digital photography of reflective surfaces

I am trying to photograph my fine art. I gild boxes that hang on the wall as a painting

would. Gilded surfaces are more frequently known as gold leaf or silver leaf or metal leaf. I

work in all those formats using acid to burn imagery onto the leaf. This surface is smooth

and sealed with a matt lacquer, but still very reflective. I have lights and diffusers, but have

not been able to master the light to be even. Does anyone have any suggestions or

experience in taking digital images of reflective surfaces. These must be high quality tiff

images for magazine publishing. I have managed to get some decent results, but not to

my satisfaction. Thanks.

I have a couple of worthless comments.

<ol>

<li>double diffuser, get a white sheet, like flannel, and put it between the diffuser and the art.

<li>use multipule light sources, I was origionaly thinking of tea candles, but after thinking I think the rope light would be better. There are enough points of light that it should "diffuse" well.

</ol>

Just some odd thoughts... --Frank

If you do a search of this forum for threads discussing photographing jewelry you'll find lots of good suggestions.

Also, search for the "MONTHLY LIGHTING PROJECT" threads by Garry Edwards and Brooks Short. I think they're usually filed in the "Administration" section of the lighting forum.

I bought a Photoflex diffusion tent for small items but for larger items it would be more practical to hang the item or otherwise mount it to a wall or backdrop. (Altho' the Photoflex and other diffusion "tents" are large enough for some paintings and other decorative items normally mounted on walls.) Set up the lights at angles to minimize reflections. Softboxes and other types of diffusers on the lights will help.

Since you already have lights and diffusers you might also want to try other light modifiers to aim or otherwise confine less diffuse light to specific areas. Too much diffuse lighting can rob the sparkle from an item that the eye tells us should be shiny.

What do you mean by even? Do you mean with no hot spots from glare or even from

corner to corner?

If you mean the first problem, you might try double poalrizing: you Polarizing gels o nthe

lights and a polarizing filter on your camera. You can start at the fully cross polarized

position (camera polarization angle is at 90 degrees to the orientation of the polarizing

angle on the lighting gels) and then rotate the camera filter to bring back some of the

reflective quality.

if you mean "even from corner to corner" have you tried simply placing your lights at a

different angle to the work or at a greater distance to the object?

I'm not a photographer, I'm a silversmith, but I shoot my own work with some success. The shots have been happily used for litho print by mags etc anyway. I use digital, Canon D60, prime lenses (usually), 2 cheap hotlights, big roll of paper, some tissue as diffusers (til I can afford a couple of softboxes).

Many of the suggestions offered by photographers and other silversmiths when this topic comes up are good guesses, but guesses nevertheless. See the Lighting Theme threads mentioned above. I'm happy to chat by email on how I do my stuff. Brooks Short and Garry Edwards are the gurus on this topic and their wise words are well worth reading.

Hi, I have a number of friends whose work [ 3D and 2D ] I shoot in my studio: I place two Identicle lights shining through the back of umbrellas at 90 degrees to the work on a wall...in other words two lights facing each other and a pice of art on the wall. Sometimes I will plave a white piece of foam core board directly above or below

my lense...I know some folks who actually use a full 4x8 sheet that stands on the floor, with a lense hole !

Good Luck!