The bike shot

I've been on at my brother John for a long time to bring his bike over so that I can photograph him (well the bike really because when Mum and Dad were handing out the good looks lets just say I got first dibs!). Its one of his pride and joys so I wanted to do it real justice.

I've had this lighting idea in mind for a long time and have been keen to give it a whirl. Basically I want to get John to appear out of the blackness behind the bike which is strongly (but softly) lit with a nice cool light. To get the effect of him appearing out of the darkness I really only want to highlight two features - his face (one that only his Mother could love - just kidding) and his helmet, 'cause it matches the colour of the bike.


Well lets just say that at the first attempt this didn't work out quite as I wanted it to. Trying to do this indoors with limited space meant I couldn't get the light to drop off as I wanted. No matter we took the time to get some really cool specular highlights on the silver and black of the bike.


To do this we had two shoot through umbrellas at each end of the bike both gelled with CTB (colour temperature blue) gels. To give the bike separation from the background we put two strobes behind, again with CTBs on them. This made the bike stand out nicely.


Things we could do to improve the shot? For a start if the floor were painted black we could have had a more seamless look but we couldn't wait around for the paint to dry on this occasion. Shoot it out doors with a long lens so that we could get the light on the bike and John lit as we wanted. We will come back again and have a go with more time.

How do I see myself?

This is the theme for a self portrait project that Drew Preston (one of DiMAGE photography's photogs) has been working on recently. The final outcome will be Drew's entry into the National Portrait Gallery of Australia's Headspace9: Self identities - making connections exhibition.

Drew has chosen a technically challenging set up for his self portrait by photographing himself reflecting on his image in a mirror. I asked him about his thoughts behind the image.

"I thought that this was a good way to express the theme of the exhibition. Your self identity to me is how you see yourself because you know who you are and what your identity is. The very act of making an image of a self portrait and having others view it creates a connection with your audience."

I asked him how he went about setting up this shot.

"To capture this image I used four strobes (flashes). One was on either side of me at the front facing back toward me. These both had snoots on them to direct the light on to my face. They both had blue gels on them to give the image a cool feel, as if it were dark when the photo was taken. To get the back of my shirt lit I placed the third strobe (flash) directly behind me using a Lumiquest III softbox. Finally I placed the last strobe (flash) behind the mirror with a dark blue gel on it to provide the halo effect around the mirror. To get this to work properly I stuck two pieces of aluminium foil folded so that the light was reflected out to the sides and the top of the mirror."


The image here shows the set up that Drew used to get this image.