Studio shot of Yamaha MX motorcycle

[Tom V]

I use my S2 mainly for commercial work shooting for clients' magazine ads, catalogs, brochures, etc.

I have shot for motorcycle aftermarket parts companies before, usually using Hassleblad, or 4x5, or (egads!) 35mm, depending on the final destination / size of the images. Using film involved getting film, shooting Polaroid, shooting, dropping the film off at the lab, going back to the lab, scanning, scanning, scanning, retouching dust, just to get the images into the computer so I could work on them.

This was the first studio shot I used the S2 on. It is soooooo much easier and faster! I was able to go from the set right to a laptop and show the client the image, then go home that night and get the images into my desktop.

This was shot using manual exposure, 1/125 @ ƒ8, 50mm ƒ1.8 Nikkor, Speedotron flash with three lightdomes, the largest of which is 65" wide for the overhead light. Color & Tone at ORG, and Sharpening OFF (Sharpened in Photoshop), Light Balance = Fine (sun). 35mb RGB .tif files.

I removed the background and the stand, and added a goofy background.

[janmasyn]

Excellent shot Tom, the Yamaha looks
great, really nice background.



regards,



jan

[NIKKOR]

Tom
How big was the final output of this picture ???
How did it look ?
Great shot !!!!
Don

[Duck]

Tom,

Wonderful shot of the bike... what was the original background?

How do you present your final image... print them yourself, or take them to a lab...?

[Tom V]

Don, et al,

So far, the largest size the entire bike image has been used for is about 6.3 inches wide, at 300 dpi. There are parts of the bike that get cropped out and used at larger sizes, such as the swingarm, in order to feature the client's decals. I think the cropped close-ups get used at about 100% of the S2's image output size.

I shot RGB .tif files (35mb) so that I would not have any jpg jaggies to contend with when I cut out the background. For cutting out the background, I used Mask Pro [a PhotoShop plugin], Photoshop's Eraser Tool, and but I use a Paintbrush in PhotoShop's Quick Mask Mode the most. The hardest part is stripping out the chromed spokes from the white/gray background, and all the little holes in the brake rotors. $heesh! I don't downsample anything if I don't have to. The files remain at full size until I drag them into another Photoshop file where I do the layered layout in.

This was part of four 2-page spreads, which have many common elements (logos, borders, background, etc.) that have the same placement on each page. Each full spread in RGB is about 44mb, so the bike could fill up quite a bit of the spread. By time I got done adding all the product shots, text, effects, and whatnot for all 4 spreads in ONE PSD FILE, it was about 504mb in size. When all the layouts were done, I then deleted the sets of layers I didn't need for each spread, flattened the remains, and converted to cmyk tif files. I then used the History Palette to undo some of the set deletions and made the tif for another spread. I repeated this for each spread. Now all the spreads will have exactly the same background, and common elements will be in exactly the same position. If the client decides to change a common element, I can open my master 504mb psd file, and move the item, flatten out my individual spreads and be done with it.

I adjust color and saturation and do a small sharpening (250%, .5, 0) on each individual shot. When I get the whole thing together and flattened, I do another sharpening to compensate for the screening process (100%, 3, 2), this way I avoid halos and all my sharpening looks consistant. Before I change from RGB to CMYK I check the gamut warning and selectively desaturate some colors so I retain detail in the most saturated colors.

The attached file shows one half of a spread, minus a bunch of the text which was later added in Quark XPress.

[Tom V]

Duck, et al,

The original was shot in the client's warehouse, on a nice cement floor with a white seamless paper background. The camera was about 30 feet away I guess. To keep foot prints and tire marks off the background, we used sheets of cardboard which we removed for the shot. I would be cutting the background out later, but I did not want foot prints and such to reflect in anything. All the light stands' positions were marked with tape on the floor, so we could get the lights back in place for each bike (both sides of a Honda, Yamaha, KTM, Suzuki, & Kawasaki). The graphics on each side were different. An original shot is attached.

For final presentation, I put the files on disk and send them to magazines (Motocross Action, RacerX, etc.). I include a color proof (if required) that simulates how the images should look on the printing press. I get high-end inkjet output that simulates the halftone dots exactly the way they will be on the printing plates. (Electronic Dot Proof such as a Creoscitex Spectrum Proof or a Kodak Approval Proof.) Each 11x17 proof costs about $110 to $150. I give the client a copy of all the shots on a CD in a thumbnail browser that Photoshop can automatically set up [FILE > AUTOMATE > WEB PHOTO GALLERY...].

I will probably be using this and the other images I shot in that session for at least a year, in layouts yet to be designed. I don't know how big I might be using the images, so I don't crop the originals. Everything gets archived to CD two or three times.

