How to shoot reflective sufboards?

[AndrewG222]

Hi,

I have the task of photographing items in a small Surfing museum and am having a real difficult time with the upright longboards and several shortboards because of the reflection on the shiny surfaces. You can quite easily see your face in some of these things.

I’ve looked at many tutorials online about overcoming the problem of reflective surfaces but all involve shooting at an angle with vellum paper or having large white card. I have a circular polarising filter which sometimes works well for shooting items in glass cabinets but doesn't really do much for the boards.

Would anyone have any ideas they would like to share with me please as to how I can shoot head on an minimise reflections? I won't be using a flash and may get a couple of soft boxes if it helps.

Thanks,

Andrew

[ameerat42]

Sounds like you've got the basics. The trick is to "hide your face" and other unwanted objects.
No doubt you searched like this:
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=shooting+reflective+surfaces&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&ei=-HqdV8WCNKjM8gee4IGICA#q=photographing+reflective+surfaces

I've checked out a few of the top ones and they look OK.
Have you actually tried it?

[ricktas]

How about instead of just popping onto the site when you have a question, you join in a bit and give some others some help too?

[AndrewG222]

Hi ,

Thanks for search keywords ameerat42 for Google. Much appreciated. They are very good ones and have already tried them before posting on here and as mentioned most tutorials I've come across involve shooting at an angle where as I want to shoot head on which makes my task a bit more difficult. Also the subjects are multiple size surfboards (some longboards are 11ft +) so I thought some photographic guru's on here may have already tried something like this.

Early days and will check back and also continue on my search online.

Andrew

[AndrewG222]

You have received a new personal message at AusPhotography:: Australia's Premier Photography Forum:: from ricktas, entitled "Hi".

This is the message that was sent:
***************
Yesterday you posted a thread and I mentioned that it would be good to see you actually joining in on the site and helping others as well, rather than just posting when you want to know something.

You chose to ignore my post. if every member just posted what they wanted to know and did not help others, then the site would be useless. It is about both giving out advice and helping other photographers as well as getting the advice from them.

So, please start joining in and giving something back to the members who have been all to willing to give you guidance and advice.

Rick
Admin
***************

Hi Rick,

Yes I did choose to ignore you as your prompt reply to my post and it's contents plus other posts I've seen from you come across as some what ....'stick to my rules or clear off. That and of course your new private message which I included above.

I've seen it happen before when I've got to read some forums, a person steps out of line and immediately barred from posting and I guess this post will probably last an hour max.

I have very little time in a day to even access a computer and surf the web / read forums but when I do get some spare time I would love to head back to this forum and answer a few questions if I'm capable of coming up with the answers as the whole idea of photography is fascinating and certainly throws up many challenges. My only previous post to this was asking about Copyright issues.

I don't really need power hungry admin staff telling me what I should do.

Have a good day.

Andrew

[ricktas]

Hi Rick,

Yes I did choose to ignore you as your prompt reply to my post and it's contents plus other posts I've seen from you come across as some what ....'stick to my rules or clear off. That and of course your new private message which I included above.

I've seen it happen before when I've got to read some forums, a person steps out of line and immediately barred from posting and I guess this post will probably last an hour max.

I have very little time in a day to even access a computer and surf the web / read forums but when I do get some spare time I would love to head back to this forum and answer a few questions if I'm capable of coming up with the answers as the whole idea of photography is fascinating and certainly throws up many challenges. My only previous post to this was asking about Copyright issues.

I don't really need power hungry admin staff telling me what I should do.

Have a good day.

Andrew

So what you are saying is that it is all about YOU and what you can get, not about GIVING back to others for helping you. In 12 months of membership of this site, you could not find the time to help one other member? So this power hungry admin has banned you, as you cannot be bothered to give something back to others.