My two most difficult pictures so far

peasant

doesn't look like much, but bear with me.

The first one is a microscope slide, about 25 x 70 mm and made out of glass (frosted at the top) the second a shiny little plastic Biopsy Cassette just a bit smaller than a matchbox.

The aim of the game was to take pictures that show the quality of the print on them. Sure, no problem, said I, I'll bring in my digital SLR tomorrow and take a quick picture.

Never thought this would be so difficult. Both surfaces are shiney, so they reflect the flash and cause glare. The print is only readable under flash at a certain angle. Without flash you don't get the contrast.

Go too close and the print shows every pixel, looking anything but good.

Ended up putting the objects on a black table, standing on my tippy-toes, staring down the viewfinder, trying to manually focus the macro on the 75-300 lens while fighting with a shaky, cheapo tripod at a distance of about 1.5 meters from the objects, trying to keep the objects centred, focussed and at the right angle.

I have to say, I have new found respect for advertising photographers.

Lighting and positioning for good object (or worse: food) photography must be a nightmare.
I can see now why they all need studios and tons of equipment.

Borderfox

I have done a bit of this and use polarisers and a fully enclosed light tent to eliminate reflections. Sturdy tripods come in handy too.

ThOnda

Well, basics of macro and product photography. It takes some reading and practice. But few different surfaces, macro lens and off camera flash should do the trick
Well done, you've learned that the hard way.

misterm

doesn't look hard at all, have done similar, and also photo'd smt components, with marco on fuji 6900z.
macro + compact tripod or steady hand and a bit of experimentation