I like a photographic challenge – in fact, I had a project called “something from nothing” in the past, where I’d go to places with seemingly no photographic interest and then diligently crawl around looking for something interesting. They usually ended up with really dark skies and became broody and moody…. it’s easier to make dramatic dark shots from such situations.
Well I had a similar challenge last week where I was invited to perform my “mcfade magic” on a waste disposal site in Sheffield. Its a place where companies send their used waste – things like old paint and waste chemicals come to the site and are dealt with in a clean and environmental way.
Having seen my HDR and strobist work on this website, I was asked to go along and use those techniques where I could to create something that would stand out from normal industrial images – so that’s what I did.
Above is a “colour popping” HDR of the inside of one of the buildings – using HDR allows you to make the place look really bright, especially getting detail into the roof areas which were very dark to the naked eye.
Here we have one of the guys in a oxygen face-mask pouring waste paint into a tank ready for processing. We had a single flash on this one, high to the left, and then underexposed the background for a bit of drama. I did of course create “normal” shots too, just in case this dark-skied look wasn’t appropriate.
A little creative licence with the fluorescent tubes which they recycle…
Off camera flash on people opening up the trucks
Another interior HDR showing the safety features of the complex
This reminds me of the end scene of Raiders of the Lost Arc….
So something different to the norm – really enjoyable project and a great bunch of people on the site who were only to happy to join in and help.