[teski]

Hey Tom -

Very nice pic! Great colors, and very sharp. Thanks for sharing both the original pic, the edited one, and the final output. I also appreciate the details on obtaininig the shot and the workflow to the final output.

Teski

[Tom V]

Besides knocking out the background, tweaking the color and saturation, and sharpening, etc.. I did very little retouching. I had to remove a couple of spots that were on the sensor (in every shot), and for this side of this bike, I had to make it look like it had annodized orange rims. In Photoshop I selected the rims (using Quick Mask & a Paintbrush) and colorized the rims using the Saturation controls. I could only guess what orange rims look like, because I have never seen any.

[David]

Tom

Great work!

I have just sold my S1 and bought an S2. I am not at all happy with the sharpness of my images from the S2, especially of people. The images shot on the S1 were always pin sharp and were taken using STANDARD image sharpnes.

I contacted Fuji and they tell me that the S1 was too sharp for wedding photographers so they made the S2 less sharp! Crazy!! There answer is to shoot using HARD sharpness and to apply 150% 2 & 2 USM what do you think to that? I am considering getting shut of this S2 and getting a replacement, I think my camera may be a dud.

Cheers

David (UK)

[Mike Flood]

Tom;
Nice shots and end result.

Have you used raw files with your S2? 16 bit?

Mike

[Tom V]

Mike,

Thanks for the positive feedback on the shot. I try to make them look good, and it is good to know somebody thinks I was able to do that.

I have used RAW files, and do shoot them on every shot I think may need to be blown way up some day. I shot RAW files on the motorcycle shoot, but did not use them because the 35mb tif files were excellent.

I have used the RAW files converted with 16bit depth on other shots. One such shot, and a discriptions of the whys and hows is in the "Software Mac" "RAW File Conversion" thread.

I shall now attempt a link to it:

http://www.s2pro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83

[dartz]

tom, i saw red circle in thecenter of your yamaha mx shoot...

[Tom V]

Dartz,

You dug up an old thread! This was back when the S2 was new. I don't think I have used film since August of 2002.

The subject of the "red spot" is detail here: http://www.fmount.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17444

I can barely see the red spot on this shot, but I know it's there. I think the cylinder head on the engine has a red tint to it. The red spot showed up more clearly on other motorcycle shots. I got the dreaded spot on virtually every shot I made on a white background when I used the normally highly touted 50mm f/1.8 lens. I eventually donated the culprit lens to the local high school (along with some obsolete film cameras).

I still shoot motorcycles for what is now full-spread ads in magazines. Last time, I used my D200, and 85mm f/2.8D PC Micro (tilt shift) lens. No red spot!

The process of submitting files to the magazines has changed a bit since 2002. Back then, magazines wanted files in native Quark XPress layout, with fonts, pictures, profiles, etc., plus a high-quality print. Nowadays, the industry standard is to create and submit a PDF/X-1a file. I used to send out dozens of FedEx packages per month with CDs full of files and proofs to various magazines. Now, I just upload the files to FTP sites for each magazine. I gave up on high-quality proofs because the proofing house or their supplies and process had more uncontrolled variables than I could deal with.

[fujifilmnut]

Excellent shot. Only suggestion I have is to "treat" the tires with a tire conditioner like http://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Wax-Tire-Professional-Dressing/dp/B0002KLB06 to give it the "wet look", black and shiny.

[dartz]

it cames up when my friend looking for a light setup for motorcycle :D,
we're going to shoot for honda "duck" motorcycle,very common model here in asia.
and my mind is ringing, hey tom post that setup! i remembering it :D
all shoot were terrific! clean shot.

and my eyes, whoa,,red spot :D, and later i read bout that 50mm flaw..

ah, magazine werks, i still stumble with FEDEX stuff here,
technology and trends still slow here,
since internet speed couldnt move faster yet.
im counted as a home industry and stil stuck with 64kbps cable speed, the other bandwith offering services is just too expensive for my pocket. :)

PDF is really good stuff, and im agreed proofing is most troublest trouble ever! :D, thx god PDF!


Dartz,

I still shoot motorcycles for what is now full-spread ads in magazines. Last time, I used my D200, and 85mm f/2.8D PC Micro (tilt shift) lens. No red spot!

The process of submitting files to the magazines has changed a bit since 2002. Back then, magazines wanted files in native Quark XPress layout, with fonts, pictures, profiles, etc., plus a high-quality print. Nowadays, the industry standard is to create and submit a PDF/X-1a file. I used to send out dozens of FedEx packages per month with CDs full of files and proofs to various magazines. Now, I just upload the files to FTP sites for each magazine. I gave up on high-quality proofs because the proofing house or their supplies and process had more uncontrolled variables than I could deal with.