Exercise: Shiny surfaces

Photographing objects which have a shiny surface are a particular problem which is difficult to resolve.  Commercially available light boxes or tents are a suitable solution and here I have tried to emulate such a light box using tracing paper rolled into a cone.

The general set up, my coffee table studio, is shown in the photograph below.

 I used a single softbox attached to a Speedlite with the camera on a tripod pointing downwards.  I chose black velvet material as the background surface on which I placed the shiny serving spoon.

To illustrate the problem, I took the following reference shot:

Reference:  ISO 200, f/8, 1/125 sec

There are reflections from all directions on this serving spoon, making a very unattractive image.  The solution to this was to create a light box or tent from tracing paper.  The result of this endeavour was:

Tracing paper cone:  ISO 200, f/11, 1/125 sec

The shine has gone and this would be a much better image had it not been for the black 'blob' which is the camera lens.  This proved impossible to remove satisfactorily with this setup, though moving the spoon around produced an alternative, image without the black blob.

Removing the blob:  ISO 200, f/11, 1/125 sec

This result is not ideal, and it just demonstrates how difficult it is to have a clean image of a shiny object.  Perhaps one of those commercially available tents / cubes.........