Shoot an Industrial Image without Destroying your Equipment

Описание: We are out at the SKB case factory again and today on The Slanted Lens, I am going to show you how to shoot an industrial image without destroying your equipment. We are shooting in a spray booth where they blast the case molds with BBs to give the metal enough texture to allow a newly formed case to be easily extracted. I want to get a shot of the spray machine in action, but that means that my lights and camera will be in there when all the BBs are flying around.

The first thing to do in a situation like this is to get an idea of what is going to happen when the machine is running. I wanted to find this out before I brought my equipment in and put it in harm’s way. The operator put on thick gloves and a big helmet/mask that reminded me of something Jules Verne would have written about. I got a hard hat and safety glasses.

To protect my new Dynalite Baja B4s, Lars got some 1’x1’ pieces of plexiglass and taped one on the front of each light. He taped up all the vents and wrapped each light in a plastic bag. I was worried the lights might overheat but they did not.

I placed the first light from behind to back light the BBs and act as a rim light on the operator. The second light will be the key light and in this small space, we had to get creative on the placement. Using a super clamp, I clamped a Monfrotto Magic Arm into it’s jaws. Then, I took a head from a C-stand and tightened the end that goes onto the stand to the spud on the super clamp. The light attached to the Magic Arm and the C-stand head attached to an L-bracket that was sticking out from the ceiling. The key light will have a 40 degree grid to prevent light from spilling all over the booth.

I attached another one of the plexiglass squares to a C-stand to protect myself and the camera. I am shooting at 160 ISO, f7.1 and a 1/100 shutter on my Canon 5D Mark III.

The images from this shoot turned out really well. I could only stay in the booth for short amounts of time though because the BBs were going everywhere – hitting me from every direction, going down my shirt, getting in my shoes. Hope this inspires you to take new and unique photos now that you know how to protect the equipment. Keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’.

Don't forget to head over to http://theslantedlens.com for more photography lessons, tutorials and more.
Subscribe to TSL so you never miss a video.