Challenging Situations

The company I work for designs and manufacturers knife gate valves. They range from 2" diameter (easy to photograph) to 42" and larger (not so easy to photograph). The bigger ones are extremely heavy and once finished, the shop guys are reluctant to stand them up because of the work involved. Also, standing them up means dinging up the paint (which then has to be retouched), risk of damage, etc. So, it's nearly impossible to get good angles when shooting them, plus it's difficult to get backgrounds around them. I've attacked these problems every which way, I've even had them lift me up on a pallet with the forklift to get a decent shot.

I need to come up with some good plans to: 1) get better angles, 2) figure out a way to deal with the backgrounds.

I don't have a lot of experience with photographing huge subjects like this, and the logistics of photographing these is unlike anything I've tackled in the past.

Our major sales rep in Canada has been pushing for photography on these for his brochures etc. Of course, he's a "big game hunter" and specifically wants many many shots of the big valves.

Any ideas? Here's a photo of a standard size valve.

Here's an example of how some of the photographs are used. This is a graphic for our company website:

Well, Steve, you did a heck of a fine job with that example!

As far as dinging the paint while tilting the valve up on end, how about just padding the concrete floor with cardboard or very dense rubber matting? And for your difficulty in finding a good background, why not greenscreen the thing and add a good background in postprocessing?

I like the image of that technician standing on the valve. Really reveals the massive nature of the hardware. You might consider using a pretty/petite model wearing an industrial jumpsuit, boots, safety glasses and a hardhat while reclining inside the valve's opening.

I envy you, Steve. That would be a FUN project to work on!

Steve, better angles can be obtained from about everything, no? I mean, like stand on something and move that 'something' around until you have it exactly like you want to have it?

Interesting Work Steve !

I.m sure they must have some large lifts so they might be able to suspend from cable, maybe from a fork lift and then moved to better environment and shot while suspended. Just a thought.