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Impromptu motorcycle shoot

Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
A few months ago I have had the chance to visit the distributor of Saxon Motorcycles in Europe. I had my camera with me and upon encouragement of the owner I've ended up taking some impromptu pictures of a couple of new motorcycles in their workshop. Unfortunately, I had no lights of any sorts nor my tripod with me. The workshop backgrounds were cluttered and the lighting was a challenge. On top of that, I had never done a product shoot before let alone shot any motorcycles. Luckily, I had my TSE 24mm on the camera and I could improvise with the tilt and shift in order to create compositions using selective focus on isolated parts of the bikes. Here are the resulting pics (including one context shot of a bike with a self portrait, lol). What do you think? Your C&C is welcome as usual.



f26389.jpg





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f26493.jpg

​

I will show some more in the next post.

Cheers,
 
Last edited:
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Cem,


Holy TSE be-jeepers! This is scary! What you call, "Impromptu" could be someone else's proud work! The Saxon motorcycle is very well regarded. I think the company has some problems and there was talk of it being purchased by a new management who were going to survey the customers and make improvements and extend the warranty to 3 years. So maybe that happened.


f26470.jpg




Cem Usakligil: Saxon Motorcycle #7​


This is such a great use of this wonderful lens. But tell me, did you use any lens corrections. I'm very interested in getting come settings for the Adobe lens correction software for this lens.


Asher
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
.....This is such a great use of this wonderful lens. But tell me, did you use any lens corrections. I'm very interested in getting come settings for the Adobe lens correction software for this lens.
Click to expand...
Hi Asher,

Thanks for your comments. I haven't applied any lens corrections. The images have had minimal pp consisting of exposure and contrast corrections and a slight noise reduction due to iso 1600 and output sharpening. Processing in LR3. They are mostly uncropped except for a couple of images which were cropped slightly to remove distractions.

Cheers,
 
T

Tom Robbins

Member
Beautifully done, Cem. I like them all, but for some reason the headlight and spring is my favorite. I need to look and think about it bit to figure out why this is so. Asher is right: your impromptu is easily someone else's proud work.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Tom Robbins said:
Beautifully done, Cem. I like them all, but for some reason the headlight and spring is my favorite. I need to look and think about it bit to figure out why this is so. Asher is right: your impromptu is easily someone else's proud work.
Click to expand...
Thanks Tom. Please do tell me when you figure it out why the headlight is your favorite, I am curious.

Cheers,
 
J

John Angulat

pro member
Hi Cem,
Asher's comment is exactly what I thought.
Hand held, no tripod and zero lighting - pretty darned amazing.
Nice looking bike. Reminds me of my misspent youth...those were the days!
I don't however have fond memories of the accidents (yeah, that's plural...).
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi John,
John Angulat said:
..Nice looking bike. Reminds me of my misspent youth...those were the days! I don't however have fond memories of the accidents (yeah, that's plural...).
Click to expand...
I am quite delighted that you are still around despite those accidents. :) I too have had my fair share of them, mostly with cars but one near deadly accident with a motorbike. I have never driven one after that.

Cheers,
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
f26389.jpg





f26409.jpg





f26437.jpg





f26493.jpg

​


Cem,


I've had to return to these as I find these justify the extra money spent with the 24mm T/S lens from Canon and the time to set it up properly and then focus using live view. Actually, I am now fairly convinced that this is the way to go to get the best focus, except for sports, weddings and the like.

The results here are simply so definitive, great engineering and opportunity taken advantage of with the right gear in the right hands!

Asher
 
fahim mohammed

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Cem, somehow I missed this one.

I don't believe it!! Maybe you didn't photograph motorbikes, but have belonged to one of those Dutch Harley Davidson Chapters. A long time biker at least, my friend.

Own up.!!

Regards.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Fahim,
fahim mohammed said:
Cem, somehow I missed this one.

I don't believe it!! Maybe you didn't photograph motorbikes, but have belonged to one of those Dutch Harley Davidson Chapters. A long time biker at least, my friend.

