Top of product reflecting white BG?

[josh_west1]

<p>I have been having some trouble with my white seamless set up and was hoping someone here may have some advice. I have a while seamless set up with two 180w strobes blowing out the background. In the foreground I'm shooting furniture which often has a very reflective finish on the top surface. The problem is that the top reflects the BG forward and I lose any detail in the tops of the piece. I've so far tried two things to help this.<br>

1. Polarizing filter. Worked OK but not great. <br>

2. I hung a black backdrop down over the top of the white back drop so that the desk top reflected the black. This also just OK. It changed the way the BG lights are working to blow out the floor and needs to be adjusted for every different height piece.<br>

Any advice on how I may better deal with this is greatly appreciated. I'm attaching a pic of a desk displaying the problem.<br>

Thanks-</p><div></div>

[brooks short]

<p><em>"2. I hung a black backdrop down over the top of the white back drop so that the desk top reflected the black. This also just OK. It changed the way the BG lights are working to blow out the floor and needs to be adjusted for every different height piece."</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

<em>That is the correct way to eliminate the glare on the top of the desk or table etc. The fact that you then have to adjust the height of the black for each piece of furniture and tweak your lighting for the white bkgd. is why they call it work.</em></p>

<p><em>The reason your floor is going dark is because you're using a glossy tile board under the furniture in an attempt to blow the floor to a white and it's reflecting the black from the background. I guess you could blame Zach Arias for that. #8^)</em></p>

 

[frolickingbits]

<p>I shoot a lot of furniture, and the black cloth is the way this is done. The other way to do it would be to shoot on gray, and then drop the furniture on a white background later, but that will be a whole lot more work than moving your black cloth for each shot.</p>

[gabriel_buta]

<p>i think you should also consider the family of angles...i would recommend you the book "Light: Science and Magic" by Fil Hunter and Paul FUqua...</p>

<p> </p>

[sarah_baird]

<p>I agree. 'Light, Science and Magic' is a book I am reading at the moment and they address a whole number of lighting scenarios such as one like this. It's a book worth getting, but also check your local library. It's very commonly found in libraries. </p>

[johngodwin]

<p>Ideally you want a large black cloth, or, failing that, just take two exposures and mask out in photoshop.</p>

[erie_patsellis]

<p>Of course, if you have more than one or two, you may find it easier to light it properly and capture the image as desired, rather than "fix it in post".</p>

[ric_kasnoff]

<p>angle of incidence = angle of reflection</p>

<p>what the top is seeing can be masked/goboed (carefully) with black cloth/flag as mentioned above without effecting the rest of the shot</p>

<p>the floor can be fixed keeping the same principle in mind...</p>

<p>+1 on the book...read it...re-read it and practice</p>

<p>have fun...Ric<br>

www.ricphoto.com</p>