Advice on Photographing Large Machinery

[PanzerHusky]

Hey all.

At work I've been anointed with the illustrious title of 'shop photographer'.

I'm very much into photography as a hobby, which is probably why they picked me, but I still have a lot to learn.

My subject is a 10 ft tall, 60,000 lbs CNC DHDM (Deep Hole Drilling Machine)







I've shot this machine as well as a couple other similar machines before but have never been happy with the result.

Just wondering if anyone has shot something similar successfully, and of course, how you did it.

Any thoughts?

 

[SoCalWill]

Bet that was fun to move.

You need to isolate your subject in post-processing:







--
Digital Camera and Adobe Photoshop user since 1999.
Adobe Lightroom is my adult coloring book.

 

[Szumi]

Lose the background.

 

[DANdeMAN]

In this case, a higher viewpoint would work... A ladder maybe?

On the PP side, a close cut and lighten the background like this perhaps.

--
D800E "The Monster" (07-2012)

+Daniel Gravelle+’s albums | Flickr

danielgravelle.ca

 

[drh681]

Get your viewpoint up off the floor.

Maybe turn off the overheads and light it with some RC flashes.

(Or just add the flashes to the lighting mix.)

Add an Operator if you shoot the workstation side.

Presuming the thing pumps mass quantities of coolant, gets some of that while it's running.

--
And don't walk in front of a moving bus.
Unless it's going backwards.
Then walking in front is the smart move.

 

[gordonpritchard]

Having a person in the shot gives it scale:



Use HDR techniques to modulate and add interest to the lighting. Dodge and burn areas to focus attention on the important elements. Remove extraneous items like the cables on the floor.

--
My photos: http://www.gordonpritchard.blogspot.com/

 

[Old Dawg]

Having a person in the shot gives it scale:



Use HDR techniques to modulate and add interest to the lighting. Dodge and burn areas to focus attention on the important elements. Remove extraneous items like the cables on the floor.

--
My photos: http://www.gordonpritchard.blogspot.com/

Gordon- Trying to figure out what press hall that is. I was in the newspaper industry for over 40 years and saw many of these, unfortunately the are becoming fewer and fewer.

 

[PanzerHusky]

Lots of great suggestions!

I've done some post production with other machines that have turned out quite well.

I like the idea of shooting the machine in motion, spewing coolant and oil. Gonna have to get up on a ladder too.

 

[gordonpritchard]

Having a person in the shot gives it scale:



Use HDR techniques to modulate and add interest to the lighting. Dodge and burn areas to focus attention on the important elements. Remove extraneous items like the cables on the floor.

--
My photos: http://www.gordonpritchard.blogspot.com/

Gordon- Trying to figure out what press hall that is. I was in the newspaper industry for over 40 years and saw many of these, unfortunately the are becoming fewer and fewer.

That's our local daily - The Times Colonist Victoria BC. I was there training their prepress an press operators.

--
My photos: http://www.gordonpritchard.blogspot.com/

 

[drh681]

Lots of great suggestions!

I've done some post production with other machines that have turned out quite well.

I like the idea of shooting the machine in motion, spewing coolant and oil. Gonna have to get up on a ladder too.

You might want to rig up for rain If the thing throws a lot of vaporized fluids around.

 

[Ellis Vener]

Clean up the shop floor and background as much as possible: get the van out of there and close that door as well.

How will the photos be used?

If for record keeping then your photo is fine.

if for advertising, press releases, and public relations (including website, Instagram, and other social media), or to make prints for the office walls consider the following:

Hire lighting gear (flash or constant, in this case, does not matter but before you do that hire an experienced assistant to help you with it.

Better yet hire a professional photographer with a consistent industrial, architecture and/or still life (really good still life and architectural photography are surprisingly similar in the necessary skills: both subjects are forms of sculpture although obviously different in scale). And learn from them as much as you can.

