Night shots of bikes at Chicago Planetarium for CC

[samal]

Last night, I managed to get my tripod and camera gear on a bike to Planetarium to take some shots of my friends bikes. We came there late, so we were kicked out in less than an hour (it was midnight), and I had not much time to work with different angles and compositions, needed to get a few basic shots of every bike we had there, so here are some very fast edits and basic crops, practically straight out of the camera. Please C&C

I already see one problem with composition, having the tail/tank line of the bikes in many shots being on the same line with the shore, hides the bike's shape, also, I did not have a gray card with me, so I need to figure out WB, I was shooting at Tungsten, not everything came out as I wanted.

These were processed at 1:30 AM, so I will need to revisit them tonight and see what I can do better and finish the rest of pictures

 

[EricD]

All are nice shots for sure. For me...I might try opening up the shadows and dark areas on the bikes to get some further detail.

Nice comp with the city in the BG!

 

[VJS]

You need to run at least two more lights on these.

One light at each side, and one straight on to kill the shadows. Run diffusers on the lights if they are too hot. Have the middle light a bit higher and aimed down a bit if you can.

The dark areas of the bike are way too dark, making your eyes go toward the bright = the cityscape behind. This automatically takes the focus away from your subject.

 

[samal]

Thanks for critique. I was riding my bike to the shoot, it was not a professional setup by any means, I had my tripod and a camera bag, no other lights. Even that was a handfull to have on my back for a 30 miles ride

I will try to get some more detail from the dark areas, may be something like this?

 

[VJS]

That's a lot better! :razz:

 

[samal]

a bit too flat

need to work on PP

how about this: