# How to light Stainless Steel



## richardmayoff

I am going to be photographing large rotisseries (very large BBQs) that cook 12 chickens on a steel spike at the same time. These units are used at Cosco etc and other large supermarkets.
The exterior of the units are all  stainless steel, and there is a flame seen behind the chickens through the closed glass doors of one of the units coking the chickens. The glass doors need to be closed. The chickens will not be turning but already cooked.. I need to be able to capture the unit, chickens & flame with no reflections in the stainless. My thought was to use numerous white 4 x 8 foam cores to block the reflections around the reflective parts of the stainless steel rotisseries. I am also thinking of using 2 or 3 daylight balanced flash monoblock units with umbrellas to light everything and then a bit of a time exposure to capture the flame. There are fluorescents (not many or strong but approx 25 feet up on the ceiling. I also have Lowen tungsten lamps, but they get very hot to work with.  If I use the Tungsten lighting do I need to use a Gel to balance the fluorescents with the tungsten lights?  

Naturally I want the colors to be proper due to the florescents.. I plan on making some kind of a box taping the foam cores to each other and hopefully putting 1 over the top of the rotisserie to block the fluorescents from affecting the colors. I will shoot in Raw so I can do some color corrections if necessary in Photoshop.

My Question.

Does this seem like the proper route to take? Which lighting system would you use?

Many thanks
Richard


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## Alpha

I think color balancing is going to be a royal pain here. Is turning off the fluorescents and using only daylight-balanced strobes an option? You could also try a large scrim above the unit if you have space, as you've indicated, but I think that would be an awful lot of trouble. I would go with modifiers that cast the widest, most even light you can achieve. Do a second shot to get the flames and edit on post.


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## gsgary

Get some of this S W Kenyon


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## richardmayoff

Alpha said:


> I think color balancing is going to be a royal pain here. Is turning off the fluorescents and using only daylight-balanced strobes an option? You could also try a large scrim above the unit if you have space, as you've indicated, but I think that would be an awful lot of trouble. I would go with modifiers that cast the widest, most even light you can achieve. Do a second shot to get the flames and edit on post.


Hi Alpha, Thanks for your reply. I agree re almost impossible to color balance. I can't clos ethe florescents. Would you use umbrellas on daylight balanced mono's to capture. I already have foamcores to block reflections. Thanks


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## Mike_E

You need this..

Dean Collins


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## Don Kondra

If you shoot with the strobes at your camera's sync speed the ambient light won't be an issue.  But then lighting the interior might be interesting.

The reflections in the stainless steel are going to be pain but a "box" of foamcore should work.  

You might also want to bring a CP filter to help with the reflections in the glass.

Depending on the angles you may need to cover the front and the floor, bring lots of foamcore  

Sounds like fun, looking forward to the images 

Cheers, Don


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## Qualityfabrication

i agree with you all i'm new here, The reflections in the stainless steel are going to be pain, but many ways how you got stainless steel its not a big deal many friends give you very useful ideas............


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## TCampbell

Uh oh... zombie thread alert!


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## TWright33

Without getting into a lot of detail...

I would try to capture two images. 

One of the grill, then one of the interior with chicken.

Then make a composite.


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## ronlane

I would pull out my iPad and go to my nook app and then to my copy of Light Science and Magic and go to Chapter 6 on how to light Metal.


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## exkalibur

Qualityfabrication said:


> i agree with you all i'm new here, The reflections in the stainless steel are going to be pain, but many ways how you got stainless steel its not a big deal many friends give you very useful ideas............



Smells like a future spammer


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