Triumph Bonneville 2012 SE shows quite nicely the importance of choosing the right location for the back drop to compose your picture. Of course this only applies to motorcycle photographers who specialise in working on location as opposed to studio work.
In the example above the track gives nice depth to the picture and the recently cut straw field provides a nice pale yellow background.
The camera used was a Nikon D700 with a f2.8 24 – 70 Nikkor lens. The lens was set to f4 giving enough depth of field to retain detail on the bike, whilst still giving the background a pleasing soft focus effect.
Motorcycle photography bar end mirrors
Here the lines formed by the background seem to compliment the bike. The handlebars line up with the edge of the field, the petrol tank sits in the band of green grass and the black saddle sits over the grey track. Whilst all these elements are subtle, they are definitely things to consider when photographing motorcycles on location.
Triumph Bonneville side view
Triumph Bonneville SE photo shoot
Here we have a Triumph Bonneville SE motorcycle 2012 model photographed on location.
This was a four flash gun shoot set up under a railway bridge.
The camera used for this bike photography session was a Nikon D700 teamed with a Nikkor 24 – 70mm f2.8 lens. The lighting was set up using four Nikon SB strobe units, wirelessly controlled with Pocket Wizard’s.
Motorcycle photography and video for fun 