Lighting a Bicycle

I have been asked to shoot a bicycle to capture the unique color scheme, multiple colors that fade into each other, etc. Also, to capture some of the fine detail and craftsmanship. Of course, the frame is made of round tubes.

I have the book, Light Science and Magic, but I can not seem to find a suitable example and asking all of you seems to be more efficient as I always get great answers from this forum, so, any suggestions?

I have four monolights and multiple modifiers - should I use a reflector, soft boxes, umbrellas, or bounced lighting? Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to experiment, so any help in getting me started in the right direction would be great appreciated.
Al

Hello

You have probably discovered the problems of getting your lights outside the family of angles because of the round tubes heading in different directions; thus you will easily get reflections that could destroy the colors.

A light tent (a pretty large one!) or a large white room with lights bouncing off the walls or going outside on a cloudy day could make light diffuse enough.

For fine details and crftmansship, it depends on how they are shaped, but you will have to try to get the light outside the family of angles if reflections are unwanted. Maybe try polarizers if nothing else works.

Franklin Al said:

I have been asked to shoot a bicycle to capture the unique color scheme, multiple colors that fade into each other, etc. Also, to capture some of the fine detail and craftsmanship. Of course, the frame is made of round tubes.

I have the book, Light Science and Magic, but I can not seem to find a suitable example and asking all of you seems to be more efficient as I always get great answers from this forum, so, any suggestions?

I have four monolights and multiple modifiers - should I use a reflector, soft boxes, umbrellas, or bounced lighting? Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to experiment, so any help in getting me started in the right direction would be great appreciated.
Al

Click to expand...

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Thanks for the input, very helpful, I will be shooting in a garage with white ceiling, white walls, and white seamless BG, so I could point my lights to bounce off all the surfaces instead of direct light. I will definitely give that a try
Al

Not really much to do w/ lighting, but align the pedals w/ the chainstays (the 2 thin pieces of the frame that run parallel to the chain). FWIW.

The most practical and feasible idea is bouncing on the walls. Ideally if you had really large softboxes (bigger than the bike) You could control the reflections better and have more creative options on where you want to place your highlights. For the detail shots you should have no problem with standard sized soft boxes
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Thanks for all the advice, including the "posing" advice, I had not even considered the proper position of the pedals! Now, I am going to have to look at every bike catalog to see if the pedals are in the proper position!
Thanks,
Al

It would also be helpful to include close-ups of logos, insignias, and the bottom bracket (the part that holds the crank) seen from the bottom up. If it's a nice road or mountain bike, the components (Shimano, SRAM, Campognolo) & their level (105, Ultegra, Dura-Ace, Chorus, Record) should be shown as well.

Here's a link w/ some possible ideas. It's obvious that I shot these when I was just starting out in photography, but this 11-year old bike sold in less than 12 hours on C/L, so maybe I did something right for once!

http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q100/lx93/Bike%20Bianchi%20CDI%201997%20sold%20in%2012%20hours%20Craigslist/

Now for REAL bike photography, check out Graham Watson's site:
http://www.grahamwatson.com/

One thing to try is to combine multiple images with different lighting in each image. In other words, set the lighting for each individual part of the bike to bring out a particular color or feature, then combine the images in PhotoShop. As long as you don't move the camera or the bike, it should be easy to align the images. A friend of a friend shoots cars like this in a large studio.
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Well, since today all I did was taking photos of bikes, just my experience.

Volume, most important, in my opinion. Round tubes do tend to show good volume if illuminated from top/bottom, or front and decay to dark on the edges. First is easier.

Place the biggest softbox (better if larger than the length of bike) you have on top of bike. This is main light, and will produce the volume at top tube and, if placed well, the downtube. Depending on the top highlight on the toptube, you can push the softbox before or after the bike, controlling the wideness of the reflection.

If you're working with seamless background, push some length of paper in front of you, and let the light decay at this portion of the paper. This will make the bottom reflection on the top/downtubes. If necessary lift the ends of the paper, this way controlling the decay of light in the downtube.

Then, the problem are the headtube and seat tube, that are diagonal (assuming normal double triangle frame), so place a softbox or striplight at the front of the bike, making a highlight at these tubes. Place a piece of enough length foamcore at the bike, illuminated by the front softbox, rounding the head/seat tubes.

Now, chainstays and seatstays. First will be illuminated by top main softbox, if long enough, else another softbox on top, in angle so to make highlight at top of tube. It's tricky to get both sides with same light, but usually I disregard the back stay, since it's covered by the transmission. Seatstays are trickier, but usually at this point I'm bottomed out on boxes, so I choose to use the last one in the seatstays instead of chainstays.

