How to get rid of glare?

acuriousman · Nov 27, 2012

I have a lamp that I use to light my video shoots. It has 4 bulbs on it that are able to move/flex in any direction. The trouble is, I have to bring these bulbs REALLY close to my camera to get decent exposure. This creates a lot of nasty glare from the bulbs on the item I'm shooting. It might look fine one second, but if I tilt or turn the item, tons of glare pops in. Which is HORRIBLE for video.

Example of the glare.

My lamp:

Any idea how I can fix this?

Thank you for reading.

AlexanderB · Nov 27, 2012

May be put some thin white cloth screen between the light and subject to get more diffused light?

KmH · Nov 27, 2012

It's a lot like shooting billiards, and all about the angles.
Learn about the 'family of angles' as it relates to photographic lighting.
As a reference and guide for lighting, this book is often recommended - Light Science and Magic, Fourth Edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting.

acuriousman · Nov 27, 2012

I tried the cloth method and it didn't work. I even tried aiming the light away from the item but it made the video too dim.

KmH, I also tried a few different angles, but the only way I can get good exposure is with the lamps DIRECTLY near the camera. Also, because I shoot video, I'm tilting/turning the item a lot and catching glare no matter what angle. Somebody mentioned a softbox, would that help me?

cwcaesar · Nov 27, 2012

Would using a polarizer help at all for this?

tirediron · Nov 27, 2012

A softbox is a diffuser, just like the piece of white cloth. What may help is to increase the amount of diffusion and move the diffuser(s) farther from the light source (closer to the subject), BUT that will reduce the amount light as well. I would strongly suggest reading Light, Science, Magic as recommended by KmH - there's more to the family of angles than just rotating things randomly. Additionally, having mulitple lights in different positions is increasing the difficulty as well.

JAC526 · Nov 27, 2012

KmH is right. You need to position the light to get rid of the camera picking up any direct reflection from the light on the subject.

acuriousman · Nov 27, 2012

Okay, so it sounds like one big powerful light is what I need, right? That should make the glare easier to manage than using 4? I don't have any sort of diffuser right now either. Which is why somebody mentioned a softbox to me earlier. I'll definitely pick up that book if I can but time is rather slim right now.

Mike_E · Nov 27, 2012

Have you tried a clamp light and a 250 watt spotlight?

KmH is right, it's all about the angles.

ph0enix · Nov 27, 2012

cwcaesar said:
Would using a polarizer help at all for this?

I doubt it. You really need to diffuse the light and/or use a different light source.

TCampbell · Nov 27, 2012

The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. That means the surface works... like a mirror. Imagine the surface IS a mirror. Would you be able to see the light bulb in that mirror? If the answer is "yes" then it means you'd also be able to see the reflection (glare) on the real surface and it doesn't matter how bright or dim or diffuse you make the bulb.

Move the lights so that you wouldn't actually be able to see their reflection if your subject surfaces were mirrors.

Also... a polarizer (with a DSLR it needs to be a "circular polarizer") will cut reflections. They may not completely disappear but they'll get reduced so substantially that they're hard to see. The polarizer needs to be rotated to tune out the reflections you don't want to see.

acuriousman · Nov 27, 2012

TCampbell said:
The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. That means the surface works... like a mirror. Imagine the surface IS a mirror. Would you be able to see the light bulb in that mirror? If the answer is "yes" then it means you'd also be able to see the reflection (glare) on the real surface and it doesn't matter how bright or dim or diffuse you make the bulb. Move the lights so that you wouldn't actually be able to see their reflection if your subject surfaces were mirrors. Also... a polarizer (with a DSLR it needs to be a "circular polarizer") will cut reflections. They may not completely disappear but they'll get reduced so substantially that they're hard to see. The polarizer needs to be rotated to tune out the reflections you don't want to see.

A polarizer... I've never used one of those before. I have a GH2 with a 14mm 2.5 lens. What polarizers could I put on that to get rid of this glare/reflections? Would using a polarizer mean my picture would become dimmer/darker?

Tee · Nov 27, 2012

You can get Light Science and Magic (3rd edition) on Kindle/iPad for $8.00 as well. It's one of the better books explaining how to solve this problem.

jrizal · Nov 27, 2012

Here's an old trick video production companies use to reduce glare aside from proper lighting that I've learned when I commissioned one such outfit to produce a TV commercial and some print ads in the company I've worked for. It is in some ways an "out-the-box" solution by photographers and videographers.

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