Photographing a bike outdoors
Add an extra dimension to your photography by showing your means of exploring nature.
Why bike photography
I agree that photographing a bicycle is not really nature photography. However, I often use a bike as a means to get out into nature, to enjoy the environment around me. I can cover more ground than walking but have less environmental impact than a car. I can also have more contact with nature than sitting in a car. So why not include a bike in a photograph to help encourage others to try cycling as a way to get outdoors.
Equipment
OK, let’s assume that you have the camera and the bike. I mean they are probably the key items you need to photograph a bike. For most of what follows below, it doesn't matter if your camera is a smartphone or a high-end mirrorless camera, it is about the principles. With that said, although you probably haven’t chosen your bike based on how photogenic it is, I must admit that I do light photographing my Trek Checkpoint in nature because its red colour stands out so well.
For photographing my bike, I generally use my Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM standard zoom lens because it has a good focal range. I like using the 50mm focal length because that is the closest to how the human eye perceives the world. I also find it easy to carry that lens on the camera when I am riding. The camera and lens are not too bulky. I admit that the lens is not great for photographing wildlife but it gives me a number of options for photographing the environment. I have also been reasonably happy with the close-up images it has given me of smaller creatures. I don’t trust taking a long lens on the bike because I am worried about damaging it with the bike’s vibrations. Although, I used to carry a Canon EF70-200mm f/4L IS II USM when I took my Canon EOS 6D Mark II DSLR cycling. The 200mm focal length helped with some wildlife photography but it was less capable than a longer focal length.
For carrying a camera, there are a number of back packs and hip bags. If you are taking an expensive camera with you then I would recommend researching options and don’t try to save money, buy quality. You want the best protection you can for your expensive camera especially should you have an unexpected fall. You also want a bag that will be comfortable to carry while cycling. My current carrying solution is the Evoc Hip Bag Capture 7 - although it doesn’t look like Evoc makes it anymore. I have been surprised about how comfortable it is and how easy it is to loosen the belt slightly to swing the bag around to my front and remove my camera. I prefer carrying the camera on me because that reduces the vibration from the bike. It also makes it easier to carry the camera if I have to walk away from the bike to buy some food. I am not leaving an expensive camera unattended on my bike. No matter what bag you carry, think about including some camera cleaning gear because your camera can get dusty on rides.
Another tool I would strongly recommend is a portable bike stand. Yes, you can often find a twig or something similar to stand your bike up. However, that glorious sunrise light in the sky won’t stay forever so being ready for the shot quickly is key. If there is a convenient tree, fence post, etc that is also an option. I am not a big fan of laying the bike on the ground, I just don’t think that is how a bike should be photographed, unless you have a drone looking down at it. My current solution for a portable stand is here. The stand folds in half, so it fits into the small bag on my top tube meaning that the stand is ready to go when I need it. I also know how to fit it to my bike rather than working that out each time I find a stick.
Posing your bike
There are no rules for posing your bike, these are just some suggestions, and as with most composition suggestions in photography, they are made to be broken. I believe that standing the bike up is the best way to capture the bike. We are used to seeing bikes on their two wheels, that is how we conceive of a bike so that is the best way to start with posing your bike. Laying your bike down to photograph it looks like you might have fallen off or that it was left lying somewhere. Then again, there are no rules and sometimes even lying a bike down can work.
Having the cassette side facing the viewer is a great start. Interested people will to see the gearing on the bike. That also leads into composition. Having the bike pointing into the picture can be an effective composition technique. That means the bike is likely to be to the left of the frame. Using the bike to point can help guide a viewer’s eye into the photograph. Pointing the bike at a track, as in the photo at the bottom of this post, can suggest that is the way you are about to travel. Having a bike on the right of the photograph, with the road behind the bike can suggest that was the route just taken.
Having your valves located at the bottom often looks good, especially if you have put your tyres on the wheel so that the valves are in the middle of the tyre manufacturer’s brand. Alternatively, some people try to hide the vales behind the forks or stays. That can become a challenge, especially when taking photos of your bike from various angles. Again, if your valves are lined up with the brand name, then the brand name will be half hidden behind the fork of the bike. Not that there is anything wrong with avoiding giving free advertising to the company behind your tyres, but some viewers might get distracted with a half-hidden word.
