How I shot this wild rain bike store ad

In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through the shoot I did for My Bike Store “Challenge riding” with cyclist Ayman Habeta. I’ll begin by explaining a little background on how the shoot came to be and then I’ll illustrate a photography technique I like to use in this.

Camera Gear List

• Camera: Canon Eos 6D
• Lens: Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG

Lighting Gear List

• Main Light: One Octabox 120cm with a Phottix Indra500 TTL Lamphead inside
• Rim Light: Two Bare Phottix Mitros Pluse
• Phottix Odin TTL Flash Trigger

 

I’m a big fan of getting things right in camera- this is not something I want to add in post later, so each element was carefully fabricated to achieve a sort of visual cohesion throughout each layer of the photo.

The rain is also a real effect shot in camera. It is created from a car washer Bosch AQT 35-12, which spread and pump out water that resemble rain, especially when thrown out of focus.

I made sure the “water” was not only falling directly on the subject, so my friend George Samy pumping water to the top to act real rain and spread it front and behind my subject to covering a wide area from behind the model all the way up to my camera lens for a realistic depth of field. After all- in real life the rain would be falling both in front of the camera, and behind.

 

 

As I shot, I had to keep an eye on the technical aspects, but more importantly, I had to make sure my subjects had engaging expressions. By posing them dramatically to look as if they were moving or looking for something, I was able to achieve a more dynamic image.

Before & After

Final Image

About The Author

Mohamed Gawish is a a Egyptian-born commercial photographer based in Mansoura, Egypt. You can see more of his work on his site, and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. This article was also published here and shared with permission.