So, what do you need to create beautiful photographs of large pieces of equipment?

Here are just a few of the things we rely on for industrial photography:

• Client input: Glamour shots may be obvious. But only the engineers and marketing people may know what shots are critical for telling the product story.
• A knowledge of lighting: Going hand-and-hand with solving problems, photographic lighting is all about managing reflections. Many of the industrial products we shoot are made of highly reflective polished metal or painted metal. If you want to avoid unwanted hotspots or highlights, you need to know how to light!
• Powerful strobes: A majority of the time, we use our strobes. (There are cases when this isn’t possible or the best option.)
• White paper: Rolls of white paper are a key tool for managing reflections from the environment around the product and for saving time in post production if a product needs to be dropped to white.
• A wide angle lens: Did I mention some of these products are BIG? And we usually have a limited space to shoot in.
• Photoshop skills: Sometimes it’s most efficient to solve as many problems as we can in camera and use Photoshop to perfect the final photo. Experience tells us when this is the case. PS is also key for fixing the distortion that comes with shooting wide angle.