Just a quick update this week (I’m trying to be good and keep this blog updated fairly regularly). The shot above is from a big project I’m working on at the moment for a Medical School in Manchester. I do quite a lot of what could best be classed as ‘science photography’, and it’s something I actually enjoy as it’s often quite a challenge.
The scene above is a sealed, sterile fume cupboard type apparatus (apologies to any real scientists if you’re reading this, I can’t remember the proper name!) I’m shooting from inside an adjacent one with the lid open, through thick glass. I’m using an array of speedlights, one gelled blue in the hole behind the blood plasma bag and one gelled CTO (colour temperature orange) pointing towards the big hands. The blue/ orange lights are a trick I often employ for ‘sciencey’ shots like this, as I like the dramatic effect it gives, and it helps liven up what can often be quite a dull, dry scene if using just available light or normal flash.
The best thing that you can’t see in this shot is that I’m dressed head to toe in a full CSI type suit, with the requisite gloves, booties and hairnet in place (you can just make out the Scientist wearing his on the right of the pic). The whole room was a controlled sterile environment so I had to have every single piece of kit swabbed on the way in, and dress like an idiot. All good fun.
