Help - Problem with light reflection?

wippers

wippers

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Gareth
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I have recently been practicing with my studio lights out in the garden with my nephews motorbike and am struggling with the reflections of the actual softbox on the shiny surfaces. Can anyone help to tell me where I'm going wrong please? :shrug::shake:
This is one of the first times I've used the lights apart from a few product shots for work.
I had it set up with 2 lights. Both light were facing the bike at 45 degree angles. One was a softbox and the other had a snoot.

6051161514_c52b81e7b5_z.jpg


Thanks for looking. :thumbs:

Gareth
 
soft-box is too small, too far away, and the wrong modifier in the first place
 
From the look of it, the softboxes were far too small or far too far away, or both.
If you want diffused specular highlights (reflections of the light source that are soft and gentle and which you can see through to the product below) then the light source has to be at least 3 times the size of the subject and very, very close.

Of course, that applies to highly reflective subjects. Your bike isn't as shiny as many subjects, so you have a bit of leeway.
 
I could be totally wrong here, but is this not a case of moving the flash?
If you change it's angle to the object and the lens, I thought the reflection would disapear, similar to the tips I'm reading about reflections in glasses etc.

As I say, I could be wrong as I'm new to flash, but you never know, I may have learnt somethng from all this reading!!
 
Mentalblock said:
I could be totally wrong here, but is this not a case of moving the flash?
If you change it's angle to the object and the lens, I thought the reflection would disapear, similar to the tips I'm reading about reflections in glasses etc.

As I say, I could be wrong as I'm new to flash, but you never know, I may have learnt somethng from all this reading!!
Click to expand...
Well, changing the angle of the incidence of the flash will change the shape of the specular reflection as well as changing the angle of the reflectance of the flash - but all that this will do will be to stop the flash bouncing directly into the lens, which it isn't doing anyway.

To solve the problem, the OP will have to use much larger light sources etc as I suggested.
 
Just to confirm then - If I want to photograph a bike or similar sized subject, then I will have to have a light source some 6 ft in size or similar?
What changes does it make if you bring the light source closer? I don't have the bike to practice on anymore unfortunately.
And what is the correct modifier I should be using?
 
wippers said:
Just to confirm then - If I want to photograph a bike or similar sized subject, then I will have to have a light source some 6 ft in size or similar?
Click to expand...
There's no definitive answer to that - but bigger is better. And convex subjects (or parts) need a much larger light source than flat subjects

wippers said:
What changes does it make if you bring the light source closer? I don't have the bike to practice on anymore unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Bringing the light closer makes it larger in relative terms, so it acts as a larger light source will act in terms of creating diffused specular highlights. Changing the distance also has other effects.
wippers said:
And what is the correct modifier I should be using?
Click to expand...
A softbox or silk
 
wippers said:
Cheers for the info Garry - It's all a bit new to me at the mo. Out of interest, what is a silk?
Click to expand...
A piece of translucent material, for example the ripstop nylon used for shoot through umbrellas or as softbox diffusers. The best (cheapest) alternative to ripstop nylon is PLAIN white shower curtain - just make a frame up to hold it in position and point the light so that it fills the silk, giving a very similar effect to a softbox.

Some people interchange the terms silk and scrim, but a scrim is something entirely different
 
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