lighting conundrum

This week’s project (I’ve set myself) is a real difficult one.
Staying on my theme of summer fruit I would like the photograph two cherries on a black polished granite plate.
The granite I’m going to use for a deep coloured reflection which is fine and easy to use and achieve.

The problem I having is I want to try and capture the cherry without a catch light, all the images I’ve seen the cherry has a very high reflective surface and it tends to burn out.
Anyone wants to try and resolve my lighting conundrum.

James

you could try damping-down the reflectivity of the cherry with some Matting spray before putting it on the plate.

Would a CPL help?

what would you use as a matting spray ??

I'm using a red filter on one light and to light the green stork using a snoot with out a filter. I am getting close but it's still got a small catch light in it

James

oggy what is cpl

A circular polariser.

Matting Sprays are these sort of things... I have no idea how generally available they are, probably on ebay etc...

http://www.panavision.co.uk/panastore/default.asp?cid=40&clr=true

commerical food photography involves a huge amount of cheating, although there are now rules on how much is used for packaging shots, which is a bit of a problem for icecream in particular!

Try bounced soft diffused light, you will most likely require a few scrims to block off excess light.

Hair spray should work I believe

I will try hair spray any one got a can of Kosak I think that's the correct spelling.

James

Hi,
yes bouncing would be worth a try but with the strobe behind a black flagging material.
This should diffuse and not make too big a highlight.
Bluewhistle