I don’t usually shoot bicycles in direct sunlight for a few reasons. One of which is chromatic aberrations, or the silvers blowing out with a magenta outline. This is a real pain, especially on spokes and chrome parts, resulting in having to considerably stop down a nice, fast piece of glass. Shooting in direct sunlight also means you have to plan out the shadow placement and deal with the resulting high-contrast. Diffused light brings out colors and small nuances in the frames and components in an even, predictable way.

While I was shooting the Bishop NAHBS track bike, I tested out some shots in direct light and these are the only two that I ended up liking. The first one is nice because the radial spokes are light and dark, depending on which side they’re laced and the blue nipples really pop out. Something about the curvature of the track drops in the second screamed “don’t trash me!”. Some people prefer direct light, I like to keep it in the shade…