Industrial photography lighting on the run, at 2 a.m.
04/05/14 18:44 Filed in: Industrial Photography | Corporate Photography | Annual Report Photography | Professional Photography Australia
Our project was to photograph a high tech, high capability, rail track welding unit. Capable of automated welding of rail track joints at far quicker rates than previously obtained.
Working while the track is not in service ( meaning late at night ). This large truck based unit can weld extensive lengths of track with stops of around 90 seconds to 2 minutes per weld. Before moving on around 250 meters to the next location.
The cost and time commitments our client was under meant we had to shoot within their work schedule. No time to stop just to make pretty pictures.
The light output from the welding head compared to the available light to shoot at around 2.00 in the morning would mean a whole lot of sparks and glare in one spot in and otherwise totally black frame. No detail in the truck, location and very little on the workers.
Even smart digital cameras find these conditions beyond their capabilities. And our clients certainly require a far more sophisticated result.
We obviously needed high powered, remote triggered flash units. Set up to light the rest of the equipment and workers.
No additional lighting
Additional strobe lighting lifts the unit out of the darkness
No additional lighting
Additional strobe lighting lifts the unit out of the darkness
We arrived on site early to give ourselves time to checkout the possible location and workout our options. Only to find it starting to rain. The unit could not be used until that stopped. Nor could we set up and leave our high capacity flash units in the rain.
Eventually at around 2.00a.m. the rain stopped. The track was free of trains and our client’s work team was scrambling to make up for the lost time.
James having planned with the client what needed to be shot managed the camera side of the shooting. Chris worked on setting up the lighting units and making adjustment to positioning, direction and light levels as directed by James via sign language of our own particular sort, from behind the camera.
2 minutes later the unit was off to it’s next location 250 meters down the track. We where gathering camera, tripod, lens, light stands and lights. To make our way in the dark to its next stop and our only other opportunity to nail some additional shots.
It was a rush in more ways than one. So as we finally packed away the gear at around 4.00 a.m. Coffee at any outlet we could find at that time of the morning before going on to a new days work seemed very appealing. It was a good nights work and an exciting challenge with satisfying results for everyone.
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