I'm surprised that no one has suggested this yet, so I thought I'd
mention it. The root of the problem with flash on a shiny round
(or cylindrical) object is that the flash is a pin-point light source.
This causes Hot-spot reflections on some parts, and black on
other parts. What you need is to enlarge the light source, and
to use multiple sources. Use at least 2 flashes with some med
size (>=30cm) light boxes. If you only have one flash, aim it
at a large piece of white poster board, and use it as a reflector
to aim it at your subject. Also use another piece of poster board
on the other side to reflect some of that light back as fill. You'd
be surprised what you can accomplish with only one flash and
some poster boards. The angles are a kind of "best guess" so
be sure to take shots with the reflectors at different angles.
Pro Shots on a Student Budget. Oh I almost forgot, you'll have
to do all of this with a 2(n), 3T, or 4(T) so that you can use TTL
flash metering. Good Luck,
-Chris Riek
> ----------
> From: Mark Staiger[SMTP:Mark.Staiger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Reply To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 11:20 PM
> To: OM list
> Subject: [OM] photographing polished metal- HELP!
>
> Dear Zuiks, I apologise this is not a zuik related
> posting but I am desperate for a solution to
> something I need to do for my PhD. I would like to
> be able to photograph/video the surface of steel
> that is highly reflective, actually
> electro-polished. The area is about 6.7 mm wide
> and
> 20 mm long, also cylindrical. Using video is very
> difficult because the surface just appears black
> as there is no light reflected back into the lens
> on account of the surface being so smooth and
> round. Can I use my oly gear to get an image of
> this surface? I can normally view the surface
> through a microscope because the light comes from
> the lens and not the side but how else can I get
> the lighting required?
>
> Any tips would be really appreciated,
>
> Mark
> Melbourne
>
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