Lighting glass

[fannyanna]

Hello

I hope I'm posting in the right place. I'm looking for some advice on how to photograph glass (or other relective surfaces).

I would like to take a picture of wine being poured into a glass for an assignment that I have. I've been able to borrow a couple of studio lights from a friend but I don't seem to be able to take the picture I'm attempting.

The reflection of the lighting on the wine glass looks awful. I've tried moving the lighting around and have used the umbrella to diffuse the light but nothing seems to help.

Can anyone offer me any advice?

As I'm sure you can guess I'm learning photography and we haven't really touched on lighting yet.

Thanks in advance for any input

[BigFuzzy]

Honestly, I'm not trying to be snarky, but the most useful thing I can do is point you to this book which is the go to book to start your journey into learning lighting.

I still read it now and then and you've chosen to photograph one of the more difficult things to light.. good luck!

[archersdad]

BifFuzzy is right. Light: Science and Magic is a great intro to studio style lighting and has a whole chapter on lighting glass. I second the recommendation.

[scootermcq]

That is a good book and goes a long way to helping understand what light does.

What you are running into is angle of incidence = angle of reflection.... the glass is not a flat sheet, and has angles all over the place, so it is just about impossible to not have a reflection bouncing back at the lens.

Things that make the light souce huge (i.e. light tent) and bigger than the glass will help. Also, you could try lighting from directly overhead, which should produce no reflection and then see what you need to do for fill to remove shadows etc. The only way to remove glare is to find an angle that does not have any piece of glass shaped in a manner to bounce it back at the camera lens. Hence why lighting a goblet is such a challenge.

Also a gobo between the light source and glass will prevent any light directly striking it.

[faeriegodess612]

Cant wait ti get my copy, it should be at my doorstep soon. That is, if its not delayed in transit due to snow.

[i speak in math]

I would do a white background, with a flash hitting that, then 2 large black reflectors on the left and right of the glass and slightly behind it. Then use a large light source up front (umbrella) to fill in the bottle.

That should give you something like this for the glass.

[stefantell]

Tracing paper (the largest sheet you can find) between the light and the glass is a good way of controlling the reflections, and use black paper or something similar to define the form of the glass and its edges.

This might be helpful?
YouTube - Episode 1 , studio photography lighting tabletop glassware

Good luck