Which is a good wide angle lens for Nikon D40X i need good close up picture of our large products in Silverware brass and they are shiny products?

Answer 1

When photographing highly reflective objects, the lens is far less important than the lighting, and the lighting depends on what effect you are after. This is one of the most difficult, advanced assignments in Photography. A competent professional probably should be consulted.

Failing that, however, your shiny brass and silver objects are hard to photograph because they are mirrors. They reflect everything around them. Pick up one of your products and really see it. It is reflecting the room, your face, any light sources, nearby objects (including the camera and lens used) and so forth. If the room is dark, the object looks dark and will photograph dark. The challenge is to make the shiny object look how you want it to look, how we think of it as looking, and that's not easy. Commercial photographers faced with shiny objects will often build some sort of light tent to surround the subject with light, which it will reflect so it looks white. Lights can be shone through the tent or bounced from the inside of it. If the lights are badly positioned, the object may reflect the instruments or hot spots or both.

If constructing a full tent, the lens is poked through a hole in the tent. It will likely reflect from the object but can be retouched out. Openings deliberately left in the tent or black paper strips applied to it will also reflect and can give a shiny object greater interest, besides camouflaging the otherwise obvious reflection of the lens. The lens should not generally be a wide angle unless you are after a distorted effect. A normal to slightly long focal length is usually better, especially since you are after close-ups.

Another approach to shooting shiny objects is to matte the surface with a dulling spray, available at some art supply and camera stores. Dulling sprays are usually able to be wiped off after photography with a soft cloth. The problem with making a shiny surface matte is that it no longer looks like it looks, and that's usually not what we want in a product shot.