Lighting wine glasses
 

Hello, I am a photo student and I am in my second studio class-dealing
with strobes. I have been attempting to photograph wine glasses, but I
can't seem to get it correctly. The wine looks dull etc..what is the
best way to light wine glasses? With a soft box behind? What kind of
background? Help! Any input would be appreciated.


Thanks
Kelly

Lighting wine glasses
 

My favorite way to light glass is not to light it at all -- light the
background & put the glass in front of the lit background, letting the
light come through the glass. That gives the glass the black outline
feel. The background light can be a spot that tapers off to black
around the edges or it can be flat, as in using a softbox pointed at
the camera. Experiment.

Alternatively, you can use a dark-ish background with soft boxes off
to the side & maybe slightly behind the glass. You may need to light
from both sides (different sized soft boxes). The soft box shape gets
highlighted in reflections on the glass surface.

I prefer the first way myself.


On 26 Oct 2005 23:03:24 -0700, "misssilver"
wrote:

Hello, I am a photo student and I am in my second studio class-dealing
with strobes. I have been attempting to photograph wine glasses, but I
can't seem to get it correctly. The wine looks dull etc..what is the
best way to light wine glasses? With a soft box behind? What kind of
background? Help! Any input would be appreciated.


Thanks
Kelly

Lighting wine glasses
 

"misssilver" wrote in
ups.com:

Hello, I am a photo student and I am in my second studio class-dealing
with strobes. I have been attempting to photograph wine glasses, but I
can't seem to get it correctly. The wine looks dull etc..what is the
best way to light wine glasses? With a soft box behind? What kind of
background? Help! Any input would be appreciated.


In addition to the great advice from That Guy There... ;-)

I've seen wine glasses illuminated quite well by placing a white
paper behind the glass, cut exactly to the shape of the glass and wine
level, which gave a bright background to the wine and caused it to glow.
Doing this in front of a darker background should give the best effect.

You may also achieve some decent results with bounce lighting
directly above, removing most highlights from the glass and getting the
light down into the wine. A small bright flashlight from behind, aimed
upwards into the wine, may work too, but balancing its weak light to the
other lighting you're using might be tricky, and chances are it will appear
much more yellowish.

Do a websearch on "gobos", because this may also help you use direct
light without specular reflections from the curved glass. A gobo is a
simple piece of black cardboard on a wire, positioned to block only the
portion of your lighting that bounces back into the camera lens from the
glass. You get the brighness and contrast of direct lighting without the
burning spot of a main reflection. These are easiest to set up with
constant lighting though, not strobes.


- Al.

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Online photo gallery at www.wading-in.net

Lighting wine glasses
 

Hello, I am a photo student and I am in my second studio class-dealing
with strobes. I have been attempting to photograph wine glasses, but I
can't seem to get it correctly. The wine looks dull etc..what is the
best way to light wine glasses? With a soft box behind? What kind of
background? Help! Any input would be appreciated.


To see something that is transparent you have to look at the light coming
through it. You can't photograph a stained glass window without light
coming through.

You'll need some chrome or white metal sheeting, white card, an exacto
knife, putty, pipe cleaner/twist tie wire and some wood blocks.

Shape a reflector to fit behind the glass. Aluminum foil is not good for
this cause it is hard to fold it, shape it around the cardboard without
wrinkles, you can do this for beer, but wine is smooth and clear and should
not have distortions except those that are from the glass itself.

use thin strips of white card on either side of the glass to give a
reflection on the sides to reveal the shape of the glass.

with digital you do things that would have taken a lot more effort. You can
lock down the camera on a tripod and photograph multiple shots of the same
scene. shoot just the wine glass with the transparent glow, mask it off in
photoshop, shoot the label of the wine bottle with a light from the front so
the label glows with a specular edge on the raised printing, something that
would detract from the glass part of the bottle and wine glass, hit the
background props with side light to reveal the texture of the wood and/or
whatever else you've set up. And with layers and masks build up the image
on the computer, all in register.

I remember taking a freaking month to shot a stupid clock radio. Each
freakn indicator light on the front required a separate exposure, the front
required a light from behind reflected off a big white card, the background
needed two exposures for the horizon effects cut out of cardboard.
shooting it with the one strobe set up took several rearrangements, without
moving either camera or subject, all on one piece of film. It took so long
that I went past the 30 days return on the damn thing.

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