Photographic lighting - shiny surfaces

One of the workshop exercises that we did in April was to photograph a shiny subject, and we experimented with a variety of items, apart from the takeaway container lid described above. However, none of the other objects, some soft drinks cans and some keys, had a flat shiny surface in which one could see a reflection. I therefore have tried this exercise at home using a "home-made" lighting arrangement.

The subject I chose was one of my wife's necklaces which has a circular pendant with a silver mirror like surface.

Silver pendant

Nikon 18-200mm lens at 112mm: Iso 200 f32 for 1/6th second

I took the photograph on a table top rather than the floor as follows:-

• I placed the subject on a small block on the level surface covered with black velvet.
• The camera was positioned facing down at about 45% to the subject on a low tripod.
• The desk lamp was placed on the opposite side of the subject with the light facing at about 45% towards the subject.

I needed to spread the velvet and position the lamp so that other parts of the room were in darkness. Otherwise, a light reflection appeared in the surface of the pendant. I set the white balance to tungsten and focus control to manual.

In the first photographs I took, I did not use any diffusion. By moving around the subject and the lamp, I could minimize any direct reflection of the light bulb or the camera in the shiny surface. However, the surface of the pendant was dark as the reflected surroundings were not lit.

I used a roll of grease proof paper as a diffuser. I stretched the diffuser out above the subject from behind the lamp across to the camera lens. The surface of the pendant was now white as it was reflecting the brightly lit paper. It was necessary to hold the diffuser in exactly the right position to ensure even lighting over the face of the pendant.

Conclusions

It was not too difficult to position the pendant so that the reflection of the camera was minimal as the reflective surface was quite flat. This would not have worked if the object was more spherical.

The flat diffuser gave an acceptable result in this set up. It is useful to know that for studio lighting, a cone shaped diffuser around the lamp should be used.