POSST Bicycles — Studio & Campaign

"ColoursAlive is behind all key shots of POSST bikes. The pictures are more than perfect." — Unni Tharakan, POSST Bicycles

POSST entered the premium D2C bicycle market in India needing a visual identity that could stand alongside international brands. Founded in Chennai in 2020, POSST builds handcrafted steel road, gravel and touring bikes from Columbus tubing — with Campagnolo groupsets and other European component brands — in a category where steel performance frames are rare on Indian roads. Their brief was direct: take world-class images of our bicycles with standard angles on white and black backgrounds. These images were to be used in their social media, collateral, and the brand website, among other places. The images needed to withstand the test of time.

At ColoursAlive, we have photographed many different types of bicycles - from brands like TI Cycles, WaltX & Triad, Pedaleze, Hero Lectro, Bianchi and more, but the POSST bicycles stood apart from the rest right from the outset.

The constraint: painted steel tube profiles and highly finished component groups are unforgiving under poor lighting — every weld line, cable run and drivetrain detail needs to be clearly visible. The solution had to be repeatable across new model launches, not a one-off effort.

The creative direction was built around controlled studio light that respected the bike's silhouette and steel frame geometry. Hard-edged rim lighting defined the tubes against a dark background while shaped fill light kept the Campagnolo drivetrain and premium component groups readable without flattening the frame.

Each bike was photographed separately, across a span of a few years (when each was launched). Having a consistent process, and reference images allowed us to keep lighting similar and consistent across shoots. Tethered shooting allowed us to ensure that we were getting the right amount of detail.

We started working with POSST for their first release: the POSST OBAN, followed by their next launch, the POSST OBLIQUE, and finally, the POSST OBERON. All these bicycles were shot in-studio, but only the OBAN got some additional photos taken in our brick-walled workshop.

Post-production focused on consistent tonality across the range — particularly challenging given the variety of frame colours and textures. We used Capture One Pro to process the images after basic colour correction, and thereafter retouching was in Adobe Photoshop. All images were delivered with clean white backgrounds, and transparent PNG versions were delivered too, for use where needed.

For some of the 'special' images, we used techniques like focus-stacking and special software to create images with much greater depth of field than would normally be possible.

"ColoursAlive is behind all key shots of POSST bikes. The pictures are more than perfect."

— Unni Tharakan, POSST Bicycles

The resulting image library became the visual foundation for POSST's online presence — from posst.bike to social media posts. The relationship has continued across multiple product launches as POSST has expanded its road, gravel and touring range.