Own up.!!
Click to expand...
LOL. I have never been a biker and certainly not a HD one. Sorry to disappoint you :)

Cheers,
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Asher,

Asher Kelman said:
....I've had to return to these as I find these justify the extra money spent with the 24mm T/S lens from Canon and the time to set it up properly and then focus using live view. Actually, I am now fairly convinced that this is the way to go to get the best focus, except for sports, weddings and the like.
Click to expand...
I agree obviously about the usability of the TSE, although in this particular case I wasn't able to take the full advantage of the live view since I did not use a tripod.

Cheers,
 
Doug Kerr

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Cem,

Lovely work. An interesting machine.

My first thought is how dangerous is that crown-form fuel filler cap. That would certainly make a nasty hole in the chest should you hit an obstacle and pitch forward over the tank!

I myself only once rode a bona fide motorcycle. In perhaps 1957, my good friend Phil Way had bought a 1945 vintage Harley-Davidson machine (I don't remember what series) from a fellow a few miles way. The clutch cable was broken. Phil's thought was to start it in first gear and ride it to his place in one shot, never stopping.

The problem was that the machine was of course pedal start, and Phil was about 5'4" and must have weighted about 98 lbs "soaking wet". He was afraid that he would not have the weight to crank it in gear.

Of course, I had the weight that was called for, so Phil asked be to be the hostler. I had never ridden a motorcycle before, but I said I would give it a go.

We drove over to its location. I got on board, and with Phil and another fellow holding it upright and ready to guide its early motion, I put it in first gear and came down on the starting pedal with my full weight. It lurched, cranked, and started, and I was on the way, ready or not.

The other two guys hopped in their car and headed out in front to give me an escort. Fortunately, it was a low traffic time, and we were able to take minor streets. When we encountered a stop sign (or even a red light), they pulled into the intersection to block it in my favor (like the escort car for a funeral procession).

When we got to Phil's house, I pulled up the driveway and right into the garage (which he had left open), killed the engine, put the bike on the kick stand, and never again rode a real motorcycle. (I did ride a Vespa-style motor scooter a couple of times later in my life).

Best regards,

Doug
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Doug,

Doug Kerr said:
Hi, Cem,

Lovely work. An interesting machine.

My first thought is how dangerous is that crown-form fuel filler cap. That would certainly make a nasty hole in the chest should you hit an obstacle and pitch forward over the tank!

I myself only once rode a bona fide motorcycle. In perhaps 1957, my good friend Phil Way had bought a 1945 vintage Harley-Davidson machine (I don't remember what series) from a fellow a few miles way. The clutch cable was broken. Phil's thought was to start it in first gear and ride it to his place in one shot, never stopping.

The problem was that the machine was of course pedal start, and Phil was about 5'4" and must have weighted about 98 lbs "soaking wet". He was afraid that he would not have the weight to crank it in gear.

Of course, I had the weight that was called for, so Phil asked be to be the hostler. I had never ridden a motorcycle before, but I said I would give it a go.

We drove over to its location. I got on board, and with Phil and another fellow holding it upright and ready to guide its early motion, I put it in first gear and came down on the starting pedal with my full weight. It lurched, cranked, and started, and I was on the way, ready or not.

The other two guys hopped in their car and headed out in front to give me an escort. Fortunately, it was a low traffic time, and we were able to take minor streets. When we encountered a stop sign (or even a red light), they pulled into the intersection to block it in my favor (like the escort car for a funeral procession).

When we got to Phil's house, I pulled up the driveway and right into the garage (which he had left open), killed the engine, put the bike on the kick stand, and never again rode a real motorcycle. (I did ride a Vespa-style motor scooter a couple of times later in my life).

Best regards,

Doug
Click to expand...
A very interesting anecdote, thanks for sharing it. I am glad you have made it without getting hurt in the process.

And I fully agree with you re. the fuel filler cap.

Cheers,
 
R

Ron Morse

New member
Thats a nice looking bike and nice pictures of it. I like all the details the side shot shows. The seat doesn't look all that comfortable for a long ride though.

I used to love my Harley sportster but came close to getting killed on it by a drunken old lady. I fixed it up and sold it. I haven't ridden since. None of the dealers had sportsters in stock at the time and I sold it for more than I paid for it when it was new.
 
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