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!