So finally to the last exercise of this section on light. Shiny surfaces as you can imagine create special lighting problems when it comes to taking photographs.
Light can reflect from a subject as diffuse reflection, direct reflection or glare. The amount of each type of reflection can vary with the subject. In this exercise we are looking at shiny surfaces, therefore we will be seeing mostly direct reflections. Direct reflection are a mirror image of the light source that produces them.
The set up for this exercise was to photograph a subject that was shiny enough to see your face in; I chose a silver soup spoon. The camera was set up on a tripod looking directly down on the spoon.
The first photograph was taken with naked light coming in from the windows to the right. The direct reflection can be seen on the spoon. For the diffused photograph, I used a cone made from tracing paper that extended from the lens to around the spoon in order to try and deal with the direct reflection.
As you can see, not much has changed from the original photograph apart from the reducing the reflections from around the room and a slight diffusing of the light from the window.
Using the same set up, I tried this again in my studio with an un-diffused studio light to the right.
The first photograph taken with the naked light shows strong direct reflection. With the tracing paper cone in place the light has been diffused slightly and the shiny surface of the spoon has been slightly dulled.
This set up with the camera looking directly down at the spoon and the light next to the camera is not the best set up. The camera is within the family of angles therefore can see the reflected light. Apart from moving the camera out of the family of angles there are several other methods you could use to effectively photograph a shiny surface such as a light tent.
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