Tricks for Shooting Glass

Glass can be a little complicated when photographing because it takes on the colour of your background. The easiest way to deal with this is to place reflector of the opposite colour on either side of your object.

For example, if you are shooting on a white background, place black reflectors (or pieces of paper) just outside of your frame. This will make the edges distinguishable from the actual background.

The above photo has a reflector on the left side of the image and above it as well to reduce glare from the soft boxes that are lighting the subject. Another trick that helps is to put something in the glass itself (e.g. water).

The above photo has coloured water in the glasses and black cards on either side of the image.

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PHO5598–Assignment 3

 

 

Assignment 3 in my Lighting Techniques course was all about metal and glass. We had to shoot highly reflective metal objects and glass objects.
My metal objects turned out alright I suppose, though to be honest, they don’t excite me in any manner.

I shot the first image (the watches) by using a 9x36 strip soft box on the background and a 24x32 on the right of the subject. White reflectors were also placed on the left of the image to bounce light back into the image. The second one was a bit trickier as the thermos was quite reflective. I ended up using a grid light coming in from the left of the frame through a diffuser, a 24x32 soft box on the right and a boom soft box above. The boom soft box had no light in it, it was merely used to reflect white from above onto the subject.

 

My glass photos came out much better than my metal ones did, in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first image was shot by using a 9x36 on the background and 24x32 on the right of the image. A black reflector screen was placed above the image and a black reflector was placed to the left. A white reflector was placed in front of the image to shine light into the gold name plate.
The last shot it my absolutely favourite! Same lighting as above (9x36 and 24x32) and black reflectors on either side of the image to give the glasses their edge. I then upped the black concentration in Photoshop a little bit. I am so incredibly happy with the result!!

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