Muki.Dorifuto.com Photography, Motorcycles, Anime and a Dog…

Photographing motorcycles: A how-to walk-through

Shooting motorcycles is a bit a different to the norm. Unlike portraits, you rarely get a second chance. While that might seem a little more like shooting for weddings, I've never seen a couple zoom past me at 80km/h.

So here's what happens when I shoot for a magazine.

The Brief
Firstly, there's the initial brief. What the shoot will be for, what kind of shots the magazine is looking for - the big picture. As far as things come, this is pretty informal.

I've been fortunate enough to always be in communication with the journalist behind the article in question (although this won't always be the case), so being able to have any further input is great.

Now that I know roughly what the magazine is after, I'll pack accordingly. I only bring the necessary lenses and accessories that I know I'm going to use as all of this will be on my back for the whole day.

The day before, I'll have a quick check over everything, charge batteries, make sure I have enough room on my backup storage, and format my cards. If a car is going to be around, I'll pack more into a separate bag, but for the most part, I pack as light as I can. For reasons I'll go over later, I almost always ride on these shoots, so a quick inspection of my motorcycle also happens before it gets too dark.

Motorcyclists don't sleep in and they ride far. This often means that the meet point will be about an hour or so from the city (where I am) and will be early - about 8am. It's important to get a good amount of rest the night before and to ensure that everything is ready to go as soon as I wake up.

At the meet point, I'll talk to the journalist for any last minute changes and lay out the plans for the day - where we'll stop, the pace of the ride, what riders should look out for, preference for corners. I've been fortunate enough that I know most of the riders I've shot, but this would also be the time to let them know how you work, not to ride close to each other and to generally ignore you on the side of the road.

I'll set my camera to a low ISO, at about 250th of a second at this point to prepare for later.

At the first stop, if there's anything to photograph, I do so. This is more the surrounding landscape than the bikes and riders. A group of motorcyclists hanging around their bikes is generally not an interesting shot. If I've shot anything, I make sure to change my settings back to shutter priority, otherwise, I'll ride alongside the ride leader, let him or her know to give me 10 minutes and then I'm off.

Finding a Location
For the first few corners I don't bother looking for a corner to shoot from. Most riders will not be expecting you so soon and typically, these corners aren't anything especially interesting.

The key to managing your available time is riding fast enough that the group doesn't catch up to you while you're looking for a corner, but slow enough that you don't miss an opportunity. Waiting for that "perfect" corner risks the group catching up, but too early means missing out on potentially better corners.

The reason I ride on shoots now becomes important. On most mountain roads there is very little space on the shoulder (if there is one) to leave a car. A motorcycle can easily tuck into the bushes where a car could not, and as a rider, you understand what corners are dangerous and which are not.

My ideal locations are long sweeping corners. For a rider, they are easy to commit to, allow a decent amount of speed, and are much more forgiving in the event that a rider is surprised.

I'll leave my bike somewhere out of the frame, then walk back to the beginning of the corner. At regular intervals leading up to the corner I'll leave my helmet, gloves and sometimes jacket. Poorly planned, these will be in the shot or your subjects will be wondering where you are when they should be riding through.

For my own safety, I hang back near or behind a rail guard if there is one, in the event that someone loses it. I've certainly heard other riders' bikes change in engine note mid-way through a corner when they see me, and all it takes is an inexperienced rider to fixate on you to run off the road in your general direction.

Shooting
I'll pick an appropriate lens, then shoot a few frames at the entry, apex and exit of the corner to get a good idea of my zoom's range, moving if necessary. The worst time to figure out that a bike isn't going to fit in the frame is when you're taking the picture and it's too late.

If there are any other bikes approaching, I'll fire off a few shots to get in the groove. Learning what your subjects' bikes sound like at a distance is an advantageous warning to get ready.

When they arrive, I track the bike at entry to gauge speed through the corner before firing a series of shots. I will momentarily pause between entry, apex and exit to ensure the bike is still framed correctly (you cannot view this when the mirror is up) and then prepare for the next bike. The entire sequence usually takes no more than five seconds.

After the last bike has passed (it's a good idea to count each bike as some ride slower than others. Never assume they all ride as a group), I remove my card to copy the shots to my backup hard drive while I collect my riding gear. By the time I get back, I have a full backup and the card is ready for shooting again.

After packing up my gear, I'll ride out to meet the group at the next agreed stopping point. This gives me a chance to provide the group with a bit of feedback and to arrange to shoots more if needed.

Post-processing and Backup
After a full day of shooting, I'll remove my hard drive from my backup device. It's a 2.5" SATA hard drive that goes directly into my machine where it is imported straight into Lightroom. At this point, I'll go take a shower or unwind while the numbers are crunched.

Once done, I'll have three copies of the day's work: One on my backup drive, one on my compact flash card and one on my workstation. Post processing generally takes the evening away, but once done I'll export the "keepers" twice - once as a low-resolution preview and once more as the high-resolution results.

The previews I either send to the client directly, or host in a gallery of sorts, while uploading the high resolution files on a remote server. At this point I generally call it quits and crash for the night. I'll now have a local copy of my processed work, plus one other on a remote server.

At about 8am, my workstation makes a backup of any changes from the day before, which would include the imported files and exported final product files. When I leave for work in the morning, I eject that backup my from workstation and it goes with me to work. In the event that my workstation catches fire, I still have a complete set of RAW and processed files with me.

A few days later, the magazine usually gets in contact with me to view the proofs. I do a general pass over them and if there's no glaring errors, the magazine goes to print shortly after.

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