Environmental portrait of a Welder

[Canaryboy]

I have the opportunity to photograph a local welder as part of my environmental portrait project to shoot local tradespeople. I think this has the potential to be cool and I wondered if anyone else has shot welding before. I am going to have a play with settings and I have an image in my head with the welder and spark trails. I have a 10-stop ND filter which I'm guessing may be required?
I used to weld myself so I am aware of the dangers of "arc eye" etc. and will be taking precautions.

Has anyone else here shot welding before?

 

[ecoleman]

I've never shot a welder before and I'm no portrait photographer but I can't see how a 10 stop filter is going to help you.

 

[4wd]

You'd not get any benefit from a 10 stop filter, unless you wanted to show the white hot molten metal in the weld pool.
The most effective shots are likely to be hiding the arc with his hands or other objects.
A lighter ND might help give spark trails akin to wire wool spinning.
As has been hinted it is not without risk to your sensor

 

[mstphoto]

Back in the days of film, I shot a welder at work in his workshop.
The light ambient light was quite low so I didn't need any filters.
The only downside was the colour cast but easily fixed nowadays.

 

[juggler]

It'll be a lot like shooting fire performers. I'd probably add a CTO-gelled flash from roughly the same direction as the light from the torch to make sure the welder was illuminated. If you're aiming for light traits then flash will help freeze the welder, too. You might need a bit of ND but I'd expect a 10 stop to be way too much.

 

[swanseamale47]

Never shot welding on digital, only film, using a slightly slower shutter can get nice spark trails. I do wonder if the very high UV will affect a modern sensor? I know lasers can damage them.

 

[PeteNaples]

Never shot welding on digital, only film, using a slightly slower shutter can get nice spark trails. I do wonder if the very high UV will affect a modern sensor? I know lasers can damage them.

That's a good point, in the analogue video days I often shot welders, the company I worked for had a number of clients whos business involved welding. It was fairly widely known and accepted that professional/TV cameras using CCDs were OK with welding arc (Sony DXC3000, BVW400 etc. Presumably they had filters aboard), but it did fool the metering.
However domestic camcorders could get CCD burn from it.
Tube cameras... forget it, just a smeary mess.