Industrial photography

[Wes]

I've got a company interested in hiring me to shoot some of the equipment that they manufacture (boilers and stuff like that). Any tips on what to consider or how to do this? Never done this kind of stuff before. My son's baseball coach is one of the honcho's at this particular company and he likes the sports shooting that I've done.

Any tips or advice at all would be VERY helpful. Thanks!

[bondarnes]

You have chosen one of the most difficult subject possible for your first job. The lighting will be a bitch. Your best bet may be to shoot available light and long shutter speeds to increase DOF. Several years ago I had to photograph some huge mist extraction equipment for the Navy. I tried tenting it, but I ended up painting it with light at night in a dark shop.

[CaptainTom]

Don is correct. This can be a nightmare. Natural light would be my first choice, with lots of PS corrections. HDR ?

[Wes]

I was already thinking tripod and long exposures. I hadn't considered HDR, though. Might be a good excuse to buy Photomatix. Do you think HDR would be necessary for web-sized images?

[kenw]

Not sure about HDR, my limited experience was enough to convince me to wait until the equipment got outside....which was an option for me but possibly not in your case. It would be worth moving it outside if at all possible.

But definitely flash and the reflections it makes will be a booger to control, enough floods will bring down the grid.....ambient light is the only way indoors unless you can do the flash paint like Don mentioned.

Watch the white balance as a lot of industrial places use sodium vapor+mercury vapor +flourecent that make a real mess of color balancing. Do custom WB for sure.

Also get them to dedicate a manlift and operator for your use if the subjects are that big.

uno mas: wide angle lens is a must. I used my 20/1.8 the few times I did this.

[CaptainTom]

suggestion on DOF . Find out the size of the subject (depth). How far away you will be when shooting it.

Use this calculator to determine Hyperfocal distance and set it up accordingly.

[iCe]

Boilers. In place or at the factory? Do they need a control programmer? I've done a few boiler control systems. I like that kind of work as it's a little outside of the ho hum day to day control system programming that i now do. I guess if I did a few more they would become ho hum too though

If they are on site and running I think it makes for a more dynamic image. If not, it is what it is. The same rules of photography apply to them as anything else. Morning and afternoon light is best but depending on where in the plant the boiler is located one may be preferential to the other. Use the angle of the shot to minimize the crappage in the image. With any luck the deareator will be close by and you can get a little steam plume in the image. That will give the viewer the sense that it's running.

Here's a couple of snapshots of an old, but refurbished with new technology, boiler in place and running (note that I didn't follow any of my advice above. I missed the steam plume for one and shot and the wrong time of day for another.) In hindsight I should have shot the Lo-Nox burner (2nd shot) wider and included the fuel system shutdown valves (yellow things at the bottom) for a cool color contrast.