Filming Reflective Product

[Simon Rowling]

I am doing a commercial in a weeks time but the product is made of Chrome, and so really really reflective!!

 

Any suggestions or people's experiences, for filming products like this and how to avoid/best approach this???

 

Thanks!

[Miguel Angel]

Hello and welcome to the page,

 

Reflective products are really challenging, rather than me trying to explain different approaches, you might find useful the links below where a lot of techniques are proposed:

 

http://www.cinematography.net/edited-pages/CML%20Lighting%20Extremely%20Reflective%20Objects.htm

 

http://www.lighting-essentials.com/one-light-for-a-highly-reflective-item/

 

Have a good day.

[John Miguel King]

Big soft sources and extra attention to where you are filming are the two most important things.

 

If in an infinity cove, you might want to turn the shoot 180º. And by this I mean place the camera with the cove behind your back and rig a frame as the background. This way you retain control over what's in front of the object, which is what will be reflected on the surface.

 

Large LED panels through 4x4 or 4x8 frames with lee 216 take very little space and are easy to adjust. They're great soft sources for such a situation.

 

Just remember the reflections show everything, so you might want to think of what's above too.

[Simon Rowling]

Thanks!

 

I am shooting on location. infinity wall is a good idea if I had one though!

 

I am using a book lights setup as key light source, then bouncing that around the object with various poly boards.

Will probably try and hide the camera into the set, and cover with a cloth where necessary.

[John Miguel King]

No worries Simon.

 

A book light is a big big thing though. I'd definitely go for softer sources through frames or pure and simple softboxes. They're simpler to rig and adjust. The quality of the light will be roughly the same and, most importantly, the reflection will be larger if you cut the distance between the object and the frames.

I'm not sure, though, you'll enjoy moving bounces around or that it's a practical solution. You're shaping the object through its reflections, therefore you want to be able to control the intensity and size of these, which becomes very difficult unless they're independent sources. The ideal light for this would be an led softbox, as you can dim it without changing the ºK. It's also quite easy to shape the reflection by just cutting it out in blackwrap and clipping it to the softbox.

Another thing you might want to look at is mixing hard a soft sources. Fresnells will help you add some extra shaping, whilst at the same time creating specular highlights to make the thing pop.