Motorbike Stunt Show Photography

[SteveEllis]

Hi Guys,

I'm an officer of a motorbike club, as such I do their website and this year I'll be doing all of their festival photography. There is going to be a stunt show this year and I really want to take some awesome pics of it. Any tips are greatfully recieved.

Heres the stunt riders website http://www.davecoates.co.uk/
Check out his gallery to see his stunts.

If any of you are bikers you may be interested in our festival, its the 4th - 7th August in South Wales.

Check out our site www.freestyleriders.co.uk

Cheers guys,
Steve.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

I'd try to get alot of pictures of people doing jumps and airborne tricks. I'd use a long lens, and try to get in front of them so they're comming at you.

 

[DepthAfield]

Hmm… I would invite the local chapter of the Hell’s Angels, and photograph their facial expressions as they watch the show! :mrgreen:

 

[SteveEllis]

Two very awesome ideas but I dont know if I'm brave enough to take photos of the HA and post them all over the internet

The bike is a road bike so no jumps, just burn outs, stoppies, wheelies and general antics.

I think I'll have a word with the stunt rider first to find out where I can be thats safe but awesome for shots.

Any of you guys bikers?

 

[Iron Flatline]

Yeah, I ride.

You can get a good long lens and do a racing shot where you pan the lens along as the rider passes in front of you. Seeing as you will have busy backgrounds and his outfit/bike is pretty busy too, you're going to want to blur the background. This requires you to shoot with a smaller aperture and a longer exposure time. You will need to practice this technique A LOT, so go stand on a relatively busy street corner and try this with cars going past. This will also allow you to decide how big and aperature vs. shutter speed to get a relatively clear focused shot of the rider while blurring the background.

The other is to coordinate his primary stoppy location (for instance) and to get good shots of him. Again, isolating him from the background will help add drama to the shot. In this case open the aperature wide, and shoot fast.

If he's doing burn-outs, see if you can get low and shoot up through the tire smoke. Hold your breath, that stuff will give you cancer.

If you promise to share shots with him, I'm sure he'll be happy to help you plan them out. He obviously like good pictures of himself, but most of the images on his site are so-so.

This one, for instance, shows no speed or motion whatsoever. It needed more of the panning technique:

Can you get right next to him for something like this? It would be an award-winning shot:

I think if you plan fou or five good shots, and use his existing shots to illustrate where you'd like to be, he might do it - even spend an extra hour before or afterward.

Anyway, sounds like a fun project. I've had three Triumph Speed Triples, but any stoppies were purely out of red-light panic

 

[hot shot]

do a lot of similar stuff with cars check out my site.

btw iron flathead second picture wouldnt be award winning due to too much ashfelt in the forground and the back ground is way to crisp and the guy dosnt fill the frame just thought I'd mention it.

email me if you have any questions

 

[Reverend]

I've only tried once, but I'd recommend opening up the lens as much as you can, to increase the background bokeh. Other than that, just panning is the toughest part, really. Keep your elbows tucked into your sides, and pivot with your whole torso. If they're moving past quickly, you decrease your exposure time, if they're moving slow, increase it. This should help a little with any vertical movement you get in your shot.

 

[Iron Flatline]

do a lot of similar stuff with cars check out my site.

btw iron flathead second picture wouldnt be award winning due to too much ashfelt in the forground and the back ground is way to crisp and the guy dosnt fill the frame just thought I'd mention it.

email me if you have any questions

Dude, read my comments (and name) more closely