Industrial photography project for Magnetic Metals
This industrial photography assignment was shot for Magnetic Metals near Los Angeles, where they create magnets for the aerospace, defense, medical, and electronics industries. The project aimed to show off the company’s specialty processes that set them apart from their competitors.
Unlike construction photography, I could choreograph some photographs to create a visual hook. We photographed the worker in plates for the first industrial photograph of the annealing furnace. The first image shot did not include the flames in the background because they went off on a timer. However, the 2nd and 3rd plates included the flames and some highlights on the magnetic casing. We later striped in the flames and highlights in Photoshop.
The photography equipment we used was one strobe light with a gelled grid spot, out of frame on the left. This created a natural-looking highlight on his face and filled some shadows. We shot on a tripod so most of the photographic elements remained in register and more easily do post-production. The lens we used was an 80-200 mm f/2.8 Nikon lens and our cameras were Nikon Z9’s.
Additionally, we used Ice Lights on some images for fill and we shot to an iPad so the art director could see what he was getting.
On the 2nd image of the worker with the baseball cap on, we used the same method and equipment. Our key light was a 500-watt head with a grid spot on it to highlight the worker’s face. We shot on a tripod and bracketed with a high-speed motor drive to capture five exposures in under one second. This allowed me to bring down the highlights and make it look natural.
The result is a slightly highlighted subject and a slightly subdued background.
Photography Process
The third image was the most difficult because the machine had to be cleaned up before we shot and then retouched in Photoshop to remove smudges and scratches on the lathe machine. We had to shoot five plates of the machine and then assemble them in Photoshop.
The first frame was for the surface of the lathe machine, the 2nd image was for the background and the 3rd and 4th images were of the cutting machine with the doors open because the windows were too grimy to shoot through. However, we do have a version with the doors closed and we just cut out the windows so you could see the process as if the windows were spotless.
The 5th image was of the company worker at the lathe controls and the 6th image was of the foreground.
The equipment we used was two 500-watt strobes to light the worker and the interior of the lathe. We also shot to an iPad so we could keep track of the plates. Once a gain we shot 5 plates. One to light the worker, three with the window doors open, and a fifth for the machine. Everything was assembled afterwards in Photoshop.
Industrial photography allows me to exercise all my professional faculties to create and interesting images using all the methods learned over a lifetime of photography. I use the skill sets I earned as a photojournalist, editorial photographer, and industrial photographer to create natural-looking well-produced images.
