Bike Picture Techniques: Quick Guide

Basic Rules of Bike Photography

There are some basic rules of bike photography that every cycling photographer should be familiar with. Although I’m listing all these rules here, I don’t subscribe to the idea that these rules have to be followed to a tee. Following strict guidelines can be detrimental to a photographer’s creative process. But these rules come in handy when you are trying to get your bike to look as nice as it can.

Go look at some bike pictures online catalogs after reading this article. You’ll quickly notice how often photographers follow the rules outlined below.

Always Photograph the Drive Side

Rule number one is the mother of all rules and it is one that I believe should be followed: Bikes should always be photographed from the drive side. Having the right side of the bike face the camera means you’re showing all the important goodies (components). A picture of the non-drive side of a bike just doesn’t showcase a bike’s qualities quite as well as its more photogenic side. If you are displaying more than one shot of the bike, by all means, take a picture of the non-drive side, but be sure to display the drive side more prominently.

Cranks Leveled

The drive side crank should be aligned with the chainstay or positioned at the 90-degree angle, level with the ground. This way, the crank is not obscuring any other parts of the bike. This also creates a harmonious composition with the crank filling some of the empty gap between the bottom bracket and the front wheel.

Tire Label and Valve Stem Position

Tire labels should be parallel to the ground positioned at either the top or the bottom of the wheel. This goes hand-in-hand with another unspoken rule of cycling: that the tire label should line up with the valve stem. Pulling up to a group ride with the tire labels misaligned with the valve stem is like giving the wrong handshake at a secret society gathering.

In my opinion, this rule has been taken too far. I have noticed an increasing trend in photos with photoshopped valve stems (completely removed). Some photographers claim the valve stem is too distracting; I believe the valve stem is a part of the bike just like any other component. As you can tell from my pictures in this article (and this blog), I follow the tire label/valve stem rule but I don’t care to line up the tire label parallel to the ground.

No Pedals, No Bottle Cages, No Bidons, and No Accessories

This rule requires you to always photograph the bike without the pedals and free of all other accessories, including bottle cages. Removing the pedals is only practical if you are taking catalog shots. I usually only go as far as removing the water bottles from the cage and removing any other accessories that I find too distracting in the picture.

Rules are Meant to be Broken

If you are taking promotional or catalog pictures of a bike, you should probably follow all of the rules above. These rules help you achieve a clean look, focusing on the bike.

I hope you have realized that this website is not about promotional materials or marketing fluff, which means I don’t have to follow these rules. The picture below, of my beloved Salsa Fargo, is pretty close to following all of the rules outlined above. The only rules being broken are that the tire labels not parallel to the ground and the pedals were not removed. Does that matter? I actually think the misaligned tire labels provide a more dynamic look to the scene. Removing the pedals was not practical since I rode the bike to this location.

If there is one thing that I would have done differently, is to have placed the supporting stick in a place where it is easier to remove in Photoshop (more on this below). I find the stick a little distracting and this picture would have looked better with a self-balancing bike effect.

Environmental Shots

True to any form of photography, the background of a photo is just as important as the foreground elements. I always look for interesting backgrounds, preferably, a background that tells a story about the bike: a dirt road for a gravel bike, an empty road for a road bike, a trail for a mountain bike – you get the idea.

This is when you get to be creative and set the mood by breaking many of the rules above, especially the “no pedal, no accessories” rule. The goal is to tell a story and a “dressed” bike will tell a better story than a “naked” one.

The shot below tells a story; one of a country scene where the bike belongs to. Communication is clear: this bike is ready for a long weekend ride. Notice that I opted to remove the water bottles from the front cages (one on each fork blade) as I thought they were too distracting.

Here is another shot that tells a story. Just like the shot above, I removed the water bottle from the cage but I opted to hang my goggles on the handlebar. I figured the goggles would add a human element without actually having a person in the shot. The snow on the tires and the downtube show that the bike was ridden to this location (which it was) adding to the sense of adventure.

Humanizing the Bike

Including a person in the picture completely changes the story being told about the bike. The human element shifts the focus away from the bike alone and paints a picture of how the bike is used by the rider. Some rules still apply: drive side and cranks leveled being a couple of them.

The Balancing Act

You might be wondering how I got the bike to balance by itself in some of the photos. Well, I didn’t. Here are a few different techniques to achieve the free-standing bike effect. There’s a video below on how I made this picture.

Use a Stick

Balancing a bike is not that hard. Just find a stick that won’t bend easily and use it to balance the bike. I had a “pet stick” that I carried around when taking bike pictures but I have since lost the stick. Now, I just use whatever I can find on location. I usually try to find a stick that has a fork (y-shape) on one end, but any stick will do.

You can jam the stick in the hollow part of the bottom bracket, rest the chainstay on the fork end of the stick, or wedge the stick between the rear quick-release lever and the bike frame. It might look precarious but it is really easy to balance a bike on a stick.

Digitally Remove the Stick

Sometimes I don’t care to remove the stick from the photo, but other times the stick is just too distracting to leave untouched. Also, a freestanding bike looks pretty cool. I use the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop to retouch the photo, making sure to remove other traces of the stick. You can see in the animation below that I also retouched the stick’s shadow. Attention to detail goes a long way.

Human Stick

This technique is the easiest one to execute but it requires the use of a tripod and a remote trigger for your camera. But once you have the pictures, photoshop makes it easy to remove yourself from the image.

The goal here is to have a reference picture for the background area where you are standing and another picture where you are not making any contact with the bike. Instead of trying to explain this technique with words only, I made a quick video explaining how I set up the shot and how to edit the photo in Photoshop.

Get Into the Details

Now that you have the establishing glamour shots, you can focus on capturing the details. Get close enough to show the details but not too close that the viewers lose perspective that you are photographing a bike.

These are the important bits that most bike aficionados are looking for: headset, bar width, tire width or tire clearance, and drivetrain components. It’s not hard to find other interesting details to take pictures of. Bikes can be very photogenic.

Now, get out there, ride your bike and take some pictures that will make you precious steed look as good as possible.

Resources

If you are looking for beautiful pictures of bikes, make sure to check out Bikepacking.com and The Radavist. These websites won’t disappoint.

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