For marketing and advertising photography, you have to think about how the photograph needs to say not just "this is the machine we make" (that's a simple record shot and is necessarily visually dull which for a record shot is a virtue) but also "and this is what makes it is really, really interesting."

Techniques are important but secondary to this goal.

consi

 

[drh681]

Clean up the shop floor and background as much as possible: get the van out of there and close that door as well.

How will the photos be used?

If for record keeping then your photo is fine.

if for advertising, press releases, and public relations (including website, Instagram, and other social media), or to make prints for the office walls consider the following:

Hire lighting gear (flash or constant, in this case, does not matter but before you do that hire an experienced assistant to help you with it.

Better yet hire a professional photographer with a consistent industrial, architecture and/or still life (really good still life and architectural photography are surprisingly similar in the necessary skills: both subjects are forms of sculpture although obviously different in scale). And learn from them as much as you can.

For marketing and advertising photography, you have to think about how the photograph needs to say not just "this is the machine we make" (that's a simple record shot and is necessarily visually dull which for a record shot is a virtue) but also "and this is what makes it is really, really interesting."

Techniques are important but secondary to this goal.

consi

 

[Ellis Vener]

Clean up the shop floor and background as much as possible: get the van out of there and close that door as well.

How will the photos be used?

If for record keeping then your photo is fine.

if for advertising, press releases, and public relations (including website, Instagram, and other social media), or to make prints for the office walls consider the following:

Hire lighting gear (flash or constant, in this case, does not matter but before you do that hire an experienced assistant to help you with it.

Better yet hire a professional photographer with a consistent industrial, architecture and/or still life (really good still life and architectural photography are surprisingly similar in the necessary skills: both subjects are forms of sculpture although obviously different in scale). And learn from them as much as you can.

For marketing and advertising photography, you have to think about how the photograph needs to say not just "this is the machine we make" (that's a simple record shot and is necessarily visually dull which for a record shot is a virtue) but also "and this is what makes it is really, really interesting."

Techniques are important but secondary to this goal.

consi

 

[drh681]

Clean up the shop floor and background as much as possible: get the van out of there and close that door as well.

How will the photos be used?

If for record keeping then your photo is fine.

if for advertising, press releases, and public relations (including website, Instagram, and other social media), or to make prints for the office walls consider the following:

Hire lighting gear (flash or constant, in this case, does not matter but before you do that hire an experienced assistant to help you with it.

Better yet hire a professional photographer with a consistent industrial, architecture and/or still life (really good still life and architectural photography are surprisingly similar in the necessary skills: both subjects are forms of sculpture although obviously different in scale). And learn from them as much as you can.

For marketing and advertising photography, you have to think about how the photograph needs to say not just "this is the machine we make" (that's a simple record shot and is necessarily visually dull which for a record shot is a virtue) but also "and this is what makes it is really, really interesting."

Techniques are important but secondary to this goal.

consi

 

[PanzerHusky]

The machine is one of our products and I'm taking photos for a the instruction manual. Not as critical as advertisment work, which I believe we do hire experienced professionals for, but the photos still need to look good.

 

[Ellis Vener]

The machine is one of our products and I'm taking photos for a the instruction manual. Not as critical as advertisment work, which I believe we do hire experienced professionals for, but the photos still need to look good.

All right now we have some parameters.

1) clean up the background as much as possible: lose the truck, close the rolling doors, sweep the floors, etc.

2) buy some 4x8 panels: these can be gatorboard, foamcore, styrofoam, and building insulation panels. Buy enough to surround the machine on all sides. Stand the panels on end and on the floor and place them as close as you can to the machine without Blocking the camera's view. You will be using the existing light in the shop (in other words it's coming from the ceiling as top light) but you want clean reflections on the sides - which, along with creating fill light, is the reason to surround the machine with white panels.

In the photo if you need to male the area around the device pure white, hire a retouching/ clipping path service for that. I use www.Keyindiagraphics.com for that as they can do it faster, better, and cheaper than I can. If you write to me I'll send you my contact's contact information.