I am planning to do some photography with tin foil as part of the set. I just want to cover the bases for lighting it. I know tin foil is highly reflective, but there has to be some tips on improving the out come. I am thinking about dulling spray, and black foam boards. Anyone thought about this? I remember there was a thread on Reflective surfaces, but I can't find it. Thanks

Ricky

What's wrong with what you have already?

Pick up a photography book by Penn or Albert Watson and see how they deal with reflective surfaces. You're trying to flatten things out with sprays and cards, while they punch the crap out of the contrast with hard lights and dodging and burning.

One of these sprays may be of help.

http://www.calumetphoto.com/Studio/Stud … A01&a=CA01

A spray on adhesive and any granular substance, sand, salt or "lint" may be worth experimenting with.

Hope this helps

edit Though I defer to Mr. Randall

I say experiment: lots of great results come when playing with material.
I had some very interesing results printing on ortho-litho film, making contact "prints"
from 4x5 negs. Playing is the heart of creativity, mixing media, not being satisfied with what you've got, and so on

what happens when you control the dulling and apply the dulled areas under different lights, what about adding a coloured transparent paint to different areas, then you get colored reflections etc.

Thanks for the inputs, I was just bring these tools just in case I need it when I work on the set. This image has a figure because this is used in a casting call that I put up. I do know you can do a lot with Photoshop, but having control over material in real life helps. I want to learn about it and have the knowledge to handle it well.

You want to do the lighting the same way you would do a car or motorcycle.
Bounce, nothing direct, lots of flags.

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I think that you will find that aluminum foil is a lot more reflective than tin foil.

For either one, you might try a brief acid etch of their surface using weak hydrochloric (muriatic) acid.

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I shoot highly reflective stuff with a small piece of polarizing filter over the face of each of my strobes...then I also use a polarizing filter on the lens. 

I do test shots where I keep the factors constant...but I rotate the filter 1/8th of a turn for each test shot and I keep notes.  There are usually 2 nulls where most of the distracting reflection is significantly reduced in the test...and I mean significantly.  Since I have my notes, I can dial in the full and very annoying full reflections or I can dial in something in between or go for the cleaner polarized ones. 

For me it sometimes makes the difference between just an average shot and one that is very attractive by comparison. 

These 20x30" polarizing sheets can be purchased on the net from a place like BH Photo in a NYC. 

Ray

If the shiny side is too shiny, use the dull side.

There's also dulling spray used for portraits with shiny jewelry, you should be able to pick some up at a local camera store or B&H.