Singapore Industrial Photography and Videography Since 2002

What is industrial photography, and how is it different from commercial photography?

Industrial photography documents heavy machinery, manufacturing and process facilities, engineering and construction projects, and the people who run them, on site rather than in a studio: inside the plant, on the vessel, at the quarry face. It is a subgenre of commercial photography. A commercial shoot builds an emotional connection with styled sets, cast talent and full control of the light. An industrial shoot lives on realism, recording real operations as they happen for reports, tenders, training and marketing. Both are lit with the same care; only one lets you move the subject.

Does Tuckys Photography produce high-end industrial images suitable for above-the-line marketing?

Yes. Tuckys Photography produces high-end commercial industrial imagery for above-the-line campaigns, some of which call for large-format print. Where the quality of the file matters, as it did for Rolls-Royce, Böhler Asia Pacific and Bok Seng, the team captures on a high-end medium format camera so the image holds at bus-side scale. The Bok Seng Academy portraits, for example, became a full bus wrap: see the wrapped bus on Bok Seng Group’s page. Tuckys Photography’s aerial vessel images are made to the same standard: evocative, eye-catching frames built to carry a campaign. See the industrial portraits series.

What is Tuckys Photography’s style of industrial photography?

Tuckys Photography’s style of industrial photography is commercial photography applied to working sites. Light, colour and composition are planned around one clear subject, and the picture is taken while the work is really happening. Aerial frames of the SAFEEN Centurion 2 place its helideck between the arcs of a fire-fighting monitor test. Technicians stand around a Rolls-Royce Trent engine on its build stand at Seletar. A Chin Yuan Metal forklift runs through the warehouse with the racks streaking behind it.

The style is storytelling with focus: the scene is lit so the subject holds inside a complicated scenario, with the proper PPE, branding and procedure in place, so the image that documents the operation is the image that carries the campaign.

Does Tuckys Photography produce portraits within industrial projects?

Yes. Industrial portraits are the heart of Tuckys Photography’s industrial work: people at work, photographed on the floor to high-end commercial standards, so a company can show the skill, knowledge and equipment behind what it builds. At the Rolls-Royce Seletar campus that meant technicians at the engine and trainees in the training centre; for Böhler Asia Pacific, machinists at the lathe; aboard SAFEEN Centurion 2 for Pacific Radiance, the bridge crew in orange coveralls keeping watch.

Each portrait is lit so the person holds focus inside a complicated scene, with the proper PPE, branding and procedure in frame, because the picture has to illustrate the purpose of the work and let the client tell their own story. They work as hard in an annual report, on a website or in a recruitment drive as they do above the line: in large-format print, on banners and on out-of-home panels. See the full industrial portraits series.

What makes Tuckys Photography different from other industrial photographers in Singapore?

Three things, together. Tuckys Photography produces industrial photography good enough for above-the-line work. Tuckys Photography understands the industrial process before arriving on site: how a vessel refurbishment runs, how a heavy lift is sequenced, how a ship’s safety procedure works, how NEA’s waste management runs from Tuas to Semakau, what a machine is for, and why one vessel is built or powered differently from another and what it is specialised to do. And, like every good industrial photographer, Tuckys Photography is particular about safety on site. Knowing the work in advance is what lets Tuckys Photography narrate it rather than just record it: NEA’s waste management operation, the JP88 Stork refurbishment at Keppel Shipyard, the Gallop precast bridge lift. Add the commercial finish and the storytelling, and the client gets pictures that tell their story in their own terms.

Do you understand the engineering well enough to know what matters in the frame?

That is what separates a usable image from a record, and it comes down to attention to detail. On an aero engine it means knowing the intake from the fan from the test instrumentation, and what may not be shown at all. On a newbuild vessel it means the milestones an owner reports on: launch, sea trial, bollard pull, handover. In process documentation every step, tool and hand position has to be right, because the people who do the job will read the picture. That same detail is what makes the storytelling work: each frame is built to bring out the client’s capability and the skill of their people, so one series serves marketing and PR as well as the record. Scale only reads with a person in the frame, and a dark shop floor needs light brought in and balanced against the plant’s own.

How do you shoot inside a live plant without disrupting it?

Most of the work happens before the shoot: a recce where access allows, a site risk assessment, a review of your HSE protocols, and a shot list built around your operating schedule rather than against it. Tuckys Photography has photographed and filmed inside live production facilities, shipyards, quarries and incineration plants across Singapore and Southeast Asia without stopping the work.

Do you work outside Singapore?

Yes. Regional travel is a normal part of the work, and Tuckys Photography has travelled across Asia for different clients since 2002: the Hitachi films at a working coal mine in Balikpapan and a stone quarry in Thailand, vessel deliveries and sea trials in regional waters, and the Asian Para Games. The team goes to the asset wherever it is and arrives self-sufficient, with lighting, grip and backup bodies carried in, because there is no hire shop at a remote quarry.

Do you produce video and aerial as well as stills?

Yes. Tuckys Photography produces all three, in one session or a series of sessions, depending on the scope of the job. Stills, film and aerial each need their own set-up, light and attention if the result is to hold up. The sequence is agreed around your operations, and the pieces are matched in site and grade so they read as one body of work. Video carries what stills cannot: duration and voice, such as the Hitachi wheel loader operator talking about his machine on his own site, or a heavy lift running end to end. Finished films are on Tuckys Photography’s industrial videography page.

Do you hold a CAAS Unmanned Aircraft Pilot Licence?

Yes. Tuckys Photography holds the CAAS Unmanned Aircraft Pilot Licence and the UA Operator Permit (UOP), and has produced high-end aerial visuals for industrial and marine clients for ten years, since 2015. Each operation also needs its own CAAS activity permit, which Tuckys Photography applies for. Restricted airspace needs RSAF clearance, and flights over vessels at anchorage need MPA clearance and the owner’s approval. The team arranges those as part of the booking, so aerial work needs lead time. See Tuckys Photography’s aerial photography and videography page.

Can an industrial photograph be used for commercial, editorial or corporate purposes?

Yes, and most of Tuckys Photography’s industrial photography is. Tuckys Photography plans the shoot list around every output the client needs, across as many sessions as the work takes: high-resolution stills for the annual report and corporate channels, process frames for HSE training, and imagery for advertising, press and social media. Clients publish Tuckys Photography’s work in annual reports, regulatory submissions, safety training material and global marketing campaigns. NEA draws on its Semakau set for collateral, bus-stop advertising, press releases and ministerial briefings instead of commissioning a new shoot each time.

Do you make safety and training videos as well as marketing films?

Yes. Tuckys Photography produced the vessel-boarding safety video for FOS, filming the correct boarding procedure so it could brief the crew, and photographs rigging, lifting and forklift courses for Bok Seng Academy. Training material carries an obligation marketing does not: the technique shown has to be correct, because the picture will teach. So the team works with the trainers rather than around them, and a frame showing the wrong method or the wrong PPE is never used, however good it looks.