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Thread: Photography help

  1. #1
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    Photography help

    Any tricks for shooting high-gloss vessels?
    Been going nuts trying to get reflection-free photos.
    Have tried a tent, different back drops, hundreds of different light positions/angles, combinations?

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by John Sincerbeaux View Post
    Any tricks for shooting high-gloss vessels?
    Been going nuts trying to get reflection-free photos.
    Have tried a tent, different back drops, hundreds of different light positions/angles, combinations?
    Basically you have an orb. Like a Christmas ornament, it will reflect everything in it. Tents and the like introduce artificial reflections and make it look phony. And from this clean reflection you'll never be able to hide the camera.
    My best suggestion is to place the vessel in a real environment, with actual items and different shapes in the reflections. If you can't beat 'em join 'em.

  3. #3
    We've actually had a lot of luck with a tent, one of those white pop-up kind. Dark backdrop, sidelit (both sides) and fiddling with the camera settings and no flash. Best results came from semi-distant lighting (pull the lamps back a few feet so it's more diffused), and changing the settings so the light doesn't show on the background cloth (black works well for most) in the image. Mainly smaller items, from pens and boxes to goblets and so on is what we'd done.

  4. #4
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    Thanks guys. Most of my vessels are pretty big and when I tried the tent, it seemed too restrictive. Maybe I’ll try again.
    641CB2E5-7D7C-456B-9ECB-C128A7FB1FA9.jpg

  5. #5
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    Try using a small light source at the camera and then a back ground that doesn't reflect on the piece. This isn't the lighting I would suggest for anything else because it makes the piece look flat but it will show the color and you will only have one bright dot in the piece. Light tents are horrible as well as large reflectors. You see all of those big time in the piece. You need a dark room that won't reflect any light into the piece and then quite often just a flash mounted off the camera axis just a little bit. I have a handout that is pretty involved on shooting highly glossy pieces. It's probably more than most people would do but there are some good suggestions in there and it shows what it takes to get a really good photo of a piece. I shot art work for many artists of all mediums for 27 years. One day when I was shooting one of my glossy pieces using probably 20K worth of lights and props I decided to see if I could do it with inexpensive lights. that's when I decided to do this handout. The final photo is almost exactly the same as when I used our professional equipment. e-mail me and ask for this handout and I'll send it to you. Johncluccas45@gmail.com The other thing I offer is when you are shooting your work and having trouble, send me a photo of the piece and then back off and send me a photo of your set up. I should be able to help you solve your problems.

  6. #6
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    John,

    PM sent, and I agree with John Lucas. The photo tents are a disaster for glossy subjects. The glossy surface reflects the tent walls and top like a semi silvered mirror. The result is a huge loss of contrast in the details of your artwork. The darker the walls around your subject, the higher the contrast, and the better you can see the details that make your piece special.
    Brian

    Sawdust Formation Engineer
    in charge of Blade Dulling

  7. #7
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    I highly recommend the book: "Light, Science and Magic". It's a fairly quick read, and it will teach you everything you need to know about lighting and photographing difficult objects, such as highly reflective items, glass items, non-reflective and low contrast items, etc. The author explains, in an understandable way, the science and practice of choosing and positioning lights, reflectors, diffusers, etc. I have referred to it many time when struggling with getting a good photograph under difficult circumstances and it has been very helpful.

  8. #8
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    Also, take a look at how they photograph glossy automobiles for advertising.

  9. #9
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    Agree with Paul, “Light, Science and Magic” is an excellent reference for this type of studio photography work.

  10. #10
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    Thanks again everyone for all your help.
    After three days of futile attempts, I have realized, I just dont have the necessary equipment or time to get professional quality photos of high-gloss vessels. Tomorrow I am going to shoot these outside in natural light (no sun) and be done with them. Ultimately, they are being sent to a gallery in Hawaii.

    Aloha

  11. #11
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    Just a thought, have you tried a polarizing filter?

  12. #12
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    Polarizing filter can help. You can also shoot it before you make it glossy if your want reflection free. Otherwise try to make the reflection as pleasing as possible.

    Use a nice square or rectangular light box and put it close to 90 degrees to the camera. Essentially make it look like a window reflection. I'll sometimes even put tape on the light box so it looks like mullions. There is no way to hide the reflection, so just make it as appealing as possible.

    You can take a look at the lighting section starting on page 5 here for more comments. http://www.johnbeaver.net/assets/pho...oodturners.pdf
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Please see personal profile for website info.

  13. #13
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    I apologize I mistyped my e-mail for those wanting the handout. johnclucas45@gmail.com this should work. A polarizer will sometimes work but usually doesn't do much unless you polarize the light soarce. It will not work with lights that have been diffused or bounce into an umbrella. It will work if the light is more than 90 degrees to the side or coming from the rear. What you do is buy a large piece of sheet polarizing material and put that in front of your light. The you put a polarizer on the camera and rotate it until it blocks the reflection from the polarized light. It is never 100 percent. There is always at least a little blue dot but those are much easier to retouch out than than large harsh reflection.
    What I prefer to use is a smaller light source so the reflection is small and not a obnoxious. The I deal with the harsh shadow that small light creates by using a top light or side light. The top light or side light can also create a bad highlight so I use the polarizer on the camera to reduce or eliminate those highlights. Then you won't be able to rotate the camera polarizer any more so to eliminate the reflection from the front light you rotate the polarizing material over that light. Hope you can follow that. Again the handout will walk you through a lot of that. I did the handout in such a way that it's a trouble shooting sort of teaching guide. I put a light up and show the problem and then show how I try to stop that problem which almost always creates another problem. Then I show how to deal with that. I do this a bunch of times showing different things like foreground reflections, choice of background, lights etc until I finally have a good photo at the end. It gives you a lot of tools for learning how to see and then correct problems in your day to day photo shooting, not just really glossy subjects.

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