My Latest Ducati shot - Ducati.ms

cjeff · Aug 2nd, 2011, 9:34 pm

Hi all,

Haven't been on here in ages, but since my last photo contributions, I've completed 4 different photo courses and really trying to get my photography to a professional level. There's a few things I can do on this still to make it a little better (a little colour smoothing and cropping), I'll do it next week when I have more time, but for now, here's where my work is up to...

Oh and if you're around Sydney / Newcastle / Wollongong and want something like this, I'm looking for practice...

Cheers - Craig

Ducati 900SS by lifedistilled, on Flickr

cb4265 · Aug 3rd, 2011, 1:12 am

G'day,

Come Moto GP time there will be a bunch of us coming down, 900ss, ST2 x 2, ST4, ST4S, Triumph 675, GSXR1000, ZZX600. plus more

Our first night will be at Bateman's Bay, maybe we could meet you somewhere?
Most of the group will be leaving from the Central Coast on Tuesday 11th October.

Craig

SJTrance · Aug 3rd, 2011, 12:05 pm

I really like where this picture is going, but if I may, I'd like to off some humble suggestions. I'm a hobbyist photographer myself. My eye keeps going to the back of the bike and there, I see what looks to be the garage door or something. I'd like to see what it would look like with a black cloth or even nothing behind the bike. What light sources did you use for this shot? I feel that the color balance is spot on.

northerncalguy · Aug 3rd, 2011, 12:29 pm

Pretty nice! Backgrounds are always tricky to setup, maybe as you iterate, try to get a space with seamless corners to make it less distracting. Light setup is good.

cjeff · Aug 3rd, 2011, 10:01 pm

Fair point - I realise the background sucks - I couldn't do anything about at this particular location - It was done during my course, and this was the best of what we had available at the course, hence why I've blacked it out as much as possible. I could do a cut and paste to another background - but it's all time related, and it would be quicker for me to re-do the entire shoot than drop a new background in (cause I'm real slow at this at the moment - more practice and I'll get quicker at it). On the time related issue thing - this is just my spare time hobby that I love doing, but spare time isn't dedicated time unfortunately...

For this shot, it's a product of using a single Elinchrome D-Lite-it 400WS through a diffuser with multiple shots (about 10) and just layering them in photoshop to even out the lighting. I've done some car shots like this but with just a speedlight (off camera flash fired remotely), so a Studio flash isn't required - but they do have a much more consistent light temperature for consistent colour.

northerncalguy · Aug 4th, 2011, 1:04 am

Never shot Elinchrome; Profoto is my choice of studio lights...but I've been experimenting with remote triggered speedlights recently. They're actually pretty good and are surprisingly powerful lights. Just need to heavily diffuse them...I use an omnibounce inside a small softbox and it's been working out well. Keep on it!

knumbnutz · Aug 6th, 2011, 5:36 am

Yeah, agree, the eye travels to the back of the bike, but i think thats because the image is a little brighter especially the swingarm . Your eye tends toward the brightest part.
Maybe try darkening the image at the back, but even still, its very nice !

Quote:

Originally Posted by SJTrance

I really like where this picture is going, but if I may, I'd like to off some humble suggestions. I'm a hobbyist photographer myself. My eye keeps going to the back of the bike and there, I see what looks to be the garage door or something. I'd like to see what it would look like with a black cloth or even nothing behind the bike. What light sources did you use for this shot? I feel that the color balance is spot on.

SlowBoyRacing · Aug 6th, 2011, 4:29 pm

Looks great, except I'd turn the handle bars slightly towards the left side.