Hello, I have a problem. I work at a machine shop and I am trying to get a website put together, and some of the products we want to put on it are shiny aluminum. I can't get a decent picture of the boxes without some intrusive background or sideground object reflecting. Is there some magical way to fix this or do you need to put them inside a big softbox or something? i made a simple lightbox but the reflections are still distracting and even the reflection of white in the aluminum looks wierd.
Product photography with shiny objects
- Thread starter Logan
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Shooting complex shiny objects is very difficult technically. The short answer is that you need to control what is reflected on every surface. Shooting inside a light box works, but if everything is lit evenly you lose the feeling of shininess and the object just ends up looking white, so you need gradients in your lighting.
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I've had problems with products inside the blister packaging. The blister had multiple curves, creating multiple reflections. Let's compare with the shape of a woman's ass. 
: There were two curves vertically (with a trench in the middle), plus a bow on top and a double fold at the bottom. I tried various settings, and that caused less reflex was a tent of white cloth that completely covered the space between the camera and the blister. There was only the hole to put the lens, and all the rest was just closed by white fabric. That way I could "wiped out" reflexes, but as a side effect of the plastic blister looked like milky rather than transparent. I corrected in Photoshop, but the customer was not happy with the "lack of transparency" of the blister. I corrected again and he liked it, but said he would try any photographer with Hasselblad or Mamya. He did NOT want Photoshop to correct the contrast, but wanted the image to leave the camera depart ready to be used. I told him: "Good luck in trying to break the laws of physics, because the camera can only shoot what exists". : He did not understand that multiple reflections were replaced by a single uniform reflection (white fabric) who stole contrast, and gave the milky aspect.
: There were two curves vertically (with a trench in the middle), plus a bow on top and a double fold at the bottom. I tried various settings, and that caused less reflex was a tent of white cloth that completely covered the space between the camera and the blister. There was only the hole to put the lens, and all the rest was just closed by white fabric. That way I could "wiped out" reflexes, but as a side effect of the plastic blister looked like milky rather than transparent. I corrected in Photoshop, but the customer was not happy with the "lack of transparency" of the blister. I corrected again and he liked it, but said he would try any photographer with Hasselblad or Mamya. He did NOT want Photoshop to correct the contrast, but wanted the image to leave the camera depart ready to be used. I told him: "Good luck in trying to break the laws of physics, because the camera can only shoot what exists". : He did not understand that multiple reflections were replaced by a single uniform reflection (white fabric) who stole contrast, and gave the milky aspect.
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For highly polished objects, you don't light the object itself but the environment the object reflects. A very large soft box very close to the object could work. A tent made of scrim material lit from the back would give you the most control.
Simple one light set up http://bit.ly/1opXQpx
Simple one light set up http://bit.ly/1opXQpx
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Best solution is to first is to set up the shot exactly how you want to show the product, then note the field around the subject and literally mark off the exact space being reflected in the product. What you should be trying to achieve is to add highlights to define shape and texture and solid blacks or gray gradients where defining highlights aren't necessary. Hang black and/or gray cloth in the reflected field and add large soft and diffused highlights with lightbanks, diffuser shoot-throughs or lit foamcores as needed. Or just hire a competent professional. Good luck.
Regards, David
Regards, David
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+1 on Light Science and Magic. It really is the "go to how to" on photographing reflective objects. Filled with tons of practical information to help you understand the key concept of "family of angles" and how that effects the reflections from both the ambient light sources as well as your strobes. Several hands on exercises to illustrate working with glass, metal, and other surfaces that aren't so obvious - like luster-finished paper and canvas, e.g. trying to shoot a painting on canvas while eliminating reflections and retaining detail, highlights and saturation.
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+1 more on this recommendation from neuro and gbchriste. Excellent book for product photography and lighting in general.gbchriste said:
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If you can't work out a good way to light it without reflections you can always take two photos with different light and mask out the overexposed/shiny bits and make a composite of two or three photos. Just make sure you have the camera on a tripod though
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