Advice for Garage Workshop Photoshoot

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Dougie
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Hi All,

My mate owns a car / mot garage in Busby, Glasgow.

During lockdown he has done an internal refurb of the workshop etc with a redone floor etc.

He's asked me to do a photoshoot for his online presence before he re-opens for business early next month.

Be grateful for any advice on the best way to go about lighting this.

I have all the relevant gear I'm sure to require (3 flash heads, stands, softboxs etc).

Thanks,
Dougie.
 
Here's a couple of existing images to give an idea of the scene.

workshop-540x380.jpg

workshop-mot.jpg
 
This isn't an easy question to answer, mainly because I don't see it as a lighting challenge at all - more of a marketing challenge really.
The place is a bit of a Tardis, much bigger on the inside with 3 x 2post lifts but a small entrance, so I would concentrate mainly on the inside, although if there's customer parking available (could be either on or off road) I'd show that too.

The inside of this type of workshop is always practical but cluttered, and they usually all look much the same so what he needs to show his customers is his expertise and speciality, rather than just the tools and things. If for example he specialises in vintage motorbikes then yes, show one, but show it being worked on. If he specialises in fairly new family cars then show one of those up on one of the lifts and have another on the floor, again being worked on, and give pride of place to any sophisticated analytical tool that he has - it's really about identifying the target customers and reaching out to them. It needs vehicles and people in it, but not crowded with them. As a customer, if I were looking for a new garage I'd be looking for one that works on my kind of car and that's busy, but not packed out.

This type of workshop is usually pretty dingy in terms of interior lighting, with the fitters relying on portable lights, so in terms of lighting all that I think I would do is to make the inside bright and inviting, but without overpowering the ambient lighting, so a mixture of ambient and flash, with a long enough exposure for the ambient to do its job.

If the floor is new and shiny I'd get the main shot with the camera really low, to make the most of the floor, add a light to emphasise the shine and cleanliness and use a wideangle lens (but not an extreme one) to add space and depth. But I'd make sure that all the verticals are squared up in PS, and of course would also dial in the lens correction.

Don't know whether that helps or not, but it's all I've got..
 
Thanks Garry, that's all very helpful as usual.

Much obliged.

Dougie.

p.s. there is another entrance to the lifts etc, these are existing web images, probably taken on a mobile phone.
 
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I would be tempted to shoot this 3 ways. As a property shoot, then as a details shoot. then as a social shoot.

In terms of marketing that's what's needed.

Think about copyspace too.

Oh and tidy and clean the place up to an inch of its life

Tip.. If you are unsure if you need to include something in a shot, leave it out
 
Cars on ramps, techs working underneath, anything special eg motorhomes or classics. One of the owner outside, mot area..sorry not to answer the lighting question but I actually work in a family owned similar garage...if it helps
 
I think you have done a fantastic job TBH; well done!
 
Yes, he should be very happy with these shots. As I said, the lighting is simple and peripheral in this type of job, and you were worrying about nothing.

The weird thing about this type of business is that the marketing shots have a far lesser impact than with most types of business, simply because it's all about reputation for good service and honesty than anything else. Just as an example, I get my car serviced by a friend who has a very similar type of garage. He does a bit of everything but tends to specialise in off road cars like mine, he's a bit of a Land Rover specialist (probably because they need far more in the way of repairs than other 4x4's but his signage and website says that he specialises in Rover and MG cars (which I'm sure he did in the dim and distant past). But it doesn't matter, because he always has more work than he can handle.

And my youngest son is an agricultural mechanic, no signage, no website, no photos, not even business cards. I did offer to do something about that but as he pointed out, "I don't need it, I can't work any more hours".
 
The only shot I am not keen on is the low down one, the mechanic looks like he is ignoring her and her body language looks tense to me. The rest are great, the place looks clean, tidy and organised... bright and light not dark and dirty as most workshops are!
 
The only shot I am not keen on is the low down one, the mechanic looks like he is ignoring her and her body language looks tense to me. The rest are great, the place looks clean, tidy and organised... bright and light not dark and dirty as most workshops are!
the one where the lady is in the shot there is a big blue piece of gear in the way of the car which I missed first time and whilst the low angle works for some things it is not great for showing customer interaction.

Mike
I'm not sure that I can agree with that, I advised that any expensive analytical tools should feature, and that's what he's done. He's looking at the machine, and it would be a bit off if he was looking at the customer instead:)
only thing I would have done is added some flash to the interiors on the external shot

Mike
Agreed
I agree, or two separate exposures and photoshop them together.
Easily fixed if shot in raw.
 
Issue with the garage interior is it was shot on my drone. I have no idea if there is way of triggering flash from the drone.

Thanks for all the feedback, my mate is happy with the pictures.

Dougie.
 
I'm not sure that I can agree with that, I advised that any expensive analytical tools should feature, and that's what he's done. He's looking at the machine, and it would be a bit off if he was looking at the customer instead:)

He is looking at the green box not the blue box beside the car

Mike
 
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