Moto-Portraits have become a large segment of our Lifestyle Photography. In September we made a Biker portrait at a local motorcycle hang-out here in Fort Collins, Colorado. The FTC Coffee House. I've written about this shop before here and here. A nice family motorcycle themed place to enjoy your coffee or stop for lunch. They have a Bike Night every Thursday. Being part of their Thursday night crowed, I offered a Bike Night photo session as a raffle prize. They loved the idea and here you see the result. I wanted to capture the evening atmosphere, so on the night of the shoot we waited till after sunset. I found the owners of particular bikes and had them park in a row behind the subject bike. I had them turn on their lights, making a nice background. This combined with the incandescent lights coming out from the shop, and a large red L.E.D. sign out of the picture background camera left (casting a red hue on the building), really made the mood of the shot. The exposure was set based on the continuous light on the background. I lit the subject and front of the bike with a medium soft box and portable strobe from camera right. Light was added to the motorcycle from a gridded strip light with portable strobe from low camera Left. A large panel was held over the strip light (by the Biker's mom and a friend, Thanks!) to keep light off the rider but still on the lower half of the motorcycle. Test shots were made, strobe power was adjusted, and we made our shot.
The in camera capture was very close to the end result. In post, I darkened the foreground which was too bright from the strip box, and darkened a couple headlight reflections on the block wall. We got a neon look to the shot and a 20x30 canvas is hanging on the wall of the Coffee House. The winner of the raffle now has something he'd likely never have had done. He loves it. His family loves it. His kids and grand kids will love it. That's what I'm her for.
