Ok, so I spent this afternoon playing with photographing my Elmers #25 and wanted to share my methods ( these are not the only way to achieve these results, just the way I did it (thus ends the disclaimer) )
When you want to photograph a highly reflective object (like a shiny, blinged, polished engine) what you need to think about is what will be reflected, ie the surroundings.
The easiest way to control the surroundings (reflections) in models is to spend 10 shiny pounds ( or there abouts ) (or see below for a cheaper DIY alternative) and invest in a "light tent" ( they come in all sorts of sizes from 50cm cubes up to ones that a person can stand up in ) I got a 50cm cube from ebay, I just shopped around for the cheapest one, and it came with 4 coloured inserts (red,blue,black and white) and all comes in a handy sized package shown below.
From this little package, once released it springs up to this shape in the middle of this pic (ignore the large round white reflector leaning behind the cube) (this is the setup I used to photograph my Elmers #25 final shots)
If you ignore all the stuff set up around the light tent, I lit it by a conventional flashgun on the right and a mains powered flash on the right ( the light is bounced off an umbrella. You dont need all that stuff to get exactly the same results as I did, it's just that I already had this stuff and so used it.
The idea is that you set up the light tent on a table, (a hard topped surface is better than the bed I used, I had to put a flat object under the tent) choose what background you want to use (white for nice clean shots like you see in catalogues, Black for more dramatic effect, or other colours according to your personal preference) and attach it to the tent.
Now you light it, and you can use 2 or 3 ordinary desk lamps, the sunlight if you are outside ( and in a different country to me
), really whatever light source you have, and aim them at either side and perhaps the top too. The white material that the tent is made out of diffuses the light and spreads it evenly over your model, and the shiney parts only reflect the white walls and roof of the tent giving you consistent and not distracting reflections. You can experiment with spacing your light sources differently, ie move the light on the left a bit further away than the light on the right, this will give a slight difference in intensity of light from the left and can help give your model more depth/3D-ness in the photo.
You can also experiment with putting some black card up against one side of the tent (out of the camera's view), that will change the reflections on the model. (obviously the light will not be able to go through the black card so you would need to move your light source/s to suit)
Now, having said that you can buy a light tent, you can equally make one. Imagine a cardboard box sitting on one end so that the top or the open part is facing you. Now cut large square holes in the upper, left, and right sides. Now line the whole box, covering the freshly cut holes with large sheets of tracing paper glued in place, or you could use some white nylon material to line it. Voila !! your very own homemade light tent. ( just not as collapsable as the commercial ones )
The next tip is the way to get a shot like this one, with a reflection.
This is really simple, just place a piece of glass (make sure it is very clean, as every spec of dust will be highlighted) on top of the background material and place your model on top of the glass. You probably have noticed that there is a double reflection on the above photo, that is caused by light reflecting from both the top and underside of the glass. To prevent this you need to either paint the underneath of the glass, or use a piece of glossy black acrylic instead of the glass.
Here's a pic just using the white background.
Just one final tip, when photographing your finished models, dont just position them square on to the camera, turn them a bit to an angle, you'll find the pictures much more 3D looking and more eye-catching.
Hope I havent bored you all to sleep,
Tim
