corporate location portrait energy storage commercial photographer san diego
All Things Made Beautiful
11.18.15
P2 has been working on a lot of industrial gigs lately, which is awesome because that’s the stuff we love. This area of photography doesn’t get much press out there in the world (not enough professional models and exotic destinations?), but it is always some of the most difficult work we shoot. At the heart of every job is a very real challenge: how to make this type of subject look beautiful, interesting and unique.
Of course, a lot of it has to do with…um…ah…light. Light can be ambient, applied by strobe, applied in post, or a bit of all three. It’s amazing what can happen to a giant white container when the sun flares around it at just the right angle. Add a bit of sky, a bit of color, and suddenly there’s an emotional feel to an inanimate object where before there was just a lot of cement and steel.
Industrial photography naturally lends itself to patterns, lines and angles. Aligning all of these in a way that is pleasing to the eye can really highlight the strong graphic design inherent in many things we humans build. Clearing the clutter and focusing on repetition and design elements makes a busy scene come together.
People are another great tool when used effectively. When I was a kid, I loved Fraggle Rock, in particular the little spongy underground workers called Doozers. What fascinated me about the Doozers was their ability to build interesting structures many times their size. They themselves were just tiny parts of their creations. Thinking of people as part of the landscape, as an accent to the overall story you are trying to tell, works especially well in industrial settings. The world at work is endlessly fascinating. The challenge to make all things beautiful is too.