Take 2 of Bokeh: Properly setup shot this time :P

ok.. this time I took 5 more mins to set it up properly. Starting a new thread again cause its pretty 'night and day' compared to the previous 30 second effort.. placing them together would be offensive

I went with the black cloth (well, jacket liner in this case ) as suggested by Fox, killed the tungstens as I originally was going to, threw my cheap-ass home-made-milk-bottle Softbox on the flash and stuck it off camera to the left, dialled it down to nuke the 'middle ground' and leave just the foreground bike, a little bit of shadow and surface, and the distant Bokeh. I also threw some quick and nasty LED's on the desk in the background - which worked - but gives the ghosting effect because they are too close together (I'd hoped they'd blend - but without a diffuser, I guess not ).

Fails in the pics include some blown highlights on the rear brake rotor, and the curve on the main-frame. I could have moved the flash back some more and dialled it down to some more (I had to adjust between each bokeh filter anyway due to different aperture sizes anyway..) but to be honest it looked like it would just scrape in on the LCD at the time.. really only noticed how ugly it looked when importing them. This is also why the exposure balance is off a bit between pics... sometimes I nailed it.. sometimes I didn't

Would be nice if I had another light camera-right, but only got the one speedlite at the moment... and I do need to get some filter-gels.. I hate the light-temp even with a softbox...

 

Alrighty, I would just like to point out that what I write in here is only my perception, and anyone can have differing ideas. I am by no means an expert, but offering what I would find to be more attractive in the photo.

Well, putting the black sheet down has definitely helped in the pictures focus, as in where you want the people to look. Now you have them looking at what you want them to see, not distracted by the curtains, dust, colour of the table, etc. Pictures 4 and 6 have a little too much in the way of lighting on the sheet at the wheels area for me, and draw the eyes away from the effect.

Overall picture 2 is the best for me, as you have the effect of the bokeh happening in the background, the bike is bright enough to see every detail on it, and the sharp of the bike to the blur of the bokeh is alright.

For whatever reason most of the pictures seem to have a slight fuzziness to the rear end of the bike, where the front of the bike is sharp. I don't know if this is because of the angle the bike was on, or the direction the flash was coming from, but it's only slight and I'm being a little picky (not reflective of you, but it's the only way you'll find out what others see).

Now, I don't mind the blown highlight look on the rear brake rotor, as I feel it somewhat adds to the effect of the photos. A bright reflection of light in the foreground, the sharp picture of the bike, the blurred look of the lights in the background all flow with how the eyes will look at it. If you are possibly looking at doing this on a real bike later on, you will more than likely find that the angles of most bikes will throw more reflections back than this model is. It's something that you could possibly look at incorporating into the photo to make the style more "yours", if you get my drift.

Anyway, that's just my 2c, and would love to have others inputs on this...

 

Are you colour balancing to the flash colour temp? You probably should considering that's the main source of light. If the in-camera preset isn't warm/cool enough for what you like, then custom balance to something a bit warmer (or just do it in post if you're shooting RAW).