How can I reduce glare on a gilded wooden picture frame when photographing a painting?
Asked 5/19/2020
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I’m photographing an old oil painting that must be shown together with its gold-painted wooden frame. The painting is mounted on a wall, the camera is on a tripod about 2m away, and the room is darkened. I’m using two 5500K LED lights through umbrellas at roughly 30–40° to the artwork. The painting itself reproduces well, but the frame is highly reflective and its curved surfaces create strong specular highlights on the sides.
I’ve tried repositioning the lights and blending multiple exposures, but the bright glare on the frame still blows out detail. With basic gear such as LED lights and umbrellas, what lighting approach can minimize glare on a three-dimensional wooden frame while keeping the frame evenly lit?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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The only way, I would try, is to use a soft light source, that is as large as possible and can be placed at a longer distance.
The problem that you will encounter is, that you want soft light to minimize reflection (aka glare) on the frame. This is achieved via using a diffused relatively large light with even light distribution.
Then you want to control the specularity itself. This can be achieved by exploiting the inverse square law to flatten the lights, cuasing less contrast. The further you place the light away, the more the light acts as ambient light. However, the drawback is, that the further the light is away, the smaller it is related to the subject.
So, you could try a really large light in a softbox (or more affordable a white reflex umbrella with diffusion) and place it in a fashion you just don't get the reflection of the light in the painting.
However, there are limits to this due to the reflective paint on the frame.
Another way, but not applicable on artworks, would be to apply a matte texture of the glaring parts to diffuse the reflection. But you cannot use matte spray on an artwork.
Originally by user88965. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user88965
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The main issue is specular reflection from the frame’s curved, glossy surface. A few approaches can help:
- Use the largest, softest light source you can. Bigger diffusion gives broader, less harsh reflections. If possible, use large diffused reflectors/umbrellas or create a bigger diffused source.
- Move lights farther away if you can. That can make illumination more even and reduce contrast in the reflections, though distant lights also become relatively smaller, so larger diffusion is important.
- Don’t assume lights must be symmetrically placed left and right. Try changing height as well as side position, such as one light higher and the other lower, to push reflections toward less important areas.
- If one side looks good and the other doesn’t, shoot multiple frames with different light positions and composite the best-looking parts together. For a reflective, sculpted frame, this is often the most practical way to eliminate glare everywhere.
- You can also simulate a larger strip light by taking several exposures while moving the light up and down, then blending the results.
For a reflective frame that must be perfectly shown, compositing multiple carefully lit exposures is likely the most reliable solution.
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