The Origonal Cafe Racer

[mcopan]

I shot this Triton (Triumph/Norton) Cafe Racer for classicbikeswapmeet.ca in a airplane hanger beside the Vancouver Airport. I want to know what everyone thinks about these shots.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Norton front hub with chrome disc.

Amal Triumph Carburetors that are the intake for the Triumph motor.

[Wicked Dark]

The detail shots would work better if we had a whole picture of the bike itself. It being cut off the way it is makes me wonder why instead of looking at the bike. The location looks good as far as light goes, but the bg is distracting so the wider the aperture the better to at least make the colors unrecognizable shapes.

[Marko]

I'm with WD here, be careful of distractions in the background. Also make sure what you are focusing on is tack sharp - did you use a tripod here?

[mcopan]

I didn't use a tripod. I think the shot of the carb is a little off of focus.

[Mad Aussie]

I tend to agree with the others on this also.

That first shot really should be the whole bike. I don't think portrait was a wise choice for this shot. The bike itself is longer than it is high, and seeing as nothing in the background is needed for the shot, using portrait has only suceeded in introducing elements you didn't need. Filling a landscape shot with the whole bike would have been a stronger choice in my opinion.
Those big windows up there are great resources of strong ambient light. I'd have had the bike turned around so I could have those off to one side and behind me a little. This would have created more of a side light which you could then experiment with stopping down your apertures to create a strong shadow/light pic I think. It would have also helped bring out some textures etc. If you did end up with a high fstop then using a zoom lens would have still blurred the background sufficiently to remove distractions.

[Marko]

You could have gotten much sharper focus by using a tripod here and choosing a smaller aperture. Even the Norton front hub (particularly the central nut) is soft.
Hope that helps - Marko