On a quiet industrial estate near Preston, is a warehouse that is stacked floor to ceiling with all sorts of items, ready to be shipped out to various parts of the world in dire need . This is the hub of The International Aid trust.
My brief was to capture images that conveyed the amount of work and effort that goes into the logistics of the place, along with images of the warehouse and contents, in an effort to portray just how much stock they hold. I was also to meet and photograph the founder, Rev. Bernard Cocker, the gentleman you can see above.
I wanted to photograph the Reverend in the warehouse, putting him I context with the work being done. My main problem was down to the fact the warehouse isn’t brightly lit and daylight was fading pretty fast too. Yes, I can fully light him, so what’s my problem? I wanted to include the interior of the warehouse as a backdrop, and if I just sallied on and fully lit my subject without a thought to the ambient light and background, I would have ended up with a black hole behind him. Not very inspiring!
I raised the ISO to 800 and metered for the ambient. I basically got 1/30th sec at f4 which wasn’t brilliant really, but it would do. I wanted the warehouse to be subdued, and therefore increased the aperture to f5.6 which would under expose it.
The light was provided by the Lencarta Safari Classic, with a 120cm folding octabox to my right at around seven feet high. The rim light was provided by a 70x100cm folding softbox camera left, and in line with the Reverend.
I moved the octabox further back to ensure the rimlight fully separated the reverend from the darker background. The Safari was at 1/8th output
Nikon D3 1/30th sec ISO800 24-70mm f5.6
