Factory Knits…

You wouldn’t think that something I shoot more frequently than not would be knit apparel, but I do.  I also blog about it from time to time as well it seems, and that’s not going to stop considering that in February my friend Toni Carr has a new book coming out that Tom Klubens and I shot photos for.  The book’s name is Knits for Nerds, and it’s got 30 patterns for the nerd in everybody.  I can’t talk much about that project now, but it’s on the horizon, so keep your eyes open as I haven’t seen a copy of it yet but I hear it’s pretty awesome.

A few months after we completed that project, Toni called me and Tom up again to work on a knitting project that was supposed to come out looking a lot like a dance scene out of the movie Suckerpunch, except with knitwear.  To do that we went out to a factory space that was owned by one of Toni’s customers in Franklin Indiana, and started coming up with things like this:

(Nikon D3s, 400ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@98mm.  1/40th@F5.  Single Nikon SB900 set to 1/2 with a theatrical red Gel zoomed out all the way to 14mm on the floor about 25′ behind where Shannon is standing on the metal press.  Single SB-900 to camera left set to 1/4th zoomed to 135mm on a 15′ stand shot through a 32″ umbrella.  Single SB800 set to Camera right zoomed in to 105mm, set to 1/8th power shot into the side of a red toolbox to give Shannon the red effect glow on the right side of the frame.  All Speedlights triggered by Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 Radios, with a MiniTT1 on the camera with a Nikon SU-800 on the hot shoe.)

The purpose of these images was to go to on a website known as Knit Picks, where the patterns and all sorts of yarns are sold.  The Photos that were taken to go on there are just eye candy, to show in some cases what the inspiration for the patterns were, or just to market towards people that want things based on  how cool a photo set is.  So we have a photo like above, with a detail shot as shown here:

(Nikon D3s, 400ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@180mm.  1/40th@F5.  Single Nikon SB900 set to 1/2 with a theatrical red Gel zoomed out all the way to 14mm on the floor about 25′ behind where Shannon is standing on the metal press.  Single SB-900 to camera left set to 1/4th zoomed to 135mm on a 15′ stand shot through a 32″ umbrella.  Single SB800 set to Camera right zoomed in to 105mm, set to 1/8th power shot into the side of a red toolbox to give Shannon the red effect glow on the right side of the frame.  All Speedlights triggered by Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 Radios, with a MiniTT1 on the camera with a Nikon SU-800 on the hot shoe.)

This pattern featuring the lovely Shannon isn’t up on Knit Picks yet, but it was test printed last week and should go up very soon along with the pattern there and on Toni Carr’s website as well.  There are all sorts of patterns of all shapes and kinds on Toni’s website as she has two books, owns an online knitting store, and is just an all around badass when it comes to Roller Derby, Cofee, or things knitting related.

(Nikon D3s, 640ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@98mm.  1/60th@F5.  Nikon SB-900 Speedlight with SD-9A battery pack zoomed to 200mm set to full power shot through a 32″ umbrella about 10′ to camera left on a 15′ stand angled slightly down at Summer.  Single SB-900 set to 1/4 power bare bulb on another stand zoomed out to 50mm shot directly at Summer about 20′ to camera right.  Single SB800 set in a pool of grease that I didn’t see when setting the shot up, zoomed to 105mm aimed straight up at the ceiling set to full power with a 1/2 CTB to fill in the machinery and the ceiling.  All Speedlights fired by Pocket Wizard TT5 Radios with a Pocket Wizard TT1 and Nikon SU-800 Commander on the camera. )

There are detail shots of Summer on the Fork lift up on knitpicks too, and the shots that Tom did of Jeana are up now too.  We also did a large group photo inside of the warehouse/factory as well that you’ll have to wait to see on Knitpicks.  Like I said earlier, the shoot was inspired by the movie Suckerpunch; but due to lack of time I have yet to even see the film to know how well it did in that comparison.  It was supposed to be close, but not really close for obvious copyright reasons.  Even if it isn’t quite Suckerpunch-esque because they didn’t go through all kinds of Post Processing like the film did; I’d like to think they still work as an Industrial Dance/Knitting type thing as-is.  What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know.  More soon.