Wednesday, August 10, 2011

I'll Try To Catch Up

This summer is passing by fast, I've been extremely busy shooting assignments as well as teaching at various workshops. The corporate assignments are coming in faster then ever.

One of those assignments put me underground in a gold mine in Nevada. I was shooting for a South African based mining concern. There operation is entirely underground, not the most pleasant places to create photos. One of the photos my client wanted me to shoot was an image of miners walking out of the mine shaft and walking through the mine.

This first set up shot was a test to see how much light could be produced from one SB-800 behind the miners before they came to the surface. I could not decide if I wanted to light the wall behind the miners or shoot the strobe straight at their backs.

In the first example you see my assistant John holding the flash pointed straight at the camera.

In the next picture, I had John point the flash at the back wall.

Between the two, I preferred having the flash pointing at the miners back. The final image is shown here.

I also photographed miners walking through the mine. The best way to shoot this sort of thing is to back light them. I used a mine vehicle with it's headlights on for this purpose. I'm showing both variations, I can't make up my mind if I like it cool or warm, your thoughts?



I'll show you more from this assignment in the days ahead. I did want you to know that there are still spaces available at my Maine Media Workshop in Rockport. I'll be teaching a location lighting class Sept. 11-16th. For more information regarding that workshop check out the Maine Media Workshops Web Site.

A few more things to tell you about. I'm headed to Austria to visit a good friend as well as teach a series of SSBR workshops. If your interested in attending one of my Austrian workshops, please contact my friend Eric HERE


8 comments:

razorsharpimaging said...

The cool one seems to give a better feeling of emptiness. Id go with that one

- Feroz

ahbphotography said...

great images! Got to be the cooled down image for me. Andy, Scotland.

Wayne said...

How did you front light the miners?

Michael Daniels said...

Cool or warm. To me the cool brings up thoughts of the abyss. The warm makes me think of summer bonfires (only sort-of though) it is still a big hole. Personally I'd go with cool.

David Tejada said...

Wayne: The miners were lit using available light. The mine shaft opening is that light source. DT

Jonathan T said...

I'd use the yellowish/warm one. The company will want to give a good impression of the employees work environment and not have it be cold/harsh. Thinking from the company's perspective, the warm one is the better choice.

Josen said...

Gold Mine ? Warm Light for sure :)

Claude Angers said...

David, even though the cool one draws my eye in and has good impact, the warm one is probably more appropriate for the client.