Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I think I'm reposting this question again, can't remember.

Looking for a white studio that can accomodate a vehicle (chopper motorcycle).

I set up my own in a three car garage:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stylz/3742321465/" title="FoxyRoxy_2008Dec04_0361 by Stylz_ca, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3437/3742321465_2313b6b8e8.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="FoxyRoxy_2008Dec04_0361" border="1"></a>

But, while I made it work, the amount of post I had to do was painful. I didn't have enough white surface and diffused lighting all the way around.

In the photo you see above, believe it or not, the best detail photos came from me standing BEHIND the bike, i.e. between the white backdrop and the bike, and using the backdrop as a flash reflector.

Some of the results:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stylz/3743112736/" title="CoverPreview_fr by Stylz_ca, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3481/3743112736_44ba406289.jpg" width="387" height="500" alt="CoverPreview_fr" border="1"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stylz/3742321825/" title="FoxyRoxy_2008Dec03_0513 by Stylz_ca, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3465/3742321825_46ae0c4800.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt="FoxyRoxy_2008Dec03_0513" border="1"></a>

Anyhow, anyone know of a studio that can accomodate such a thing? It has to be pretty big, and have a ground floor garage kinda entrance.

Thanks!

]{evin

The studio at Pikto is definately large enough for a chopper.... but I have no idea if you can get it up to the studio. I would assume there is a freight elevator in the building, as it is a historic mill.

wow
that chopper definitely makes me drool over.

I was looking around for the same thing before. I came across http://www.studio18.ca/ but never checked it out.

If you money to burn, try Shin Sugino's studio. http://www.47booth.com/
images here - http://www.47booth.com/47booth_images.html

they have a 10' x 41 megalite.

Boy, you ain't kiddin. Not cheap. Looks awesome, though!

Yeah, for highly reflective objects like that, what is behind the camera is often more important than the background behind the object itself. You'll either need an enclosed cyclorama (not sure who has one of those for rent) or a half-pipe (like what skateboard and BMX freestylers use), preferably with a shooting slot where you can poke your lens through so the rest of your camera (and you!) doesn't show up in the reflections.

Do you have enough seamless paper and two pairs of lightstands (with crossbars) to make a large U-shaped half-pipe in which to sit the bike? That will give you the white background, surface and reflection. Leave the ends of the half-pipe open (black) to give some edge definition to the chrome surfaces.

That's an interesting suggestion. Would need a bigger space to set that up. I have the one stand and one white roll. I could probably borrow a second set.

Part of what made the white foreground "background" work so well is it was a humongous light source. That's part of it, getting enough juice into the half pipe to bounce around.

An idea might be to set that up outdoors on an overcast day... bah, who am I kidding! Those backdrops would become huge wind sails!

Thanks for the suggestion, however. Something to mull. Apparently doing the shoot mid August.

Cheers,

]{evin

There's a Sony owners group shoot this Saturday at BP Imaging Studio in Burlington. The shoot has a bike, model and macro set up in three separate studios. So I assume they can easily handle one motorcycle.

Looks like you've managed quite the setup there Kevin. Did you try using a single light, with the umbrella reversed to use as a partial reflector rather than for shoot-through? How about a CP filter to kill off some of the excess reflections? That should help bring up the detail, without having to use a lot of reflected light.

I looked at the website, it's not so much a studio for rent, but a studio used by the owners of the studio.

Speaking of which... are you going on Saturday?

How about renting a parking lot ... and getting one of these sucker's for the day? I've seen it in action.... and there is a reason why they call it a BFL (Big F----N LIGHT)

http://www.dwightcrane.com/clam_light.htm

Sorry, I didn't check their website. And yes Chris I'll be there, I was at the last one and I quite enjoyed it.

I think Creative Image Studios might be able to accommodate it.

Geez those are big lights. Why not paint the floor in you garage white buy a humongous tarp and fix it to the wall and roll it up when you are done.

Oh, man, wish I had the budget and wherewithal to request that BFL! Sweet!