The Trick On Getting Gradient Reflection On Reflective Surfaces (Cellphones, Laptops Etc.)

Getting gradual reflection on a shiny surface is not trivial. It is not hard, but you have to know how it is done (which you will once you’ve read this post :). This is one of my favorite techniques when shooting products with a granite tile, and it gets that gradient reflection on a reflective surface every time.

I got a couple of messages on Flickr a while back asking me how to get a gradient effect on an iphone shot I did before. So here is a step by step lighting tutorial on how to achieve this kind of lighting and where you can use it.

1. The first thing you need to know when you are working with a reflective surface is that it acts like a mirror. This means that the actual reflection is not just set by what you shoot, but it also depends on the camera position.

You could actually place a small mirror on the surface of the subject just for checking out the what the actual reflection is.

Sample 1

Sample 1 with mirror

Sample 2

Sample 2 with mirror

2. Here is the trick: the location of the reflection hint you on where to position your lights. You want your light to be reflected. More specifically, you want the entire reflection to be covered with a large light source.

Sample 1

Sample 2

3. Here is the effect of placing a softbox on where your reflection is.

Sample 1 with softbox

Sample 2 with softbox

4. And here is the final touch, this is the effect you get by placing a gradient light source on the reflection

Sample 1 with gradient light

Sample 2 with gradient light

5. There are a couple of ways to get a gradient reflection on the surface.

Normally for my granite tile shots, I use a white seamless paper as the reflected surface and place a bare flash towards it. So it is reflecting a light on where your mirror is pointed.

A studio strobe pointed on the white seamless paper which is the reflection of the granite tile

Setup Shot

Bouncing a speedlight on a piece of paper to get a gradient reflection on the screen.

Setup Shot

I wiped the granite tile with water to get a little bit of pattern in the tile and also used a CTO gel pointed on a seamless white paper to get this effect.

Again the difference on using a direct light and a reflected light on the surface.

Another example of using a gradient reflection

So there you have it, next time you are dealing with a reflective surface product shot, feature out where its reflection is and place your lights there.

Joseph Padiernos

Great one Laya ;)
Matt Owen

Simple, and quite helpful. Thanks.
Cesar Gonzalez

Jose Castillo
Andrew Sible

can you substitute black plexiglass for granite with suitable results?
- scatterbrained
  
  Black acrylic (aka Lexan, aka Plexiglass) is actually what most product shooters will have in their studio. Either black or white acrylic sheet; so yes, it will work just fine. ;) The benefit of black acrylic over using a granite tile is that if you want you can light it from underneath.
yopyop

Thank you, very nice and clear article.
bollox

Nice pictures. Shame you lack the ability to properly explain clearly and step-by-step how to actually re-create it. Article is a load of Bollox and DIYP should be ashamed to public so low quality.
- mrniceguy
  
  it’s a step by step article. it can’t get any clearer than that. Have you even tried doing it? :)
Cooper

Having gradient reflection during taking a shot is not an easy task but the point is it can help in getting rid of post processing task. I have seen someone is criticizing about the steps but I can understand the fact that one cant be enough to teach the whole process!
Micle

i have comment about you ‘YOUR PICTURES ARE SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL’
annie

Getting gradual reflection on shiny surface is tough, I tried many times with my shots to bring out the gradient effect but failed. The way you showed it with the mirror and the paper is quite interesting. I do agree that you show it step by step, the process was a bit clumsy. But still a lot of information’s.