Cool Work
Posted on: Wed September 14, 2011
Recently a had a job to photograph some refrigeration units – big ones that are mainly used in shops and restaurants.
I had been properly briefed and hired a studio to do the work in. I knew the units were big and I knew they were brushed aluminium, which was always going to be tricky to light.
I arrive at the studio at 7.30am to the fridges being delivered. To my horror they were not the brushed aluminium versions that I thought were coming, but polished aluminium!! Think of a cube with mirrors on every side and you’re nearly there!
Needless to say it was a tricky job to light and perhaps even more tricky to eliminate all the reflections. Lots of covering light stands with white packaging and taping white paper to walls and corners of the studio. Still it’s quite fun trying to solve problems like that. Rob at Lux Studios in Maidstone was very helpful and helped my figure out some solutions.
I shot the images whilst tethered to a Mac and this was so good, I’m not sure I could have done the job without this method really, at least not as well. It was so good to be able to see the images instantly and large, so I could stand with the client and make sure they were happy with each image as we went and meant I could delete any duds too, which saves a lot of time later.
I always knew that the images would need re-touching, but I didn’t think it would take me two days! Virtually every reflective panel had to be cut out and airbrushed to make any reflections smooth. I also cut out every fridge so I could make sure the background was pure white and so the client could use them in their brochure designs easily.