Tamron Blogs
More Photo Tips | Video Gallery | Photo Gallery | Enewsletter sign-up
How to: Tamron Pro Tips For Motorcycle Photos
Photographing motorcycles is often just as exciting as riding one yourself because you’ll often need to be following along in a car or rolling around in the dirt to get a great shot of the rider and the vehicle in action. With your subject often in motion, shooting motorcycles can be difficult, so check out these tips.
Tip #1) Get a car. Shooting from a car will allow you to track your subject at a similar speed, making focusing and dragging the shutter much easier. While any car will work, we recommend an SUV or something with four-wheel drive so you can move around easier and keep pace with your subject.
© Aaron Anderson
Click image to view larger
Tip #2) Drag the shutter and learn to pan. Adding a bit of blur to your image can really communicate the speeds at which your subject is going. This can be achieved by “dragging” the shutter, which is essentially just slowing your shutter speed. Typically, 1/30-1/125th will work well, but we recommend experimenting with different shutter speeds to find what looks best for the style you’re going for. This is a great way to add blur when you’re traveling at the same speed as the rider you’re photographing.
© Aaron Anderson
Click image to view larger
Blur can also be created by panning – dragging the shutter while standing still as your subject travels parallel to you and across the frame. This technique is a little harder to achieve because you need to be standing still and then swivel at your hips at a similar speed to the rider as they go past you.
Tip #3) Get low. Like with all other kinds of automobile photography, motorcycles are often photographed from a low perspective. This is often to make the vehicle appear grander and more impressive, and it helps with getting reflections, too. Either get low yourself or position your subject higher than you and your camera are to get better shots.
© Aaron Anderson
Click image to view larger
Tip #4) Shoot earlier and/or later. If you don’t have the luxury of shooting in a studio, you need to really take advantage of all the natural lighting you have available. Golden hour – right after sunrise and right before sunset – typically has the best lighting conditions, so try and shoot during one of these times and be ready well before.
© Aaron Anderson
Click image to view larger
Tip #5) Learn light painting. Light painting is a technique that combines long exposure times (1-2 seconds) and bright lights shined directly onto specific parts of a motorcycle in pieces to achieve images that have highlights on specific parts of the bike to make them really stand out. With light painting, you can also create streaks, colors, and flashes in the places where you shined a light, which can add more visual interest to the photograph.
© Aaron Anderson
Click image to view larger
More Photo Tips | Watch Videos | Learn More About Tamron Lenses | Photo Gallery