Product Photography for the Cycling World

Five bicycles and detail shots to photograph. That was the request from the client. Each one to be photographed side on and at a 45 degree angle. So how long would that take? Well fortunately having photographed many different products in my time from jewellery to room set photography I had a good idea of what was needed and the time involved, fortunately so did my client.

Fish wire and and a sturdy frame were the main requirements , as well as a camera of course. I needed to be able to suspend the bikes with as little visibility of what was doing it as possible, and from previous shoots fish wire was the answer. The actual photography of the bikes was to take seconds, but as with a lot of product / still life photography the preparation is what takes the time. Each bike had to be set up suspended on the frame in the exact same position as the first, and this took approximately 30 to 40 minutes. Then the same process for the 45 degree angle. So you can see even though there were five bikes a full day of studio product photography was needed. Fortunately the bikes were of the highest quality and at the top end of the market so weighed very little , good job with my photographers back…

Detail shots were also needed and with the aluminium finish careful lighting was applied to bring out the detail and avoid harsh shine where not needed. As shine can be good too as it shows the form of the product you’re photographing.

With a little post production in photoshop, which was mainly editing out the remains of the fish wire. I was really pleased with the results and think the black background works extremely well and shows the bikes at there best.

Look forward to the next shoot ..