BTS | Lighting Cycling Portraits

Recently, I did a quick video introduction into how I approach, meter, and light cycling portraits with a very simple set up from the back of a truck. I discussed how we style, stabilize, and meter for the light hitting our subject while we’re rolling down the road. This give us that beautiful light, stops the action of the rider, and still gives us that awesome motion effect by being able to drag the shutter slightly and capture that background.

Here is the initial video up on Vimeo (it is also on our YouTube channel) for you to take a look at, and we just completed the 2nd part of the video with some actual footage from a GoPro Hero 3 while shooting another rider.

This shows our set up before hand, how I continue to (CAREFULLY!) hold, adjust, and move around the capture different angles as Cindy rode along behind me, and how we metered for a certain spot and communicate with the rider to keep her where I want her. We weren’t able to capture any audio from the GoPro’s limited audio capture capabilities, but this should give you some more insight into how we approach and capture these shots. Let us know below what other questions you might have and what your thoughts are on this simple and effective set-up.

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