Taking pictures of our Bike

KapGranite

New Hampshire, USA
Now I have heard this from a few people but why is a "no no" to take pictures of your bike on the kickstand side? I have been told many times to always take the photo from the right side to not show the kickstand. I just thought it was weird but after 4-5 people were telling me this I was like huh is that really a thing?
 
Never heard it as a no-no, but angle of the bike on non-stand side would give the bike a better look. Same idea of not hunching shoulders forward in a picture. bike looks 'taller'.
 
Yes, composition can be subjective, but you should take pictures that you like. I personally will try any and every angle I can to see what I get. And I certainly will take a pic of the jiffy stand side if that is the side I want people to see. I recently made my own spark plug wires and if I want to focus on those then I need to take a pic of the jiffy stand side because that is where they are on my bike.

And compostionally, there are ways to make the bike look tall, have good light, and look great even with the lean toward you. One tactic is get low and shoot up. Another is take pictures during the magic hour when the sun is low on the horizon right after sunrise or right before sunset. More like 20 or 30 minutes than an hour, but you will have better light than you have ever had before during those short periods. A third tactic is try not to center the bike. Use the surroundings to draw the viewer to the bike, or even specific parts of the motorcycle. Think of a picture frame as having tic-tac-to squares drawn on it creating 9 areas. Keeping the focus of the image on the cross points, rather than in the middle of the squares is often more pleasing to a composition. So, when you focus the shot (don't forget to tap the screen on your phone or focus your lens on the camera on the exact object or person you are taking a pic of) the rest of the image that you compose should help focus toward what you want the viewers attention to land on.
 
I do something and it drives my mother crazy. It’s the Dutch Angle, the road and horizon lines are at an angle to the image edges. I’ve done this for years without realizing, just found it more interesting.
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I do something and it drives my mother crazy. It’s the Dutch Angle, the road and horizon lines are at an angle to the image edges. I’ve done this for years without realizing, just found it more interesting.


Never knew that was called the Dutch Angle, now i'm curious to find out why xD
 
is it because everything is flat, so to mix it up tilt the camera? :)

I think this is what the effect was originally intended for but hey, art is about doing new things right?

From Wikipedia and I am sure @scooterwuf can confirm or deny...

"The angle was widely used to depict madness, unrest, exoticism, and disorientation in German Expressionism, hence its name Deutsch, meaning German, was often conflated with the etymologically similar word Dutch which gives the corruption of the term now commonly used. Montages of Dutch angles are often structured such that the tilts are horizontally opposed in each shot – for example, a right-tilted shot will be followed with a left-tilted shot, and so on.[7]"

I smell a motovlogging challenge here...
 
Going back to the OP - there may be a couple of reasons why this 'advice' has come about.

If on the sidestand and you are taking a photo of the bike from your normal standing stance then it will often be lit better and look better taking the photo of the higher side rather than lower sidestand side.

The solution (and photos almost always look better this way anyway) is to take the photo from a lower angle. Position the bike in advance so the natural light is illuminating the side you are photographing.

Another reason may not be so much about 'not from the sidestand side' but 'from the exhaust side'. Which is to say most bike with a single exhaust have it on the right hand side (happens to be the non-side stand side). People like to show off their exhausts in photos.

Some might just think the 'propped uo bythe sidestand' look isn't for them.

Whatever the case - there's no reason at all not to take photos of the side-stand side of your bike.

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Now I have heard this from a few people but why is a "no no" to take pictures of your bike on the kickstand side? I have been told many times to always take the photo from the right side to not show the kickstand. I just thought it was weird but after 4-5 people were telling me this I was like huh is that really a thing?
HAHAHAHAHAHA never have I ever heard such a thing.. Funny..
 
It depends on the bike, some bikes are designed to look better on the right hand side. Anything with a single sided swingarm for example will typically have the wheel exposed on the RHS and the drivetrain on the left. Or if your bike has exhausts only on one side that will typically be the right hand side because its shiny and catches the eye with the bike on the sidestand.
 

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