Posted by Bruce Jackson on May 12, 2003
Just a thoughtVance asked me how I photograph my work. Trying to photograph a gold leaf job on a window is something most of us have grappled with, It's a tough ask, even professional photographers have trouble getting a good shot of a reflective surface, let alone a mirror finish gold sign on a sheet of glass.
Here's a few things I've learnt.
The main issue is controlling reflections. You don't want a reflection of yourself taking the photo in the middle of the sign, nor do you want disturbing reflections of passing cars or the signs from the building across the street.
It is possible to totally eliminate reflections but for sign-related work some reflections can give a sense of place. You just don't want them to dominate.
The general priniciple to eliminating reflections is to remove anything in the background by having some kind of uniform backdrop. When professional photographers are dealing with small metallic or reflective objects, they put the object inside a cylindrical tent of white material. It will have one small hole for the lens and a light above.
This can be applied to photographing artwork by having a white backdrop (perhaps it should be a frontdrop) at the camera position. You could set up a backdrop with a hole for the lens. Personally I just put the drop slightly to one side and shoot from next to it. This gets the camera out of the image but gives a slight perspective. If perspective is a problem, it can be adjusted on the computer using Photoshop or other image software. You can also set the camera up on a tripod and juggle the position so that it's reflection falls in a part of the design that doesn't reflect as much, such as inbetween letters or in a dark section of a painting.
I've tried both white and dark backdrops, white being best for most work. Light or white is good for the gold areas but the colors in a painting, especially dark ones, can look washed out. A dark backdrop gives rich dark colors and matt gold shows up well but it makes the bright gold very dark, almost to a point of disappearing.
Photographing an artwork in the studio like this is easy enough but it becomes a bit more difficult shooting a shop front. I have sometimes set up a large cloth on a frame but usually the scale of the work on shop windows makes this difficult. The backdrop has to be huge to cover the whole background on a large window.
Generally with these jobs, I just accept the streetscape reflections. One thing you can do is reduce their dominance a bit. Walk around finding the best angle. One with the least brightness or contrast in the reflections. Sometimes a low or high position will work. Any areas with reflections of sky tend to look very washed out so shooting from a high position such as a ladder often works.
Remember you can always reduce or remove the perspective later on the computer so angles aren't really a problem.
The worst situation is where the sign is in a dark area under a verandah and there is a brightly lit reflected background on a sunny day. The reflections are so dominate. Depending on the setting, a dull day may be better, and you can also use a fill in flash to illuminate the work (not straight on, it should be on an angle).
Lee LittlewoodA year or so back a photographer friend came over and shot a couple of windows about to leave the shop. He like the ones you described tried to use a tent and of course all the bright lines were either black or white with little shimmer and the black spot Mike described of the lens. After some discussion with him it was decided that next time we'll use a tent but mount the lens through an art poster with some sort of cafe scene.
Bruce JacksonThank you, Bruce. I have heard of a polarizing filter being helpful for reducing reflections, but maybe it would reduce the light off the gold as well??
Mike JacksonI've tried polarizing lenses, but they didn't work for me. I'm no professional, and maybe I don't know how to use them.
It seems to me they are good for glare coming from off to one side. The reflections are coming straight from the artwork, so they're not incidental light like glare.
The gold is going to reflect something. You just want to control what that is.
My experience has been basically the same as Bruce's regarding polarizing filters. I think everyone should have one and I would probably try it both ways, just in case it does help.
Polarizing filters seem to work best when there is quite a bit of angle of the light being reflected...such as the glare on the windshield of a car or the reflection on a lake. When photographing glass, you can remove some glare with a polarizing if you stand slightly off to the side of the glass, but that gives you a distorted shot.
I think they "can" help, but I don't think polarizing filters are "the" solution.
Best regards,
Mike
Sarah C
The poloraizing filter is the best way to go. For a digicam you would use a circular polarizer. I use one on my dslr too. You also want the sun to be behind you or at a 180 degree to the glass to work best. They are also great for removing the shiny reflection on foliage in landscape shots.
Mike Jackson
Dan SawatzkyHi Bruce,
Great post! I have been talking to SignCraft about an article that shows the tools you might use in Photoshop to straighten or square a distorted image. Maybe we will pursue it soon.
The photographer that we used for some of our glass pieces used a neutral gray background with a hole in it for the lense. You can see the dark area below the O and L area in the photo above.
Thanks again for the great information.
Mike Jackson
The photo looks great mike. But I couldn't resist fixing it before I got this one published. Just for fun I tried it in Photoshop... duplicating a good piece of trim, rotating it slightly and pasting it over that tiny shadow. The fix took all of two minutes and made a great photo fabulous/ without reflection. I'll email it to ya so you can post it here if ya like.
-dan
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