# Marine Corps Ball Cap, not an official Cover Jarhead.....



## DaPOPO (Aug 13, 2019)

So, as a Marine Corps Vet, I was given a Marine Corps Ball Cap. I decided to try and take some pictures of it. I set it on glass and folded Old Glory underneath...

I bought some of those Magmod grids and attached them to my flashes. I was actually pretty happy with the way they controlled the light...

So... I am happy with the various lighting, but I am not pleased that I couldn't figure out how to make the reflection of the cap go away... After I put everything away, I remembered I should have angled the glass away from the camera and that might have worked....

I purposely put the flag underneath and angled it down towards the camera, but the ball cap looks like it is floating in the air and not sitting on something...

Not bad for a first go at it, but it can be better.... CC if you want...

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## snowbear (Aug 14, 2019)

Nice job.
I'd imagine that angling the lights won't get rid of all the reflection as the cap surface is curved.  Maybe try a polarizer, too.


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## Designer (Aug 14, 2019)

I'd say skip the glass, since it is giving you difficulty.


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## smoke665 (Aug 14, 2019)

It might help if we knew more about the reason for the the glass between the flag and the cap? It's going to be difficult to eliminate all the reflections in one shot. You might try a shot of the flag & glass only. Then a shot of the hat only on a 18% gray background and merge them in Ps. Set the layer mode to Overlay and adjust the blend if sliders as required.

Edit: sorry got in a hurry. The hat should be on the bottom layer, flag on top. Use a white mask on the flag Layer, and a soft black brush set to 100% to remove any flag on the hat.


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## vintagesnaps (Aug 14, 2019)

Nice pictures of the cap itself, and nice that you received it. Maybe rethink the glass or try different apertures/different depths of field. I'm wondering how it would work if it was all in focus so maybe the flag would appear closer to the cap.


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## DaPOPO (Aug 14, 2019)

I put it on the glass because if I placed it directly on the flag, it would sink into it and cover some of the bottom of the hat. I wouldn't have been able to fold it the way I did to get the image in my mind I was hoping for.

I thought about taking the two shots and compositing them together, but part of the fun is trying to figure it out... Thank you for the excellent advice on how to composite it.





smoke665 said:


> It might help if we knew more about the reason for the the glass between the flag and the cap? It's going to be difficult to eliminate all the reflections in one shot. You might try a shot of the flag & glass only. Then a shot of the hat only on a 18% gray background and merge them in Ps. Set the layer mode to Overlay and adjust the blend if sliders as required.
> 
> Edit: sorry got in a hurry. The hat should be on the bottom layer, flag on top. Use a white mask on the flag Layer, and a soft black brush set to 100% to remove any flag on the hat.



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## DaPOPO (Aug 14, 2019)

I thought about stacking and making sure every part was in focus, but I decided the main focus should stay on the ball cap itself.. Thanks for the compliment.





vintagesnaps said:


> Nice pictures of the cap itself, and nice that you received it. Maybe rethink the glass or try different apertures/different depths of field. I'm wondering how it would work if it was all in focus so maybe the flag would appear closer to the cap.



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## DaPOPO (Aug 14, 2019)

Thanks.





snowbear said:


> Nice job.
> I'd imagine that angling the lights won't get rid of all the reflection as the cap surface is curved.  Maybe try a polarizer, too.



Sent from my SM-G975U using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


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## smoke665 (Aug 14, 2019)

DaPOPO said:


> put it on the glass because if I placed it directly on the flag, it would sink into it and cover some of the bottom of the hat. I wouldn't have been able to fold it the way I did to get the image in my mind I was hoping for.



Makes sense.. Another option you might try is without the glass, support the hat in some manner. Straight pins on the inside might provide enough to hold, or a balloon inside, or hang it over the flag with monofilament. Interesting project!


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