Education Field Instructional

How to Control Light Source Reflections on Glass

Chris Gampat
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02/17/2015
1 Min read

Last Updated on 02/17/2015 by Chris Gampat

Screenshot taken from the video
Screenshot taken from the video

One of the biggest problems with dealing with reflective surfaces while shooting an image is getting your light source in the reflection. It’s really tough to deal with, but Gavin Hoey over at AdoramaTV states that it’s all in how you think about the reflection.

He sets up a model with the snazziest sunglasses around then positions the light right in front of the model. You begin to see the reflections. Then Gavin states that if you move the position of the light, you’ll move the position of the reflection. So he keeps moving the light around until he can find the right angle.

Because the reflective object is directly facing the camera, Gavin ends up moving the light above and in front of the subject in order to get the effect that he’s going for. Of course, this all depends on what kind of lighting effect you’re going for and the position of the reflective surface in the image. But Gavin’s trial and error is a nice starting point.

The video showing How to Control Light Source Reflections on Glass is after the jump.

Adorama TV gavin hoey light Reflections on Glass
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.