Motorcycle Show Photography

Like all red-blooded Americans I love going to motorcycle shows and snapping pictures of fabulous bikes. The problem is that most of the shots are terrible because of all the clutter in the background and poor, off-color lighting. What I'd really like to do would be to get these bikes in a studio where I could give them "star" treatment, instead of a cheap snapshot.

I've been working on some solutions. First, and most obvious: shoot with on-camera flash and photoshop the bejeesus out of the result.

This is a 1965 Triumph Trackmaster whose owner kindly asked bystanders to step back for a second. In Photoshop I dimmed down the background clutter and color corrected some for the venue lights. It's messy and there are more color errors, particularly the blue highlights. With a lot more work a much better picture would emerge, but I don't much care for computer time.

The next step was to use a more powerful, handheld flash. I grabbed an old Vivitar 285 and duct-taped a Pocket Wizard remote trigger to it, which my on-camera Pocket Wizard could fire. The is powerful enough to overcome the venue lights. Then I hand bystanders a 4x8' white cloth to hold behind the bike while I prop a couple of 2x3' white mat-board reflectors on either side of me. This won't give me a whole-bike picture, but I'm basically there for the engine anyway. My camera is on a lightweight tripod and the flash is at arm's length; I snap a few frames until I get a pleasant lighting effect.

The key is getting bystanders to help you and other folks to not step on you while you're kneeling on the floor. For that you've got to be quick and courteous to all the other people who paid their good money to get into the show. All I have to do with these shots is use a little photoshop smoothing on wrinkles in the background sheet.

At the most recent show of the Idaho Vintage Motorcycle Club I set up a small shooting space as a vendor. For this I could set up a black felt background and use small and medium size softboxes on studio lights. One gridded spotlight was helpful too. I would prop up white reflector boards in front too, leaning against my tripod. So I had pretty much control of the lighting.

This gives a beautiful result with almost no photoshopping. The problem, of course, is that at a show the bikes need to stay in place so judges can wander by over a several hour period and consider casting their votes. Since owners don't know who the judges are or when they're coming by, owners are sometimes reluctant to wheel their bike over to a shooting booth. For this, you need to be set up and ready to get the shot in just a few minutes. You also need to recognize that the show winners probably will not bring their bikes to you. You get what you get. Maybe a pretty assistant would help.

I'd like to thank bike owners and show attendees for their cooperation and assistance. Some of the finest people seem to attend bike shows!

Proofing with Fuji FP-100B Instant Film

Shooting with studio lights in film cameras requires some method of "proofing" before exposing to film. Originally many people relied on Polaroid products for this purpose. Their contrast range and ISO ratings were very reliable; a good proof virtually guaranteed good film. With the advent of very high quality digital cameras, proofing with instant film should be unnecessary. However, putting the digital camera in the shot and then replacing it with the film camera always leaves tiny differences in perspective and field of view. Moreover, many digital cameras are biased to give brightness and contrast that is not really in the original scene. In my case, I shoot subjects with shiny surfaces and tiny shifts can easily introduce reflection and glare problems.

My reliance on Polaroid proofing for exposures on TriX 320 has been disrupted by the demise of both of these products. This blog shows some results of proofing with the replacement instant film, Fuji FP-100B, for use with the replacement Kodak film, TriX 400. I'm using a Nikon D90 for the digital set-up and a Hasselblad with 80mm lens for the Fuji and Kodak exposures.

First I set up some parts that could present tricky reflections for my test subject. The D90 color output looks like this:

Then I replace the digi-camera with the Hasselblad. The perspective is slightly different as determined by the closest focus for this lens. Experience with Polaroid products suggested that I would need about 1/2 stop more light, even after adjusting for ISO and a yellow filter on the Hasselblad. The Fuji FP-100B confirmed this and gave me a proof like this:

Then I replaced the instant film with TriX400. This film is relatively new for me also, so I wanted to make sure that my (evolving) normal development gave me a decent contact sheet. The frame that was exposed +1/2 stop, corrected to the ISO of TriX versus FP-100B, gave me this contact on Ilford MG IV RC paper under a #2 1/2 filter:

Finally, I printed this frame of TriX to my standard paper, Ilford MGIV FB with 25M filtering in a Beseler diffusion head enlarger. This quickly gave me a good print:

This experiment has re-established my standard shooting process from digital proof, instant film proof, to final film. It also confirms that I have a working development time for the TriX 400 that matches the Ilford printing paper.
I'm sure that hundreds of other photographers have done this for themselves already. However, until I have done this using my particular equipment and darkroom processes, I cannot feel comfortable with my prospects for success in complex shooting projects. Now, out to the real world!
If you have been going through these steps yourself, tell me where your blog is and I'll check it out.