Photographing Wood w/o reflection

[ndsimm]

OK, so the boss wants his picture taken in front of the company logo, which has an oak finish to it. any ideas on how to shoot this without getting the hotspot that wood always gives? I've tried different angle and even bouncing the light behind me, but it's still there .....HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[rott]

Post a sample.. I'm not sure what you mean by "the hotspot that wood always gives."

[PeteQ]

Do you have wireless capability or an off-camera flash cord? If so you may try placing the flash below the sight line or on the ground behind you and then bouncing off the rear wall. I have used that a couple of times when shooting in offices with polished wood.

[Jezebel]

Originally Posted by rott

Post a sample.. I'm not sure what you mean by "the hotspot that wood always gives."

sounds like a hot friday night at home to me

[ndsimm]

Thanks Pete, I actually have two SB800's and I was going to experiment with the wireless mode on those since I have never used them......
I'll try setting them on the floor behind me or at least on a table. The ceiling is low so I should get a good bounce

[BadPig]

Oops....

[rott]

Jez...so bad. Yet so punny. oops wait, I mean

[rott]

Yeah, get the flash away from that camera! Wireless will do, or aim it at a nearby wall/reflector, preferably to the side.

[BadPig]

Originally Posted by PeteQ

Do you have wireless capability or an off-camera flash cord? If so you may try placing the flash below the sight line or on the ground behind you and then bouncing off the rear wall. I have used that a couple of times when shooting in offices with polished wood.

Might work better than what I had actually sat down and wrote. But you can also try some side lighting with a soft box with a reflector on the opossite side of the subject to even out the lighting if needed.

[PeteQ]

With two SB-800's you should be in pretty good shape. Which camera are you shooting? If it has a flash and you use it as the commander you should really be in great shape. Heck, that reflective wood may even help you bouce the wireless command pulses!

[ndsimm]

Originally Posted by PeteQ

With two SB-800's you should be in pretty good shape. Which camera are you shooting? If it has a flash and you use it as the commander you should really be in great shape. Heck, that reflective wood may even help you bouce the wireless command pulses!

I have the D70....I didn't think that it allowed for that feature. Should both 800's be on remote and then just use the on camera flash as the master?

[PeteQ]

Yes, the camera can be put in commander mode and your two SB's can act as remotes. The biggest limitation is that both SB's will act as 1 group, whereas the D200 can control two groups and the SB80's when acting as a commander can control three. That and you need to make sure that the SB's can "see" the command pulse from the 70. Sometimes tough depending on exact situation.

I think if you do a couple of tests you could probably just use one SB low and off-center behind you as the main flash with the second SB on your camera acting as commander with the head pointed as close to line of sight to the other SB as possible. Bouncing the 70's flash command may not give the best result if the target is behind you but it is certainly worth a try if you have a room to try it out on.

[Steelsun]

Might try diffuse lighting, no flash, and possibly a polarizer (it might help)

[Daniel Bates]

If worse comes to worst, you could always take a second picture with no flash and merge the images in Photoshop. That would eliminate the hotspot, but the results might look a bit strange.