Studio help: Reflections...

[2WK]

How do I light a person wearing sunglasses without having crazy reflections in the (sunglasses) lens'? I was trying with two softboxes in front, but of course got nasty square reflections. I was thinking of hanging strips of velum in front of the boxes to make diffuse strips of light, but I am open to suggestions.

I was shooting in a rather confided studio space, but I heard when shooting eyewear it helps a lot to have a massive space so the lighting can be very distant to the subject to affect the reflections.

I also have to shoot a chrome bicycle, and so I need to get these reflections in check.

Currently I have 2 medium softboxes and 3 small ones, but could rent more gear if necessary.

Thanks!

[thegman]

Could a polarizer filter help here?

[2WK]

Sorry, I mean more like the reflection of the strobe going off. Currently I am getting a hard white square reflection in the glasses. Even a nice diffuse circle would be much better...

[gshybrid]

dulling spray on the sunglasses might help...

[Brad Bireley]

Try putting your lights higher & pointing down at a sharper angle.

[j.scooter]

For the glasses. Just have the subject raise the arms of the glasses from their ears just a bit to change the angle.

The chrome bicycle will be more challenging.

If you have some time I suggest you read "Light, Science and Magic"

[filmtwit]

Try raising your strobes above 45 deg.

[taskoni]

Do you shoot with a digital camera? I personally would shoot the portrait as it is with the reflection in the glasses, than shoot the sunglasses separately lit and replace the glass on the actual photo

[2WK]

Thanks for the help. I will try raising the strobes. I was shooting strait on as I wanted the light to be super flat. I am shooting digital phase one p45 on a Hassy, but I want to keep the amount of post work to a minimum as there will be a lot of shots.

[2WK]

Oh, and I ordered the book... thanks J.scooter!

[Rico]

Originally Posted by 2WK

Sorry, I mean more like the reflection of the strobe going off. Currently I am getting a hard white square reflection in the glasses. Even a nice diffuse circle would be much better...

The only key light that won't appear in curved eyewear is a hemispherical dome of diffused illumination - think overcast sky with subject reclined on their back. This lighting scheme is pretty dull. With interesting (directional) lighting placed to generate a catchlight, the eyewear reflection is hard to avoid. As shown below, a small head adjustment can make results better. I actually believe some eyewear reflection is desirable and, as you say, can be engineered to maximize attractiveness. For example, second image shows a door-sized shoot-through panel with weak diffusion. This light source could look pretty nice when magnified in convax eyewear.

[Jamie123]

Does it have to be strobes? Personally I would prefer to use KinoFlos in this situation. With a diffuser they actually make for nice catch lights IMO.

As for the chrome bicycle, I think the easiest way to get rid of unwanted reflections is to build a tent around the bike with white and/or dark cloth (depending on how you want it to look) and shoot through a hole in the cloth.
Since I assume the bike is stationary another option would be to just light different areas of the bike at a time and then stitch the shots afterwards.

[rxmd]

The heavy-handed solution would be to put a polarizing foil filter in front of your strobe, and another polarizer at 90° angle on your lens. It's what you do when shooting reproductions of heavily textured materials, such as oil paintings.

[giellaleafapmu]

What you see is the reflection of the strobe(s) (or whatever you are using), so be sure to angle the strobe(s) in such a way that the reflection is not going directly toward the camera. Usually there is one problematic spot and many positions which are not problematic at all. I would suggest you try your lightning before the session. You nail your camera onto a tripod and put your light(s) as you would do if glasses didn't exists. Now you might have that reflection so start moving the light(s) which cause it to get it out of the way, if you have pilot lights (common on studio flashes and sometimes simulated by multiflashes on small strobes) it is easier but even with small flashes it takes just a couple of trials to be almost there. If you are using just a flash mounted on the camera the solution is to bounce. Since it is possible that after all this light is not coming from the best angle you might need to use reflecting panel(s) to bring up the light in some part of the composition. Sometimes you can do a small fill with another light as long as light bounces away in the right direction. I think you should research something called "broad light" in the net.

Have fun.

GLF