Industrial-Strength Problem Solving

The clients think the machines are beautiful. The gray concrete walls, the coveralls, hard hats, fluorescent, incandescent and mercury vapor lights, the pipes, beams, cables, electric lines—they're all fine. So go on, make them look their best—and, of course, make them look high tech.

If you're Charles Orrico, you reach into your bag of imaging tricks and make it happen. Charles is an editorial, commercial and industrial photographer, and often his assignment in the industrial category is to photograph factories, production lines, construction sites and other less-than-photogenic locales to create the dramatic, artistic and flattering images you see in annual reports and various corporate communications.

Bag of tricks? Make that an SUV. But because the first things out of that SUV are Charles's imaging savvy and experience, he's well on his way to a done deal.

The first thing he considers is position, and that usually means one thing: getting close enough to the subject so that all the clutter and distracting elements are cropped out. What are the options when it comes to where he can stand? What edge will his lenses give him? Often the aim is not to tell the truth but to hide it, and to accomplish that, Charles likes the AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED for its slight telephoto reach and close-up capability; also, the AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED. He'll call on the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED and AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED when he can get physically close enough to eliminate the surroundings.

For example, the image of the pharmaceutical company's tablet-coating machine. "The process takes place in an enclosed vat," Charles says. "There's a little porthole-like window, and I stuck the 24-70mm in while the machine was running. The problem was that the coating going onto the pills was also going onto the lens, so it was take a few frames, take the lens out, clean it, take a few more frames. The picture is about combining what's interesting with what tells the story—in this case, the spray coming off the nozzles."

Mixed lighting? "Sometimes you handle it by bringing in the studio strobe lights, portable power packs and color gels; sometimes an SB-900 with color gels for fill light for a tight area. Basically you're looking to replace or overpower the light that's there; no way they're going to turn their lights off. Working close helps a lot—the lights can more easily take over if the area is small and you're close to your subject. And color gels can overcome the awful gray, green or tan of the machines." Charles will often adjust the camera's white balance setting to get "whatever's pleasing, whatever looks good on the LCD in the test shots."

Often posing is essential. The blue gloved hand sifting the pills, for instance, is nothing you'd ever see; in fact, the setup contaminated the pills and they were destroyed after the shoot.

Ultimately it all comes down to Charles's experience, skill, ability to visualize solutions and apply the capabilities of the equipment to the problem.  And to do it quickly. "You're interrupting the production line," he says. "I find my position, choose the lens and set up the lighting while they're working. I do a quick test shot with my assistant, and then we get the person and the product together and run the shots as fast as we can."

Then it's pack the SUV and move on to the next beautiful machine.

Not all of Charles's assignments call for photography inside factories, and the range of his imaging is on view at his website, www.orricophotography.com.