Studio tips required

[Woody]

I have the opportunity to borrow a studio and lighting for a couple of hours in the near future.
It's been a long time since I did any studio work - close to 20 years when I did my C&G course - and that was a small amount of portrait stuff!
The 'subject' will be my mates new mountain bike.
Now I know a few on here have done cars in a studio and I'm thinking that doing a bike would be similar - with them generally both being painted/glossy with lots of reflective metal surfaces etc.
The bike is turquoise and black with a few orange anodised parts.
Any tips on what sort of background and placement of lighting would be appreciated.
Guessing I won't want to light it too directly, so flashes etc. off to either side potentially?
These aren't going to be used for anything other than me having a go and something (hopefully....) nice for my mate to have in his bike-cave.
Any advice gratefully received.
Thanks.

[Cerdo Espada]

I would go high key. A white infinity curve lit two stops higher than your subject and keep it clean and simple, letting the colours and shapes of the bike do the talking. Let the depth of field be a friend to you too when it comes to isolating some of those nice orange anodised parts in your close ups.
What format are you using ? Are any lights on tracks or are they all on the floor on stands ?
Enjoy it and good luck !

[Fordo]

Good advice above.

Id add

- Big soft sources. Yup, as you've mentioned, direct light is not kind to big shiny surfaces. A bike id image would be even tricker to light than a car. So, with either flashes or constant lights, you'd want to put them through soft boxes or bounce them off poly board, or if its a 3 wy white cove, you could even bounce them off the side walls

- My approach would be, if lighting in a white studio for a high key look - light the back wall first, with that you can light direct, and either go for an even white light, or maybe a spotlight in the middle that would sit behind your subject, for a nice natural vignette. Make sure background light doesn't spill too much onto the subject, so you can adjust one without affecting the other. Go for a main big soft key 45 degrees from camera, reasonably high up, Be really nice if you can have a huge soft box above the subject, that you can change the angle of. This works well in car photography as you have a lot of upward facing shiny surfaces, so allows you to get a nice large line of line over the car - but I could see working well for bikes as well. Then add a fill lights from there to suit. A small spotlight like a dedo can work wonders to put light into dark areas, such as the hubs, or parts that you want to highlight.

- With photography, if you dont have many lights / soft boxes, you can lock camera off on tripod, and light the bike one part at a time, then composite the final image


hope that helps a little

[Woody]

Thanks both - will take those tips on board.
Hopefully can get some decent results.
Mate is waiting on a few bits but hopefully get something sorted in the next few weeks.

[Rogue86]

I always find you get a nicer/more even coverage if you light the walls instead of the subject. Certainly works with cars. Don't be afraid of going low-key just because you're in a white studio.