Need Advice On Reducing Reflections

///MFanatic · Nov 10, 2014

Hello All,

I have recently started taking photos of automotive headlights. We started with a very small lighting setup which consisted of one light strip above the actual item. The reflections came out horrible. I started looking into how to improve and ended up getting a light tent and two lights coming from each side which worked out alright but considering I have to take pictures of 30+ headlights a day and list them in 8 hours, the light tent was very uncomfortable to work with. So I found an alright backdrop laying around and tried to just light the backdrop with the current lights I have which worked out a little better but still not what I want. Could anyone give me some advice on what I should do next to get a professional looking photo with minimal reflections? Do umbrellas diffuse light well enough not to get such harsh reflections? Also, any comments on my current photos would be greatly appreciated. I think I overexpose a good bit and some help on how to fix that would help a bunch. I'll include a picture from the first setup I had and the second one (without the light tent) as well

Thank you very much

gsgary · Nov 11, 2014

Dulling spray will help and fagging the lights

JoeW · Nov 11, 2014

First, look at "Light: Science and Magic." They talk about the "family of angles"....the angle of the light (related to where the camera is) affects how much glare you see.

Second, try adding a color polarizer (which will reduce glare and reflection).

Third, try bouncing your lights off of white board/foam core or white walls or shooting in to an umbrella with the light source pointed away from the subject (so it not only diffuses the light but scatters it. In fact, now that I think about it, your subject ain't going anywhere. Put your camera on a tripod. Bounce light off of white walls (away from the subject). And put scrims around your subject (to further soften and diffuse the light). And expose for something like 1-2 seconds. Your biggest problem will be a reflection of you, the camera and the tripod showing up in the subject (and you can minimize that by shooting through a slot in your light tent or at least putting a scrim in front of your camera with a slot to shoot through.

///MFanatic · Nov 11, 2014

Thank you all for the responses. I will try both methods and yes, I've already ordered the book "Light: Science and Magic" as almost every other thread I read before making my own everyone recommends it as well. I'll post back with results soon

tirediron · Nov 13, 2014

First: Get your lights MUCH closer and drop the power accordingly. Add 1, 2 or even 3 layers of additional diffusion material. This sort of work can be very challenging and requires a lot of planning as far as light positioning.

gsgary · Nov 13, 2014

Opal plexiglass is also very good to shoot through

cheung · Nov 16, 2014

I have tried this on a shiny apple but don't know whether it works on your headlights or not....put a polarizer film on your main light; use a polarizer filter on your lens to get rid of the reflections of your main light

Dovydas Arlauskas · Nov 24, 2014

I usually use a polarising filter to reduce the flare in most situations. You can also make your own scrims (diffusion panels) and use them with your lights.

Here's a link -