We shot a beautiful, big-dollar custom Harley Davidson chopper last night and for most of the shoot used a combination of up to six Speedlite flashes to light the bike, along with a long white sheet as a reflector to light up the chrome and polished alloy parts. When it was finally dark enough in the workshop to pull out our trusty LED video light panel and try light painting the bike instead, we were almost at the end of the shoot.
So, with the camera already setup for the last shot, I moved the flashes away and walked around the bike with a 15sec shutter, lighting the bike in two passes: one across the front and another behind. Below you’ll see how different the same shot looks using the two lighting techniques and a third showing the combination of the light painted background, foreground and panels, with the engine and wheels lit by the flashes.
