White Reflections.... how to minimize

[tusko]

Dear photographic-unimind:

I am pleased with a ramshackle large, white, light-box which I have assembled, however I get a white reflection coming up along the bottom of my pictures.
Look:




The bottom of the images are washed out... now part of it is the plastic bubble catching the light, but I see this effect even on loose figures.

Any tips from the uber-photographers?

[shmax]

For starters, how about posting links to the full-size images instead of just those little thumbnails?

[tusko]

Ha!
Those thumbnails open to full pictures in any other website....

Anyway, bigger pics:

[shmax]

No feedback from the resident shutterbugs, yet?

I dunno, Tusko, these actually look pretty decent to me.

I do notice that you still seem to have shadows flying in too many directions. What happens if you get rid of the side lights and just put everything directly overhead?

Also, you might try turning down the exposure just a tad, and making up the difference in Photoshop with the "levels" control.

Another trick for minimizing frontal glare is to lay a black t-shirt or towel along the bottom, just out of frame (Highprime taught me that one).

Really I'm no expert--Highprime, any advice?

[tusko]

Thank you Shmax!!

Sounds like great advice.
I am limited in my ability to move my lights...but I am opting for more over head lights and open aperature settings on my cam.

I'll try the black shirt method.... its wild how many reflections are out there!

[HighPrime]

No feedback from the resident shutterbugs, yet?

I dunno, Tusko, these actually look pretty decent to me.

I do notice that you still seem to have shadows flying in too many directions. What happens if you get rid of the side lights and just put everything directly overhead?

Also, you might try turning down the exposure just a tad, and making up the difference in Photoshop with the "levels" control.

Another trick for minimizing frontal glare is to lay a black t-shirt or towel along the bottom, just out of frame (Highprime taught me that one).

Really I'm no expert--Highprime, any advice?

Yes, this will do it.

I've scaled back this method except for bags and profile shots (if even necessary), however.   Black levels are too rich for my tastes and I actually prefer the reflection over the over-darkened photos.  You can see black is too rich and somewhat washed out in the links provided. You can also see this photographer is clearly shooting on a downward angle - to me that's not reference for the site (I should not see the tops of those bubbles if shooting straight-on... Of course, it's not 'terrible' to shoot this way and Shmax does provide leeway, but I don't shoot this way - though these methods should/do help to minimize glare.  You could tilt the package slightly upwards, but then that would mess with the shadow underneath and you may have to adjust your lights further.  For every positive, there's a negative...

So, unless Shmax says 'I don't like the way you shoot packages (and lord knows he's not shy about bringing issues to my attention!)'... I'll continue to work the way I do, heh.