Question about lighting a sterling tea set to minimize reflections

[battra92]

Hi there. I'm not 100% if this goes here but it is related to lighting.

 

Part of my day job is working with silver pieces and photographing

them for our catalogs and website. We do sell a few sterling tea

services and I have found it nearly impossible to get a decent setup

where there is little reflection.

 

Polarizers can only do so much and I still have to clone out the

camera and equipment reflections. So what would be a good way to light

this, or something to block the light on the silver but would not

damage it.

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[garry edwards]

Christopher,

 

This is a question that comes up all the time, but as you're new to PN you probably don't know that there is an answer here - http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=007tNJ

 

Also, if you click on the 'Admin' section of this forum you'll find a lot of other info on lighting that may help.

[ellis_vener_photography]

As GArry pointed outthere are many threads in this forum which dea with this and

similarsubjects. The basics are : light indirectly as much as possible --try to keep your

lights overhead , which means you'll need a boom of some sort to mount the light on--

and build a large white or dull silver reflective house with a translucent ceiling around your

set. Cut a hole just large enough for the lens to look through.

[battra92]

Thanks for the info.

 

For small pieces of flatware (forks, spoons, etc.) which require a top down photo, I built a light box with cardboard and tissue paper for the diffusers on the side and get fairly good results. (see photo below) So building a larger such box should give me the results I want then?

 

Thanks for the help. :)<div></div>

[garry edwards]

Building a larger box would give you more of the same, it would just allow you to photograph larger items.

 

If that's what you want, fine - but if you want to do better you'll have to learn how to light, using short lighting to both produce diffused specular highlights and reveal the texture, as in the links I've suggested

[ellis_vener_photography]

The attached soilverware still life was lit using a Plume Cocoon (same thing as red Wing

Cocoonn) and three heads on a Profoto D4r pack.

 

One head , fitted with a softbox was placed beneath the Cocoon, a second head with a

medium softbox head was illuminated from the left and one head with a grid spot arom

the top left. The black shapes are reflections of the camera ports and are relatively easy to

retouch out using Photoshop.

 

The camera used was Canon EOS 1Ds on a Calumet Ultima 35 view camera chassis. This

combination allowed me to use both front and rear tilts and rise/fall for optimum focus

distribution, perspective correction, and composition. . The lens was a Schneider W.A.

Digitar.<div></div>

[Barry Thomas]

Ellis, as a silversmith, I find the black reflections way too intrusive in that shot, I'd want to either try a different setup so they were less prominent or clone them out later.

 

The lines, especially on the for and spoon handles. The bit on the knife would be easier to clone out.

 

The real problem is on the bowl of the spoon - inside or outside a near sphere is always a nightmare.

 

People who see photos of my work (shot by a pro or by myself) do ask the most amazing questions. If there's a black band somewhere they think it is black enamel (no, just a reflection), or if I manage (rarely) to get rid of ALL the reflections, it looks like the whole thing has a matt surface.

 

Summary: You need to aim for _some_ reflections so you can see the metal has a high finish, but not ones that show a) the photographer, b) the camera, c) any identifiable props or equipment.

 

Nightmare.

[ellis_vener_photography]

Barry,

thank you for your comments. The attached image is a close up of the retiuched spoon

bowl. The work was don using the Spot heal, patch and airbrush tools in Photoshp CS2

and took maybe ten minutes. I deliberately did not retouch the earlier versio nas I wanted

Christopher B to see a stright up, unretouched version to compare to what he posted

earlier.<div></div>

[Barry Thomas]

Ideal. I do end up kind of pixel-peeping over the cloned out reflection of me / the studio / a prop / the cat, but if people can see my stuff and end up looking at the silver rather than saying, "ooo look, there's you!", then I'm happy.

 

It is the nightmare item to shoot though. These are product shots. I want people to buy my stuff, so I want the shots to be simple, clean, to be clear what the item is, not too artsy where the shot and not the item becomes the interest, and not take forever.

 

I find light tents end up being too small and the results too bland - you need some reflections to kind of define the shape, so I just use a big sweep (9' roll for something the size of a goblet) to cut out most of those tricky side reflections, then move the camera around to try to avoid it getting in the shot.

 

OTOH, I don't get paid for taking the shots, only for making what I'm shooting!

 

Sometimes I wish it was the other way round...

[ellis_vener_photography]

I recognize the reality that my retouching in the above image is not perfect . In fact it is

relatively crude, it was done to illustrate what can be done. Blendign the gradiations of

tone takes some more effort . retouching should be done so that the results are invisible.

[christopher broadbent]

I can tell you all the bad things that have been done to silver. Worst: Krylon, then filling the

jugs with icy water, then closing it in with white boards, then putting it in a white tent.

You can' t light silver; it just has to reflect the surroundings. so good silver needs good-

looking, gently lit, surroundings with real shadows that give the metal weight. My advice is to

take it outdoors and use the sky.