[hillerby]

I've got a client that wants me to shoot some products for their catalogue. I've not done anything like this in years, so I'm looking for ideas, techniques on lighting and exposure.
Nearly all of the items are made of either chrome, or highly polished stainless steel.
I made a few "test shots" last week and was very disappointed with the results. I had a lot of glare and reflection off the shiny surfaces.
Anyone have any "tricks" for dealing with this sort of thing?

[enoeske]

shiny metal is what is called a specular object, which means, an object that is difficult to take a picture of since the object is shiny -- what you need to do is take a picture of the reflection of the background of the object. In other words, you need to make a nice reflection on the object, ideally with a nice white or gray sheet of poster board or something and light that, not try to light the metal.

[Wheatfield]

You need a huge light source close to the object to avoid reflective glare. I had an inexpensive camping tent that was made of white nylon (the fly was green) that I used as a small object tent for a number of years.

[alohadave]

Get a copy of Light: Science and Magic. It covers many difficult situations like this.

In the meantime, you want to use a lightbox or large white reflectors around the items. You want to light what the metal sees, not the metal itself. This will eliminate specular reflections and give you more even lighting.

Strobist: On Assignment: Stainless Steel and Cookies

This link has some good information on double diffusing which should help as well.

[MJB DIGITAL]

you can also polarize your light source.

but i'm a wedding photographer. product photography is probably the farthest thing from my skill set there is.

good luck

[MPrince]

What enoeske said.

For more info, check out the book Light: Science and Magic. The authors devote an entire chapter to this subject.

Edit: What alohadave said as well.

[hillerby]

Thanks all! I knew I'd done this before, but couldn't remember the methodology of it.
We had to shoot some pictures of images in mirrors, etc. when I was at the Army Photo School. It's really pretty simple.
I used to do it a lot when I was shooting weddings years ago, but haven't done it in over 15 years.
Now that ya'll have jogged my memory, I'll have no problems with this little gig.
Thanks again!