Tutorial - Kill the Shine
by admin on Oct.31, 2008, under photography, product photography, tutorial
Many times product photographers are presented with surfaces that are highly reflective. These surfaces may be metal, plastic, glass, or ceramic.
There are many tricks that the photographer can employ to kill the shine of the object including the use of black cards (sometimes called negative lighting) or using gobos or scrims to precisely control the fall of light on the object.
Many times this is a time consuming process to get these lighting techniques just right.
Here is a 30 second solution to damping down reflections in a object.
Product photography image of a ceramic cup
This image is directly from the shooting table and did not recieve any special lighting. The highlights on the bottom of the cup is distracting. As well as the highlight right above the logo.
Although these are easy fixes in Adobe Photoshop, it would time to to fix. And of course time is money.
Here is a 30 second fix that will reduce the shine on the object without having to do it in Photoshop.
Here is the result of the fix .
Product Photograph with highlights reduced
The highlights are there but they are not as distinctive and the technique was done in front of the camera.
The Solution:
Krylon Dulling Spray
Krylon Dulling Spray is basically a spray powder that reduces the effect of highlights on a surface and for most items very safe to use. It simply wipes off the object without any residue left. It is essential that dulling spray is tested on the item before fully using on a product and the permission of the owner is obtained. But if is ok to use for your product, Dulling spray is a good solid quick fix .
