As it happens, I've been roped into a commercial shoot this coming Tuesday.
Some of you will be delighted to learn that it involves aircraft. My cousin's
pilot is developing a web site to try to increase his flying business, and the
two of them have shanghai'd me into doing the photography. I think I'll get
paid, but I'm not sure, and it doesn't really matter because once again I'm
lunging far outside my comfort zone.
According to the pilot, he's looking for some industry standard type photos,
some of which will be aircraft interiors with tray tables down and muffins and
coffee and stuff. I looked at a few sites and saw exactly what he was talking
about. Boring as hell, but illustrative and designed to appeal to the 1%.
The most important question is this: Will 24mm be wide enough to get good, in
proper proportion shots of the interior of the aircraft? (I assume said
aircraft will be the small Citation. Could be something else or others as well,
but the tubular aspect at fairly close quarters I suspect will remain the
same.) The Nikon 24-70 is as wide as I currently go. I might be able to rent a
wider lens but I'm not sure if the quality would be there.
Secondly, I assume I'm going to have to light, and considering the close
quarters, I'm guessing some kind of bounce flash? I've got a couple of manual
flashes, and a Flash Bender, as well as a ity-bity soft box that clamps on the
flash head. The photos I've seen have been pretty evenly lit, and I believe
exclusively with artificial light. The window shades seem to be down in most of
the daylight pictures. All of the interior lights are on.
The Citation is not a very big craft, so I think one flash ought to do it, but
I could position a second flash behind one of the rear seats to amplify the
on-camera flash. (I also have the pop-up on-camera flash that is fully
automated.
My guess is the pilot is going to want some images of him doing pilot stuff,
although unfortunately we won't be going aloft this time. I'm going to do my
best to convince him he really needs some in-flight shots where I balance flash
in the cockpit with ambient light and get the sun reflected off his sunglasses,
and maybe a nice bank over Portland Head LIght. Neat stuff that will get me
back in the right seat and airborne. For this time we might be doing pre-flight
inspection, or sitting in the left seat with charts and graphs and the
instrument panel lit up. I know 24 is going to be a bit narrow in the cockpit,
but I think I can make do.
Any and all advice appreciated. Any of you ever done any of this?
--Bob
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|