Manufacturing Photography

My barely concealed inner-nerd always gets very excited when we’re commissioned to photograph a manufacturing facility or industrial site that uses a lot or automation and robotics in their processes.

Many manufacturing businesses commission photography to illustrate annual reports, pitch documents, or websites, as well as providing a library of royalty free industrial photography with a consistent style that can be used across the business to engage with customers, investors and staff.

Photographing industrial sites isn’t without it’s challenges, which is where a site visit and not rushing the process usually delivers a better end result.

This manufacturing facility from a recent commission south east of Melbourne CBD produced millions of food containers every year.  While I won’t be revealing any commercially sensitive figures, it’s safe to say that my jaw dropped when I was told the numbers produced every year.

With a very high level of automation, this particular factory relies on just a handful of key staff to monitor the 24 hour production lines that are constantly pumping out products for their clients.

Photographing production lines in action can be a little challenging as production can’t always be slowed down or held up for long, so long exposures, creative angles and macro detail shots can be used to help give a rounded view of the processes and machinery on site.