Anyone know owt about photographing glass?

[swee'pea99]

'er indores makes glass - jewellery, bowls, sculptures, cast work mostly - and she's trying to photograph the pieces to put on a website, but she's very disappointed by the results. Says they look dull & lifeless...wants to bring them to life, but without causing problems with reflections. She's talking about buying lights - would this be the way to go? I've been telling her that natural daylight is the best way to get colour without shadow/reflection problems. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Crackle]

Generally you need a light tent of some sort, no direct light, lots of reflectors and it takes time to set up and do well.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks. When you say reflectors, are we talking matt white, or mirrored?

 

[Crackle]

Thanks. When you say reflectors, are we talking matt white, or mirrored?

Generally white, mirrored is too harsh, you may want one for a catchlight somewhere.

 

[8mile]

A light tent would work well, but you could use diffused lighting,perhaps by placing tracing/baking paper in front of lights. Glass often photographs well placed on a dark or black base and back ground and lit from either side.

 

[swee'pea99]

Ah - dark or black base. Hmmm. Never thought of that. I'll suggest it, see how it goes.

 

[pplpilot]

light tent and a few angle poise lamps, perhaps even a little off camera fill flash, shoot raw to correct colour balance and sometimes depending on the amount of reflections you are getting a polarising filter will help.

 

[byegad]

Maybe a white screen to give diffuse light and a polarising filter to take out the reflections. I find photographing wildfowl on water needs the polariser to take out the light scatter from the water.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks. Some good routes to check out...I'll pass 'em on.

 

[Globalti]

Black background and very white flash or flood with a fill-in if necessary. Make sure the glass is clean.

 

[Linford]

I think this is an interesting prospect, and I'd attempt to film in pitch black, on a black background with a long exposure, and light with a very weak source like a phone light or low level LED. You can paint shadows out in this way as I've done with this pic in the middle of the countryside in total darkness.

 

[Archie_tect]

The jewelry shops all seem to use pin spots to pick out facetted faces which works well... jewelry never looks as sparkly out of the shop as it does on display so my advice would be to look at a few shop displays and copy their lighting set-up...

 

[Doseone]

Jewellery looks nice on a high gloss dark or black background. A small square of black granite would work well or you can put a square of perspex over the top of some black cloth to get the gloss effect. It needs to be lit well though.

 

[hoopdriver]

There is a very good book by Glenn Rand - Lighting and Photographing Transparent and Translucent Surfaces. You can find it on Amazon quite easily.

Light Science and Magic is another excellent book that has a lot about photographing glass including some specific set ups you can try for practice

 

[Deleted member 23692]

White card, clear plastic storage box and a couple of lamps.. correct for colour temperature and away you go