All round good egg, longterm blogging guru and not-for-profit Tom Cunningham Photographic PR man Brian Weatherley’s been featuring a few more of our snaps on his excellent BigLorryBlog. The subject this time is tyres, namely the stuff we shoot for Michelin. In the post entitled “How to take a good truck (tyre) photograph No # 3,891”, Brian ponders the potential inadequacies faced by a photographer sent along to snap a trailer tyre. Well just like everything, it’s never as easy as it looks. Being able to read the manufacturer’s logo, the company name on the vehicle, see the full profile and tread of the tyre, etc., it’s an all-round tough gig. So what’s the secret?
The first thing we do is try (as best we can) to get both the truck and the black rubber cleaned. Then we get to work with some tyre cleaner. Over the past 12 months or so we’ve field tested a whole heap of products and absolutely nothing comes close to Armor All Tire Foam (thanks to Michelin's PR company we now own a full case of the stuff). Because the tread is often stuck in the dark recess of mud flaps, the third thing we do is crawl under the trailer and place one of the Profoto heads on the floor (pointing at the inside of the tyres we’re shooting). This gives us a nice bit of backlighting. In all but the luckiest of cases, we’ll do more than one exposure too. With the camera locked down securely to prevent movement, it’s typically around three: one for tyre wall, one for the tread, and a third for the remainder of the image.
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