Motorcycle lighting...

Going Baroque wrote in post #12274005
Unless you are good with photoshop and don't mind spending the time to clean them up on the computer, I would zoom in to get a good look at all the reflections of the light source/s before you pack it up.

I am shooting a motorcycle on Saturday

Kechar wrote in post #12251862
Almost thinking the white sheet with the Es behind AND then pop the AB400 wide straight at it from the front to put some bling in the chrome?

Thanx for the advice all!!!

Give it a try if you think it's the look you want! I'd be careful with this though, as the firing of strobes back into the camera, even diffused through a sheet, can reduce your contrast and flare a lot.

As far as the overhead sheet thing goes, I'm glad to hear your sentiment...in college, I was, like about everyone else, on a ramen budget, but I had the opportunity to shoot a bike, and I wanted to get the soft, non-specular look that would show off the curves of the bike. Went to Target, bought a king-size sheet for $9.99, duct tape for $5, because I didn't have lightstands/assistants to hold it, took it to a parking garage, and used the two speedlights I had (Vivitar 285's), bouncing them off the ceiling, and got (what I think) was a gorgeous photograph. I only had 2 light stands, which I used to hold up 1 side of the sheet, so I duct taped one of my speedlights to the garage wall, and put the camera on timer, jogged over and held the other speedlight myself. The old college try

This thread is making me want to try this again... I think I'll pull out the 20 x 10 muslin and try this on my photography mule tomorrow, time permitting
It'd be great to see your results too!

There's a guy that started doing bike phhotos before digital, but since he's gone digital, he basically does HDR for every single bike shot.

I forget his name, but I saw a special on him somewhere a year or so back. He takes one frame exposing for the tank, then another for the seat, another for the wheels, another for the chrome, another for the motor, another for the babe, another for the background... maybe a second for the background..... All to make sure that he can pull all the detail of every aspect of the bike out.

^^ Way too much Ps for my taste, but that's one way to get a lot of detail