Shots in a factory

riu

riu

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steve
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I have been asked by work if I will take some shots of products being manufactured inside the factory. The factory is totally lit by Tungsten lighting. I am planning to use off camera flash, will I need to use gels on the speedlites to balance the light.

Steve
 
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riu said:
Cheers Gary, whats the best way to do it?
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Find out exactly what type of tungsten lighting you'll be dealing with, then go to www.leefilters.com, look up those lights and you will find that their website will tell you exactly what you need.
 
It would be unusual for a factory to be all tungsten lighting these days, but if it is, then the gel for that is a CTO. You might also get a Half-CTO that is a lighter shade of orange.

That's as close a match as it's realistic to get, then do a final tweak in post processing (best to shoot Raw). The idea behind a Half-CTO is that if the gel is too strong, then the background starts to go blue and that tends to look worse than a warmer background that's more visually acceptable.
 
Yes, that's why I said that the OP should find out exactly what type of tungsten lighting he will be dealing with. TBH it's more likely to be fluorescen rather than tungsten, and that can be a nightmare because there can be lots of different colours, as people have replaced tubes with ones of different colours, and the colours can vary dramatically.

But there can be other types of discontinuous spectrum lighting too, the worst can be those horrible orange things, can't remember what they're called
 
Thanks for the replies, the factory as a very high roof due to the machinery inside it, and the temperature (largest bakery in Europe), up until recently the factory was lit by individual sodium vapour lights. I am back in work Monday so will enquire and try and find out what's actually in, 99 % sure not fluorescent tubes in the main factory area.

Regards
Steve
 
You will need to gel the lights. You need to know exactly what local lighting light it is. Speed lights are going to be small beer in a large working environment like a factory. You may want more powerful lighting, especially if you need to light the environment. I use these people for Gels http://www.leefilters.com/lighting/technical-list.html
 
Speed lights are going to be small beer in a large working environment like a factory.
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It depends on what kinds of shots you're getting, how fast you can work etc.

If you get a sheet of each of quarter and half CTO, you'll proably be alright, especially if you're just using the speedlights to shape a bit of light in the right places, and shooting fairly draggy apart from that. Pick up some velcro dots from Wilkos.

A lot of industrial places do rather tend to have an odd combination of lighting - you may find yourself mostly just fixing it in post.
 
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I've shot in an engineering factory before, luckily the light was white, but I find natural light is best for these types of things, and just tripod/highest ISO you can get away with, and then fix within post. Consider if the warm yellow glow helps capture the atmosphere etc.
 
Well i have checked out the lighting at work, in the area's that are high, then it is lit with sodium vapour lamps, the area's that are lower are lit by flourecsents . The shots in the area where sodiums are will be mainly static stuff, the flourecent lit area is where moving product will be shot. Hopefully going to take in my gear this week and see what the results come out like. Then i can work out the best method to attack it from.
Thanks for all replies and tips.
Steve
 
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