Lighting stainless steel

[Christophe Collette]

Hi! I have this shot to do of a girl in this kitchen, all the appliances are brushed stainless steel, it's a long steadycam shot, focus isn't on the appliances but I am quite afraid of the reflections of my lights and myself in the appliances... Any tricks, suggestions on how to light this??? I went to the location today to solve a few technical issue before the shoot and it puzzled me....

 

It's a very reflective surface althought it's brushed... And I can't avoid facing them in the shot...

 

Thanks for your ideas, help!

 

Great appreciated!

 

Christophe

[chris kempinski]

Hey,

 

I know only a couple things about stainless steel.

Usually try and use large soft sources, or a row

of kino with diffusion so as to make a continuous

"flare" across the entire surface that looks even and

from one single source.

We shoot the same commercial for a restaurant and

the DP always uses the steel, blasts hard light, 3 stops

over and blues up the background sources.

Oh, and a couple of black flops with a lens pointing out

between usually works for reflection.

 

again, best of luck.

Chris

[Walter Graff]

I don't know if you are going to have any problems to speak of. I light many situations with brushed steel for a kitchen company and I don't usually have any problems. Such metal can have problems with incident reflections but at that point it's simply moving a fixture slightly to loose the reflection. Since most all stoves are against a wall you will not have much in terms of incidence reflections. Softer sources will help as will bounce if it is an option.

[Daniel Madsen]

You light anything metallic like you would a vehicle, through reflection. Soft sources are used extensively, but think more in terms of the reflection principle, where you aren't necessarily aiming a light at the subject (pot), but lighting what you want to reflect. How do you do that? Flag off any direct light hitting the pot as to ensure that there is more light reflection in the pot than hitting it directly. A chimera will do this, but it won't be as beautiful as a sunset reflecting in the hood of an Aston Martin DB5, a pilot light reflecting In the contours of your pot or a naked women reflecting in a window looking out over the... Cameramen who specialize in this arena are called metallic cinematographers.

 

 

Dan

[Dino Giammattei]

Working in the medical film making business, I've spent countless hours making pictures with steel in the shot. When shooting on location, the fore mentioned light placement and artistic use of reflections is the whole trick.. For product type shots in the studio, where detail is critical, I have come to rely on a lot of foam core and seamless paper. For your situation, which is much more involved, have you considered painting the ceiling gray? Chances are good that the ceiling will get into any downward camera angles anyway. Dropping the ceiling a few stops worth of gray paint would be a good way to control the brightest areas

just a thought

dino

[Jim Feldspar]

Hi! I have this shot to do of a girl in this kitchen, all the appliances are brushed stainless steel, it's a long steadycam shot, focus isn't on the appliances but I am quite afraid of the reflections of my lights and myself in the appliances... Any tricks, suggestions on how to light this??? I went to the location today to solve a few technical issue before the shoot and it puzzled me....

 

It's a very reflective surface althought it's brushed... And I can't avoid facing them in the shot...

 

Thanks for your ideas, help!

 

Great appreciated!

 

Christophe

 

What about dulling spray? I've heard of that. Does anybody use it? I thought that it's

intended for exactly this type of situation.

[Peter-Christopher I. Jorgenson]

You could try, Privacy Window Spray AKA Frosted glass spray, however not sure how that would look on stainless steel or if it would damage it.

[Matthew Parnell]

Ive seen zip ease used to dull off shiny stainless steel.