by Hayden B. Baldwin

Axial lighting technique helps reduce glare from occurring on a highly reflective surface like glass, rear view mirrors, chrome objects, floor tiles, CD or DVD and more. Axial lighting is an excellent technique for photographing unenhanced latent prints on reflective surfaces.

Here is the set-up
ICSIA Axial lighting

The glass plate is at a 45 degree angle and in the photo a small block was placed between light source
and object to block extraneous light from striking the object.

Here is an example of a latent print on a DVD.
ICSIA Axial color

Here is the same image but converted to B & W
ICSIA Axial black and white

Axial lighting can bring out detail that most other lighting techniques can not. Similar results can be produced when using a ring light.

I had the best success by using a flood light rather that a variety of flashlights and led lights as the light source.

The images have been cropped and enhanced in Photoshop. Here is the original image just resized.
ICSIA Axial color resized