This week we published a new episode of Exploring Photography: A Bike in 4 Styles. I tried to demonstrate that there is no “best” lighting kit or style of lighting. To do this, I invited three South African photographers to a shootout, Bernard Brand, Xavier Saer, and Ett Venter. I asked them to bring all of their own lighting gear, but didn’t tell them what they’d be doing until they arrived at the studio.
The Setup
I arrived at the studio with my motorcycle. It’s a 2016 BMW R1200 GS Adventure. I’ve been riding it around the world for the past year. I not-so-secretly wanted to kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to make a great video for Adorama TV, but I also wanted a nice photo for my blog. My bike has a lot of custom parts and I wanted a high key shot that I could use to label all the parts on a post for other riders to see.
I thought it would be interesting to propose that shot as the goal and then see how four different photographers would approach the challenge. Once the guys arrived I told them my ideas and everyone was eager to get started.
The Rules
This was not a competition. I’m not a real big fan of photo competitions because art is so subjective (sorry Nigel, I hope we’re still friends). In this episode I really wanted to learn from my fellow artists, there was a lot of experience in the room and I was certain it would translate into a growing experience for everyone; a rising tide lifts all boats. With that in mind we set down the guidelines.
- We’d all photograph the bike in the same location – a seamless white “infinity wall”.
- We’d each get about 20 minutes to plan, setup, and shoot.
- Anyone not shooting would act as an assistant for the current photographer.
- We would share lighting equipment – we could use anything in the studio.
My Colossal Blunder
We started the video by having a quick discussion of the rules, but then the conversation turned to the idea of “the perfect lighting kit”. We all agreed, that doesn’t exist. For so many reasons; budget, personal style, different types of locations and subjects… We all agreed that what you plan to use at the beginning of the shoot is rarely what you end up using in the end. Things change, the unexpected happens, sometimes gear is damaged – there are many reasons.
During our opening discussion, we also changed our minds. We decided it would be better for us to abandon the idea of everyone shooting a high key image for my blog. We wanted to see four different styles, so we agreed we’d just have a free for all. We would shoot the bike in any style we wanted.
It was a great discussion. We had lots of laughs and poked a bit of fun at each other. Poor Xavier had to suffer the wrath of three Profoto fans as he stood by his love for Elinchrom lighting. But in the end, none of that made it into the video. I plugged the microphone into the line-out port instead of the line-in port. The camera recorded none of our inspiring conversation.
Luckily I was using an on-camera microphone for all of the shooting and explanations. And I plugged the lavalier microphone into the right port for the closing segment. It was a colossal blunder, but I think we still got a decent video with the footage that did survive.
The Gear We Used
The only gear most of us decided to use was my Profoto B2. Xavier wasn’t planning on using any Profoto gear, but his Elinchrom Ranger had been damaged on a shoot just a few days before. I think one of his assistants dropped it down a flight of stairs, I’m not sure, those things are very tough so it must have been something catastrophic. Despite the damage to his Ranger he was still able to use it, but his large Elinchrom Rotolux softbox was just a bit too large for what he was trying to achieve, so he borrowed my Profoto B2 and much smaller Profoto Octobox. I think that now he’s secretly thinking of converting to Profoto gear.
Bernard also chose to use the Profoto B2 instead of his Profoto B1 because of the light stand we were using, it just wouldn’t support the weight of the large umbrella and the B1. It kept falling over, so he switched to the smaller B2.
Here’s the breakdown of the specific gear each of us used, click the links to see current prices and specifications.
Bernard Brand
Website: www.bernardbrand.com
Instagram: @bernardbrand
- Fujifilm X-T1 Mirrorless Digital Camera Body
- Fujifilm XF 56mm (85mm) F/1.2 Lens
- Profoto B1 500 AirTTL Battery Powered Monolight Flash
- Photek SL-5000S 46″ Softlighter II, Diffusing Umbrella with Black Cover, 7mm Thick Shaft
- Profoto Air Remote Transceiver
- Profoto B2 250 AirTTL To-Go Kit
- Westcott 7 Feet Silver Parabolic Umbrella
- Westcott 4631D Umbrella Diffuser for Parabolic Umbrella
- Cactus RF60 Wireless Flash With Wireless Flash Transceiver V6 Single
- Nikon SB-5000 AF Speedlight
Xavier Saer
Website: www.byxavier.com
Instagram: @xaviersaer
- Canon EOS 5D Mark III
- Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II
- Elinchrom D-Lite RX 4 Compact Monolight
- Westcott XL 12×36″ Rapid Box Strip with Elinchrom Speedring
- Westcott 40 Degree Egg Crate Fabric Grid for the 12″x36″ Strip Bank
- Profoto B2 250 AirTTL To-Go Kit
- Profoto Air Remote Transceiver
- Profoto 2′ Octagonal Off-Camera Flash Softbox
- Profoto Off-Camera Flash Speedring for Profoto B1 and B2
- Cactus RF60 Wireless Flash With Wireless Flash Transceiver V6 Single
- Nikon SB-5000 AF Speedlight
Ett Venter
Website: www.ettventer.com
Instagram: @ettventer
- Profoto D1 1000 Watt Second Air Monolight Flash
- Profoto B1 500 AirTTL Battery Powered Monolight Flash
- Photek SL-5000S 46″ Softlighter II, Diffusing Umbrella with Black Cover, 7mm Thick Shaft
- Westcott 7 Feet Silver Parabolic Umbrella
- Westcott 4631D Umbrella Diffuser for Parabolic Umbrella
- Profoto Air Remote Transceiver
- Fujifilm X-T2 Mirrorless Digital Camera Body – Black
- Fujifilm XF 16mm F1.4 R (Weather Resistant) Lens
- Fujifilm XF 56mm (85mm) F/1.2 Lens
Mark Wallace
My website: www.markwallace.com
Instagram: @jmarkwallace
- Leica M Type 240 Digital Rangefinder Camera Body
- Voigtlander 21mm and 25mm Metal Viewfinder
- Leica 21mm f/3.4 Super Elmar-M Aspherical Lens
- Profoto B2 250 AirTTL To-Go Kit
- Profoto Air Remote Transceiver
- Westcott 7 Feet Silver Parabolic Umbrella
The Post Processing
It’s obvious in the video that the floor was filthy. Ett and Bernard chose to include the tire marks to add to the gritty style of their photos. Xavier created a beautifully clean image. Because I wanted to use my image as graphic that would have text overlaid I went to the extreme and did a lot of cleanup on the floor and background. I did that using a basic gradient and a layer mask in Photoshop. But because of the lighting I had to do almost nothing to the bike itself. Here are the before and after images of my shot.
In the final video edit I added a bit more white on the edges of the images so I could fill a 16:9 screen, but the basic edit is the same.
Final Thoughts
I loved making this video. These are a great group of guys and I think you can tell that we were having a good time. I’d love to know what you thought. Would you like to see more videos in this style? Should we do more single subject lighting challenges? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
