Cannondale decked out his LAB71 SuperSix EVO with an out-of-this-world paint job to match the Close Encounter changeout kit that ASSOS designed for our team at the Italian grand tour. Harry Talbot photographed Michael’s bike before the Grande Partenza in Bulgaria to show off the new livery and all of the special equipment that our partners supplied us for the Giro. Pink Vittoria Corsa Pro tires popped against the backdrop of the Black Sea, while the decals on his Vision Metron 45 RS wheels and SRAM RED AXS components shimmered in the light of the late afternoon sun.

Harry has bike check pictures down to an art. Whether you’re using a pro camera or the one on your phone, these are Harry Talbot’s best tips for taking better pictures of your own bike.

The background is super important. You either need to have a really aesthetically nice background that the bike is going to stand out against – maybe it’s a solid color, like some old Italian brick or something like that – and if you can't find that, then what you want is distance between the bike and the background so that you can get separation.

You want the ground to be flat. If you're shooting on a downward slope, it is going to look very unnatural. I always like a super clean shot. Ideally, one or two colors for the background is nice. That's just personal preference. 
Anywhere with a nice view you can make work. The bike should be the hero of the photo. You don't want something that takes away from it. 
The background is not the focus. It is just complementary to the bike. If you find a color that matches with the bike, that is going to be super nice.

Shooting in nice light is always recommended. You are always also going to have a really difficult time if your background's in the sun and your bike's in shade or vice versa. 
Make sure the light is even across the whole bike and backdrop, and if you can get out at golden hour, do that. That's just a general photography tip though.

First of all, clean your bike. Muc-Off is the best. That's why you should always shoot your bike at the start of your ride, not the end. 
A bike absolutely has to be shot drive side. You want the cranks level, horizontal, parallel to the ground. Mount bidons and make sure you put on your Wahoo. You want your tire valves at the top. Make sure your tires were mounted with the logos lined up with your valves. 
Shift into the big chainring. 
And then, there's so much debate about where the chain should be on the cassette. I've always put it on the bottom cog, but I know other people who do it mid block and then people who put it all the way up top. Just make sure you put it in the big chainring. We all like to pretend that we ride round in the big chainring all the time.

To get that picture where it looks like your bike is floating in the air, you need a friend. Get them to stand as far back from the bike as they can, while still holding the bike. 
Make sure the bike is all set up, and then one of you is going to count in. If it's windy, maybe the person holding the bike counts. And then on the count of three, they're going to let go of the bike, throw their hands in the air like it's the ‘80s and then you're going to press the shutter and hold it down taking multiple frames per second until they catch the bike.
 That will make the bike look like it is held up by magic, just floating in the air. Otherwise, use a stick to prop it up and Photoshop the stick out. Using a friend is definitely the easier way.

Crouch down to the same level as the bike. That is super important. Otherwise, you get a weird distortion. 
Take a nice square-on photo and a nice three-quarter front-on photo to show the best angles of the bike.

Shooting those is really nice on a telephoto lens, so something that's more than 100mm that will really compress the photo and give you a nice, blurry background when you open up the aperture. Between 100mm and 200mm is going to give you your classic bike check photo. 
You can definitely get creative and shoot it wide, but to get the classic shot use a telephoto lens.

If you are shooting on your phone, zoom in to 5x. Most new phones can punch in and still have really great quality. That will definitely make your bike look a lot better as well. If your friend is doing the throw-their-hands-in-the-air trick, turn burst mode on to make sure you get the right moment. I think portrait mode looks silly. It just doesn't look like 2.8 aperture looks; it still looks fake. In three years, use portrait mode.

Those are my best tips for taking pictures of a bike.