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Hi everyone,

I'm fairly new to the forum and this is the first image I have actually submitted for critique (so be gentle... ).

So, this image came about today, when one of the guys at work rode in on a Ducati 916 he had borrowed from a friend for a track day last week. He asked me if I had my camera at work, but alas, I did not, so I asked the other half to drop it in to me along with my new (as of last friday) Manfrotto tripod and head so that I could take some shots of the bike. I had never shot a bike before, so I was going in a little blind, but I took some time to consider the back drop and composition and here's what I came up with...



Thoughts?...

my first thought it where do you find friends like that!

Nice bike. I maybe would have pulled the bike out from the wall a little further for some depth and separation.

At least you thought about your shot though. I probably would have fired of a quick shot or 2 and then looked for the keys!

I agree with the comment on moving the bike out from the wall a little further to create more separation. However, you do have some options in photoshop to create that illusion. I like the composition and exposure seems spot on. I hope you got a few up close detail shots as well.

Love the bike, can I borrow it?

Matt, nice shot and nice bike. I think you did well picking a contrasting background but would echo the thoughts above about distance from the background. The background and floor all being the same colour helps this shot.



As a small aside, we have a limit of 800 pixels on the largest dimension for images here

Great shot Matt of a classic. As for the background, just select it and run a gaussian blur - et voila

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

As for the positioning of the bike, its only that close to the wall due to the placement of the available lighting in the area. If I had moved it forward any less than about 8-10 meters I would have been backlit making for a fairly poor shot. Maybe next time I will move it that far forward and shoot with a more distant background. The shoot was a "make the best of the available conditions at the last minute" kind of shoot, so i had to do just that. I will probably have the opportunity to shoot some more bikes in the same location, but for next time I will try to organize a lighting kit (work owns one) so I can position the bike exactly where I want it. Thanks again for the feedback.

sirhc55 wrote:Great shot Matt of a classic. As for the background, just select it and run a gaussian blur - et voila

I agree with the shot, but I suggest a lens blur for better results. It seems a little more natural in this style of shoot

Now where have I seen that photo before!