How can I light a glossy balloon in the studio without obvious reflections?
Asked 1/4/2020
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I need to photograph a balloon for a personal project with both backlight and some front fill, but the balloon’s shiny surface reflects the lights. How can I light it so the front light is soft and the reflections aren’t obvious?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
7
Unless you have a matt ballon which I never ever have seen, you will have a reflection.
The point is what reflection you can handle.
If you do not want a hotspot, use as Romero Ninov said a softbox. If you do not want a rectangle as a catchlight (which can be pretty nice) use a light tent.
Make a box of PVC pipes and construct the walls of vegetal paper (waxed paper is too transparent so do not use them) Make a round hole to sneak the camera lens into the tent.
Now uniformly lit the walls of the box. Probably two intense lights at 45° angles horizontally and vertically on both sides a little far away to make the light uniform.
What you will have is a biiiiiiiiiig catchlight, soo big that you will not see it is a catchlight.
One variation is making a conical tent, like a teepee, so the light is even more uniform.
Originally by user37321. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user37321
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A glossy balloon will always reflect something, so the goal is to control the reflection rather than eliminate it completely.
Use a very large, diffused front light so the reflection becomes broad and soft instead of a small hot spot. A large softbox can work, but a light tent/diffusion tent is often better: place the balloon inside a tent made of translucent material, cut a small hole for the lens, and light the tent walls evenly from the outside. Because the balloon reflects the large bright surface of the tent, the catchlight becomes so big and even that it’s much less noticeable.
You can also place lights at roughly 45° angles to the sides and aim for even illumination on the tent material.
If you truly want no shiny look, you could dull the surface with powder, but that changes the appearance of the balloon.
Another option is retouching: if the balloon surface is smooth and uniform, reflections can often be reduced or removed in post-processing. Just keep in mind that removing reflections also removes much of the glossy look that makes a balloon look like a balloon.
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