You can use your cranks to fill the void between the down tube and front wheel. It just seems to work aesthetically. The pedals should also be in line with the cranks, again, for aesthetic reasons. The cranks can be facing backward but then it will be covering the wheel. Another option is that they could be pointing up or down. I think the crank facing forward with a straight pedal looks the best but this is personal preference.
Any bags on the bike that are visible in the photograph should be shut. It just looks neater. However, potentially an open bag could be part of a story. There may be an item of clothing or a tool visible in the bag that helps tell the story. Potentially a dehydrated meal bag visible from a bag, with water and cooking gear beneath the bottom bracket will show that the photo was for a meal stop.
The above is just how I like to photograph my bike the majority of the time and there is no right or wrong. The important takeaway is that you look at your bike and make conscious decisions about why you are adjusting things, like a photographer will ask a model to adjust their pose to help create the intended image. Play around with the options and see what emerges.
Aperture
One of the key decisions in any photograph is what aperture to use. The wider the aperture the more light in the exposure but also the shallower the depth of field. The smaller the aperture, the less light but the greater the depth of field. This is part of the creative choice, and is part of how much you want to isolate the subject from its background. The two shots below are of the same bike in the same location. They are both handheld so there may be slight differences in the composition. They were both shot at 50mm with a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds, and a variation in ISO to compensate for the difference in aperture choice.
This shot was at f/4.0, so the bike is very sharp, while the relatively close background is slightly blurry. This aperture is a good option when the intent is to focus on the bike, and the background should not be too distracting. In this image, it is clear what the background is but the background itself is not sharp.
This image has an aperture two stops smaller at f/8.0 giving a slightly deeper depth of field. The bike is still sharp but the background is more clear. This aperture, or narrower, is a good choice when you want to place the bike in its environment.
If I moved back from the bike, and kept the same focal length, the bike would get smaller relatively in the image but more of the background would be in focus. Again, that is a creative choice. In this setting, the railway track did not extend far either side of where I was photographing, so I didn’t need to increase the depth of field greatly to get the image that I wanted.
Perspective
The camera perspective is another creative choice that you can make. Sometimes the choice of perspective can change the story or emphasis of the photograph. There are normally three clear perspectives; standing, kneeling or lying down. Although for lying down, it is probably easier to open the back screen of the camera to adjust it to an angle, so that you can rest the camera on the ground and take a photograph that way rather than actually lying down. Although, that is still a good option to get a well composed shot. If there is a convenient, and safe, higher spot nearby, that can also be another perspective to consider. That extra height could be achieved from standing on a rock, a tree branch or a fence post; just as long as it is safe and also you can stand still on it long enough to take the photograph - and you don’t have to damage your camera climbing on top of it; make sure that your lens cap and hood are on before you start climbing. Those three options can also be changed by the angle you take the image. Often the side on view is the first angle that springs to mind but taking a few steps left or right can change the perspective, possibly creating a more interesting shot. Sometimes it is just a matter of trying different angles to see which works the best. It is also a great way to help your creativity, to think how else can you photograph a composition.
Both of these images were taken with the same camera settings, the only difference was the height or perspective that I took the photograph. In this image I was standing, and the that gave me a perspective over the bike showing the road disappearing off into the background. Some people may argue that this is a weak composition because the road leads the viewer’s eye away from the bike. However, I think the colour and emphasis of the bike will draw the viewer’s eye to the bike, and the road in the background helps create the story that the bike is about to travel or has travelled along that road. The higher perspective helps place the bike into a story that the viewer can see.
This straight on shot was what I initially had in mind. It is normally how I like to photograph a bike outside. However, I wondered if that was really the best option.
I photographed this image at a slightly lower perspective so that the road was not visible behind the bike. There was little distracting the viewer’s eye away from the bike. The colour and emphasis of the bike draws the viewer’s eye to it and nothing really takes the eye away from it. Even the hills in the background slope towards the centre of the image, bringing the viewer’s eye back to the bike. By slightly changing the perspective of the photograph I changed the focal point of the image. That said, prefer the photograph on the left because I think it tells a better story.
I took a couple of steps to the right to capture a slightly more oblique angle and I actually ended up liking this perspective more.
Standing and photographing your bike is often the obvious shot and there is nothing wrong with that. However, once you taken that shot, think how else can you shoot the composition. Could you adjust your height or even move slightly to the right or left to give a different perspective. With a digital camera, hopefully you have enough storage to try out a range of shots to see which one is best.
