How to take pictures of reflective products?

Reflective theme, which is a very difficult product to shoot, such as glass and stainless steel products. Reflective objects have a high surface finish. They can reflect most or even all of the illuminating light back. Because light can be used to identify people, most of these subjects can clearly or vaguely reflect the surrounding objects on the surface. This is the typical difference between it and an absorbing object (the surface of a conductive object can only reflect the image of the object under certain conditions, and the brightness is lower than that of the reflecting object). The higher the finish, the simpler and smoother the reflective subject, and the more difficult it is to shoot. Photographs of stainless steel products like this have been searched many times on Baidu. First, the light distribution is not easy, and there will often be obvious unevenness if the conditions are not met with a little carelessness. Second, the surface of the subject may reflect the surrounding objects, including lights, tripods, cameras, etc. Subjects with complex shapes, multi-faces, multi-edges and multi-angles often form great dark contrast, and there are many and messy halos. The total reflection type subjects have extremely high smoothness, all of which are mirror surfaces. Therefore, incident light can be totally reflected and surrounding objects can be clearly reflected. Most of them are silverware, stainless steel utensils, electroplating supplies, silver-plated glass, extremely bright polished plastic and so on.

The best way to shoot these subjects is to use an isolation cover, that is, to surround the whole subject with white fibers or translucent tracing paper, and then evenly distribute the light with a flash lamp outside the cover. In this way, the whole isolation cover becomes a whole large-area light source, and because the light is scattered by the isolation cover, it becomes an indirect light source with soft, scattered and uniform light. The light intensity outside the isolation cover can be used to control the contrast between light and shade of the object. The biggest advantage of using the isolation cover is that it can avoid messy shadows and control flares and external objects that may interfere with the image. Now there is a specially made cover that can be used, which is very convenient without the photographer taking photos of the products himself. In the absence of an isolation cover, a diffusion shed and a reflector can be used, but at this time, special attention should be paid to avoid reflecting impurities and stray light around the shooting environment to the surface of the subject. The key of total reflection light distribution is soft, weak and uniform light, large light source area and indirect lighting. Pressure cooker photography like this has been searched for countless times in Baidu pictures. The surface smoothness of semi-reflective objects is not as high as that of total reflective objects. But the surface is bright, and it still has certain reflection ability to the surrounding objects. Like smooth plastic, metal with a certain smoothness, waxed and polished wood, semi-isolated lighting can vaguely reflect objects. Bright leather and satin can form a bright halo, although they don't have this ability. Because the above two points are weaker than the total reflection type, these bodies are also slightly easier to distribute light, but their luminosity and luminous area are similar to the former. The light source can use soft cover, fog lamp or floodlight for indirect lighting outside the large diffusion shed. Whether it is total reflection or semi-reflection, the subject should be isolated from the environment when lighting to prevent the surrounding objects and stray light from reflecting images and unpleasant spots. The contrast between light and shade of reflective objects and the control of light spots are both difficult and indispensable features to enhance the texture. If there are too many, the image will be chaotic, and if there are not enough, there will be no texture. Reflective subjects have high smoothness and form a mirror surface, so it is very easy to show different shades under the influence of different lighting conditions, different environmental colors and lightness. This requires not changing the normal color and brightness of the object surface, controlling the appropriate spot area, and properly matching the black and gray blocks to enhance the three-dimensional sense and texture.