[6BQ5]

An office mate has asked me to photograph some dull grey metal rings for a technical paper he is writing. The rings are about 3" high and 16" diameter. They are made of stainless steel. We have a general idea of how to position the rings to highlight some of their physical features, texture, cut-outs, etc. I'm struggling to come up with a lighting strategy. My initial thought is to have a strong light up high from the rear and diffuse it downward with paper or plastic film. Any soft shadows would be filled in with a small power diffused light in the front sitting low. To add some contrast I was going to put the rings down on a blue place mate.

The image will be used in the technical paper that will be published as a PDF. It will take up a 3.5"x3" space. The image will also be distributed to technical and marketing people who may share it with a customer. People will be zooming in and pixel peeping for the features of the rings.

Any suggestions or thoughts?

Thanks!

[LensBeginner]

There is this @jawsy fellow on the forum... he even went as far as starting an "industrial photography thread", and he appears to be very knowledgeable about that stuff...
Maybe you could pm him?
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/3-site-suggestions-help/277936-suggestion...hy-thread.html

[RGlasel]

Too bad there wasn't an answer in the thread to this question: "How do you photograph polished steel in low light without the flash burning the surface detail?"

Read more at: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/3-site-suggestions-help/277936-suggestion...#ixzz3OvgfDuRu

I will suggest cleaning the rings with alcohol, because fingerprints and dirt will show up in your photos. Wouldn't you be better off putting two strong, diffused lights in front at 45 degrees to the focal plane instead of a backlight? Also, what about putting little spacers underneath the rings to get them slightly off the bottom mat? I have taken pictures (on film) of cutaway mufflers to produce a product sheet for monochrome printing and I ended up putting them on top of a blue tabletop backdrop on the floor in a room well-lit with fluorescent ceiling lights, and the camera on a tripod aimed just slightly off of directly above.

[darylk]

I'll defer to others regarding the lighting. For the color of the place mat I think that blue is too close to gray. I would think that a tasteful yellow or red may provide a better contrast against the grayish metal.

[atupdate]

Depending on the size of the rings, you might want to Google DIY light tent for your lighting question.

If the blue place mat doesn't work (most publications are in B&W), you might want to try using very fine grain sand paper (brown, black, or grey). When I've shot metal components in the lab, I found the sand paper to be fairly non-reflective and allowed me to concentrate on adjusting the light to best show off the parts.

Example with grey sand paper (no light tent).


Tim

[Sagitta]

I've used a common desk lamp with a modern 5500k LED bulb in it with good results for stuff in the past.

Its crude, but it works.

[BrianR]

The book Light Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting has a chapter devoted to photographing metal objects. Some people love this book, some seem to hate it saying it feels 'textbook like', I think it's great for stuff like this.

The basic rule with anything shiny and reflective is to light what the object 'sees' and not the object itself. It's the direct reflection of your light source on the metal that light up your object. Large, well placed light sources are key (large relative to the size of your object), and different lighting positions may emphasize shape or texture better. Continuous lighting may be preferred over strobes (unless you have studio lights with modelling lights) since you get real time feedback of the light positioning.