UOIT is predominantly a STEM-focused university, and one of the jewels in their crown is the ACE testing facility.
ACE is a revenue-generating division of the university, with a range of specialized environmental chambers to put clients’ products and equipment through their paces. From the very cool-looking, hemi-anechoic M.A.S.T. (Multi Axis Shaker Table) chamber, through a range of climate simulation chambers, all the way up to the star attraction—the Climatic Wind Tunnel.
It’s a state-of-the-art wind tunnel with the ability to create rain, snow, ice and more in a controlled test environment, simulating temperatures from -40˚C to +60˚C. The challenge for this brief was to showcase this versatility to potential clients in one image.
Working with photographer Ian Goodall, who had shot many of the original promotional images when ACE opened in 2010, we borrowed a Tesla and really put it through its paces.
We started the day early, bringing the car into the chamber which was already chilled to sub-zero temperatures. Then we added freezing rain to get everything iced up.
The next step was to make some snow…
After the cold, it was time to warm things up, raising the chamber temperature above freezing. This brought a few technical problems, since the change in temperatures led to some fogging in the photographer’s lens. Everything was secured and positions marked, but still there was a tiny variance in the camera position once we resumed with the rain simulation.
Finally, we brought the heat to dry everything off and finish a long day of shooting.
The last step was to create a composite image of all of the environments to show off what could be done in the chamber.
To bring everything together, I had to adjust quite a few elements across the four shots. The solar lighting rig, for example, is only used above zero, so it wasn’t present in the cold shots. Similarly, when the rain/snow rig is in use, they don’t use the smoke machine. Leaving either of these elements out of the final composite made for glaring omissions, so I had a lot of masking, copying and adjusting to do. I also added colour overlays to convey the temperature of the chamber in each shot.