How to photograph shiny objects with correct lighting.

In this video tutorial we take the pain off shooting highly reflective objects. Early in my career I was contracted to photograph a catalog for a major department chain in the Northeast.  I was given the housewares which included china and flatware. It was a great opportunity.  On the set I tried several types of photographic techniques including direct lighting and bounce light but nothing seemed to work. What helped me to come up with lighting solution is to take a moment and really analyze my subject and its properties.

Since the object is very reflective, it makes no sense to light the object itself as it does not absorb any light.  It simply reflects the light that is reflected off things around in.  Just like a mirror.  So the next step is to analyze where that reflection is coming from. According to physics:

The law of reflection is  θ_i = θ_r, which means that incidence equals the angle of reflection.

Now that you found where the light is being reflected from (in our case- above and behind the subject) you need to light that that area.  Positioning diffusion paper above our tabletop set created a vest white space that is now reflected in silverware.  By positioning the light source (clamp lamp in this case) to project light onto diffusion paper we are now in control what is reflected in our shiny object.

Read more and watch video tutorial here : http://twiching.com/learningcenter/twichorials/116/