How do you manage and control reflections and glare when photographing highly reflective products, such as jewelry or electronics, to achieve a clean and professional look?

Managing reflections and glare when photographing highly reflective products like jewelry or electronics requires careful planning and setup. Here are some professional techniques to achieve a clean and polished look:

1. Control the Lighting

• Diffuse the Light: Use softboxes, diffusers, or shoot-through umbrellas to soften the light. Diffused light minimizes harsh reflections and evenly illuminates the product.
• Adjust the Light Position: Experiment with the angle of your light sources to control reflections. Aim to light the product indirectly to avoid catching the reflection of the light source.

2. Use Polarizers

• Camera Polarizer: Attach a circular polarizer filter to your lens to reduce reflections on surfaces like glass or metal.
• Lighting Polarizer: Place polarizing gels over your light sources for even greater control over reflections.

3. Light Tents and Cubes

• Enclose the product in a light tent or light cube. These provide a diffused environment, softening reflections and eliminating unwanted glare.

4. Control the Environment

• Black-out Reflections: Use black cards or flags to block reflections of unintended objects in the room.
• Use White Cards: Place white foam boards around the product to reflect soft light onto the product, filling in shadows and creating a clean, even look.

5. Adjust Camera Angles

• Change the camera angle to avoid direct reflections of the light or the camera in the product. Sometimes tilting the product slightly can help avoid unwanted glare.

6. Background and Surface

• Use matte backgrounds or surfaces that do not reflect light. Reflective backgrounds can add unwanted reflections and distractions.

7. Focus Stacking

• For jewelry or electronics, reflections can make focusing tricky. Use focus stacking to capture sharpness across the entire product.

8. Editing in Post-Production

• Use editing tools like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom to clean up residual reflections or glare. Clone tools and adjustment brushes can remove distracting highlights.

9. Use a Dummy Setup

• Before photographing the actual product, test the lighting and angles on a similar reflective surface to refine the setup.

10. Use a Tilt-Shift Lens (Optional)

• For highly detailed and reflective products, a tilt-shift lens can help control perspective and focus while keeping reflections to a minimum.

Each product may require slight variations in the approach, so testing and iterating with your setup is essential.

I agree with Jakob M., usage of softboxes will bring you softer light reflections, although creating multiple photos and stacking it on top of each other is a more complex but can bring more detailed results - which also gives you a lot more flexibility in post-production.

As Jakob mentioned, using black/white cards, flags, polarizing filters is a must when photographing reflective surfaces.

I use diffused light sources and softboxes to soften harsh reflections and create a clean, even light. Often, I’ll position the lights strategically or use black or white cards to block unwanted reflections and highlight only the key areas of the product. I also use polarizing filters to cut down on glare and fine-tune the details. In post-production, I make sure to clean up any remaining reflections or distractions to achieve a polished, professional final image.