How can I photograph shiny chrome or gold lapel pins straight on without camera reflections?
Asked 10/23/2015
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2 answers
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I need to make straight-on product photos of small lapel pins with chrome silver and gold finishes. Because they are highly reflective, the metal reflects my camera/lens as dark areas. If I tilt the pin so it reflects the white interior of my light box instead, the angle makes it hard to keep the whole pin in focus. I also tried focus stacking in Photoshop, but the results don’t look as clean as my photos of non-reflective pins. What setup or technique can help me get a clean straight-on shot while preserving the reflective look?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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Make a tent using white bedsheet or better white fiberglass curtain material. Fiberglass is fireproof if using hot lights. The object is placed inside the tent and lit from outside. The ideal is the white tent serves to totally diffuse the light so that from the object’s perspective the light is unidirectional. You can use white translucent sheets of plastic from the hardware store. These are diffusers used with recessed florescent fixtures. You can also use a dulling spray on the object. You can use hairspray or matt clear spray. You can make a mix of talcum powder and water. This mixture is sprayed on using a perfume atomizer. Hope this helps!
Originally by user44949. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user44949
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For highly reflective metal, the main fix is usually lighting, not retouching. Put the pin inside a white diffusion tent/light tent so the metal mostly “sees” a large white surface instead of your camera. A white bedsheet, translucent white plastic, or similar diffuser material can work, with the lights placed outside the tent.
If depth of field is the problem when you angle the pin, adjust camera setup to gain more DoF: stop down more, increase camera-to-subject distance, and crop later if needed. A different focal length or camera position may help more than focus stacking.
If you must control the shooting angle while keeping the subject plane sharp, a shift/tilt solution such as bellows or a perspective-control lens can help align focus better.
As a last resort, some people use a removable dulling spray (or similar matte coating) to cut reflections, but that changes the shiny finish, so it’s usually not ideal if you need the metal to still look reflective.
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