Help with a shoot

[Grant Taylor]

I am a beginning photographer that is still learning a lot. A old friend saw some of my work and was impressed and asked me about doing the photography for his online store. I spent some time researching product photography and I have been experimenting with it a lot but not getting the results I am looking for. He is looking for images of candles in glass jars. I had a candle similiar to what he is selling and practiced shooting and got this:


The image is an ISO 200, f/9.0 1/60 sec.

The glass appears foggy, too much reflection and not a white background. I believe a polarizing filter would help with the reflection but I am unable to get one at this time. I tried using Photoshop to remove the background but was very unhappy with the result:

I know I need to use a black reflector near the front to give some definition to the edges of the glass but i was wondering if anyone could offer me some more advice to help me figure this out.

[zona5101]

you should see if you can find this book:
Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Fil Hunter, Paul Fuqua
It will be time and $ well spent

[OsmosisStudios]

You always need to light the background seperately from the object. In this case you'll need one light for the white and one light for the subject. Most products are also shot on a pane of glass that's been cleaned meticulously.

[candleman]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

You always need to light the background seperately from the object. In this case you'll need one light for the white and one light for the subject. Most products are also shot on a pane of glass that's been cleaned meticulously.

+1

you need light on the background, not photoshop.

this was basically straight from the camera (minor saturation/levels adjustment only)..

[Grant Taylor]

I spent some time with the advice from this thread and researched more about lighting. This is with only RAW processing.



I am having problems with the light reflecting off of the glass though. When diffusing the light I am just ending up with dull, large glares instead of a spot. Would a polarizing filter help or something else.

I am also having problems keeping the edges from fading. A tried using black reflectors but either I did not get enough reflection or it reflected onto my backdrop. Thank you to everyone for the earlier advice. I am greatly improving and learning a lot.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Grant Taylor

A tried using black reflectors but either I did not get enough reflection or it reflected onto my backdrop.

Why would you use a BLACK reflector? Black absorbs light. Use a white one.

[zona5101]

to control your reflections you need to either increase the size of the light source so that the reflection is so large and soft to be virtually unnoticable (no hot spots) or you need to move your lights or change your camera angle so the lens is out of the family of angles produced by the light. Also the larger your reflective background the harder it will be not to lose contrast from stray light. Reducing the background to just what you need to fill the frame will keep down some of the difused reflected light.