Creating a picture gallery for the manufacturing process of McIntosh XTR1.1K from start to finish has been really cool photography assignment.
Following the whole process has allowed me to better know the subject down in the details of design lines, shapes and surfaces and therefore I had a deeper and better approach also while working on the final still life at the studio.
For the initial building of the cabinet, I focused on worker's hands and movements to picture the genuine handcrafting.
From an image-making point of view, I like the depth of field not being too shallow in order to preserve a sense of reality and sharp action.
Multiple operations and processing are necessary to build up the exceptional gloss finishing of the loudspeaker.
Metal parts are individually hand-made and milled by experienced artisans. My lighting style is crafted to drive emphasis on the action while building a sense of passionate work and sharp attention to details.
Surface polishing is performed layering several processing steps.
I work my photography with very tight plan on lighting, and very loose plans on workers actions. In facts, not a single action is predetermined or made up. I let them do their job while lighting the area and carefully picking the right moment for releasing the shutter.
When shooting on assembly lines, I work through different lighting diagrams depending on how flexible I need to be in terms of shooting angles.
In this case I kept the background slightly more exposed than usual to include some feeling of the production area in the background.
Once in the studio, in front of the finished product, it's really nice to enjoy the outcome of all efforts piling up to the best creation.
Thank you for watching!