Now, with all this, all I need to do is with some foamcore to get reflections wherever I need it to (logos, brand, etc) just to push detail.

One last thing, I hate chrome, they are more wok than they're worth. Lots of foamcore flying around.

If you're to do a fast and dirty shoot, then one top softbox (BIG) and foamcore on both sides to fill with some reflections should do the trick.

Regards

Thank you for that very detailed response, I will try to use all of your suggestions!
Al

As someone who has spent way too much time on bicycle-related forums, there are a few things cyclists want to see in photos of a bike:

1. If a multi-speed bike, put it in the highest gear (largest chainring on the crank, smallest cog in the rear). If nothing else, this gives a nice vertical position of the rear derailler and allows you to highlight the chain on the big chainring. Make sure the chain is clean (hopefully the owner took care of this).

2. If you are shooting one side of the bike, always shoot the crank side (the right side). The back side of cranksets is never finished as nicely as the front. No one wants to see unpolished aluminum/poorly finished carbon fiber.

3. If the bike has lugs (separate cast pieces joining the main tubes together), make sure you feature them in the pics. The more detailed they are (paint/polish/sculpting), the more pictures they deserve. Head tube (front of triangle) and seat tube (rear of triangle where seat pot is inserted) lugs are generally going to be where the fine details are.

4. Not only should you align the crank arms to the chain stays (or down tube, photographers choice), position the valve stems on the wheels symmetrically (both at bottom or top or at the same mirrored angle). Don't hide them when you process the photos. Hopefully the tire logos are lined up with the valve stems already.

5. Some hand built frames will have fine engraving on the main frame tubing or seat post and will typically have very detailed drop outs for the rear wheels (the part of the frame where the rear wheel mounts). This is one shot where it might makes sense to shoot from the left side of the bike as you'll have a cleaner view.

No lighting advice to give as I'm only reading this forum to learn at this point.

You might find some of this guy's photos inspiring: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=421953

Link from a few days ago. Might help you with the tubes...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1025&message=35951577

Joe
Westerville, Ohio Photographer
http://www.jcimageworks.com

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With all of your input, these are three of the results. Let me know what you think. My friend is happy, I am happy, but I know there are things that could be improved - controlling the glare on skinny tubes that are oriented in multiple directions is a challenge. One thing I really can't determine is how the lighting on the chain fell off so abruptly from left to right

Al

I really like these shots. Very clean looking.

I wonder if some careful placement of narrow strips of black foamcore board would have reduced or eliminated some of the bright highlights on the shinny tubing.
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Lawrence

...I think you did a good job...since you haven't mentioned if this is for any type of commercial use I will comment from that stand point...

...the saddle and casette are too hot and I would like to see a little more detail in the handlebars...aside from that, I would like to see the the entire image be more dynamic...right now it is just a flat straight on image of a bicycle which would work as a catalog insert but not as a featured image...the overall look strikes me as a bit dated...

I would make the image much more dynamic by shooting it from a different perspective and make use of grids and flags to control the light in order to create interest in the the lighting to match the angle...

...what you have now is good but I think you can take it to another level...

I might be the only person who this bothers, but a drop bar bicycle shot from too low produces awkward looking handlebars, especially ergo (as opposed to classic which feature a smooth bend radius) bend bars like those used on this bike. I find that a shot taken from a higher viewpoint or a viewpoint that completely hides the opposite side of the handlebar is much more flattering (reference the product shots at http://www.specialized.com under Road bikes).

Otherwise, that's a VERY sweet build and I love the reflection on the full bike photo.

Thanks for the nice comments, I only had this bike for about an hour and didn't have time to experiment but many I will try your suggestion with my own bike for future reference

Thanks for the input, I agree 100%. I was worried about the paint job and didn't watch for the saddle, cassette, etc.

Here is another shot from another angle that I did not post before, do you think this is a better view?

joejack951 said:

I might be the only person who this bothers, but a drop bar bicycle shot from too low produces awkward looking handlebars, especially ergo (as opposed to classic which feature a smooth bend radius) bend bars like those used on this bike. I find that a shot taken from a higher viewpoint or a viewpoint that completely hides the opposite side of the handlebar is much more flattering (reference the product shots at http://www.specialized.com under Road bikes).

Otherwise, that's a VERY sweet build and I love the reflection on the full bike photo.

Click to expand...

As I told Sam, I was so concentrated on the paint job, I totally missed some things. Your point about the handlebars is well taken. I love this forum, so many new eyes to see things I didn't see

Thanks, and yes it is a sweet build, the owner put gearing on it that will get her up the steepest climbs we have in middle Tennessee

Al