How do I light an all stainless steel kitchen?

[ellen_yale]

Help! I need to light an all stainless steel kitchen. It will be the

background, while I also need to light a man 25 feet in front of it in the

foreground. There is not much natural light. I am afraid I will have massive

reflections. What should I do?

[michaelging]

You light the area around the kitchen and that will show in the reflections. Is the same if you are photographing jewelry or silver hollowware.

[brooks short]

Is the kitchen itself stainless steel or is it just the appliances in the kitchen?

 

Set up your point of view at an angle to the wall of appliances or shoot into a corner so adjacent walls are at an angle to the camera. Use large diffused sources and even larger reflectors and try to create both good lighting on the person and interesting reflections on the stainless stel. Sometimes ceiling bounces help to create an ambient fill in an area without reflecting too much in the items in the room.

[lb-]

floor bounces can be useful as well, especially when you need to include the ceiling in the shot (making an up bounce hard). if there's a center island or bar (popular in modern kitchens) I'll sometimes setup a strobe behind it pointed down at the foor (with or without reflector on the floor, depends on the surface). with stainless appliances (fridge, stove etc) you can also prop open the doors slightly to get around reflective angles. often just an inch or less will sort out a bad reflection.

 

cheers

[kellen1]

If there is recessed lighting in the ceiling it could be helpful,especially if it is on a dimmer, then you can control it better.........good luck! Let us know how it turns out!

[Charles_Webster]

A pro videographer friend did this just this week. His challenge was an African-American chef dressed in white in front of a wall of stainless-fronted ovens.

 

His advice was "flood the whole place with completely diffuse light and forget about shadows." He used 4ft X 6ft diffusion panels in front of his video (hot) lights.

 

<Chas>

[dean_giamette]

Base light with anything from foam core, which costs money, to hanging bed sheets. As others have said, make the light as big and diffuse as possible. Creatively using gels and/or gobos on background/ side lighting can impart a color, texture, and breakup to the silvery metal surfaces.

 

old uncle dino

[mike_earussi1]

Can you use the normal kitchen lights? You could then light the kitchen with a long exposure and then flash the man in the foreground, lighting him from the side so no light reaches the kitchen.

[rtwildlife]

Diffuse light, but I see you've heard that before...

Thing I would definitely add, is a (circular) polarizer on your lens.

With this great device, you can simply turn away unwanted reflections and you might get the photograph you're looking for.