How to photo a blinged Harley

[lady topaz]

Forgetting the Chaviness of having such a beast, my OH has dozens of LED's lighting up his bike for shows etc. Trying to photograph it is proving a nightmare. The lights either push the engine and frame into obscurity, or if he applies external lighting then the whole thing looks a washed out mess.
Without studio lights how can he achieve the desired balanced results?
Any advice or anyone local/Kentl who fancies cracking this can pm me.

Thanks

Di

[4hero]

Nightime, tripod, long exposure?

[RobDickinson]

HDR, be tempted to use a polariser too.

[Pete Baraka]

Park it in the shade then use a big reflector to bounce the sun towards it. Fine tune the reflected light to taste.

Pete

[AndWhyNot]

4hero said:

Nightime, tripod, long exposure?

+1 (although that's my photographic panacea)

Switch all the lights off on the Harley. Use a diffused or broad light from a distance and walk round the bike, might take a couple of attempts but you'll define the bike's shape and features with gentle reflected highlights. From experience you'd want to do several exposures and combine them in Photoshop or if you don't have the software skills/ inclinations at least do a couple of passes in a single exposure with the light at different heights/ relative positions.

[lady topaz]

Just a couple of rushed snaps in the garage this morning to try and show what he is trying to photograph.
There are 7 colours in total.

[K12beano]

You've got two obvious problems there.

Moving on to the second one. I would be sorely tempted to bracket a number of shots around each colour-scheme. (As a Harley it's probably best to call it "color" I suppose). Then you'll be looking at doing some blending in post production to get the right balance between lighting and form.

....now where's my bucket.....?.....

[01101001]

I like Harleys, here are a couple of snapshots of my one.
I am making a bike rig so i can take moving photos of the owner riding the bike.