Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic - How do you photograph a glass against white?

amvasey · Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 114 Location: New Jersey

I see some wonderful photos on SS that isolate a wine or other type of drinking glass on white. Anybody willing to give me some clues? I can't seem to get the background white enough when I am taking the shot without the glass disappearing. If I try to whiten up the background in photoshop the glass also disappears. If I exclude the glass itself from the whitening process then the background looks white but the glass looks dirty gray. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Audrey

rinder99 · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:46 am

Can be done but Difficult without Many exposure tricks and experience in product Photography. Glassware has Many Issues to deal with. And very tough to type an answer without knowing the type of Light your using, Background material, Etc,Etc.sorry.subject and Background must be lit differently.

amvasey · Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 114 Location: New Jersey

Hi Rinder, I should have known that you would be one of the first to respond to my question. I have found your advise to be very helpful in the past so now I am all ears. I am using a cubelite isolation cube and 500 watt hot lights. I have moved the lights to the sides, front and back (backlight), to the top, you name it anywhere I could try them. I am open to trying just about anything. I'll take the glass out of the cube if that works better. I don't have a lot of fancy equipment. So please help steer me in the right direction.

mauijon · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 4279 Location: Maui, Hawaii

Like Laurin says...difficult.
You might try lighting from the bottom and make the BG black or a color.

graphicphoto · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 11:25 pm

Using a LOT of diffused light is a good idea with glass so you don't get blown highlights or glare. Try setting up a sheet on either side using some sort of stands and lighting through those and then setting up a back light if you have that much lighting. It will be hit and miss until you nail it since none of us can actually see what you are shooting.

Remember the angle of incidence and the angle of reflectance with the light in the back. Do NOT point it right at the camera. It has to be below, above or to the side so you don't get lens flare. That will probably be the tricky part but in my opinion and experience the back light is necessary. I would use a snoot.

Good luck. I drew you a diagram to help.

pharm · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 9406 Location: Never quite sure

Shot RAW and used several different exposures combined. The rim kept blowing out when the rest was exposed properly so I just masked in the rim from a separate (darker) exposure.

davidcrehner · Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Posts: 4839

pharm · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 9406 Location: Never quite sure

Thanks David. It was tough bending that glass without breaking it. Good thing I have superhuman strength!

amvasey · Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 114 Location: New Jersey

Thanks to all for the advice so far. Annette thanks for the diagram; I plan to try out your layout this week. Perry, that is a great shot of a wine glass; thanks for the tips on combining raw files. I tried your tip and it did improve the shot greatly.

This is the best I have been able to come up with so far. The wine glass was in a cubelite isolation cube. The white background was the back wall of the cube. The glass was sitting on a highly polish piece of black granite. The lighting used was two 500 watt hot lights. One light was behind the cube directly behind the glass at a level above the glass and the camera. The other light was directly in front of the glass, diffused and above the level of the camera and the glass. The photo was shot in raw. I processed the raw file with different exposure settings and combined them in photoshop. I then applied a levels layer on just the white background to bring it up to true white. The glass still looks dirty gray and flat to me.
Audrey

graphicphoto · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:53 am

That's easy to fix. Make a duplicate layer and either use your history brush or the dodge tool. Easier that setting up more lighting to light the background!

Here is what I got with the dodge tool.

davidcrehner · Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Posts: 4839

Hmm, not bad, but the original glass looks to have a magenta cast to me, and Annette's—while better—appears slightly yellow.

Perry's looks great.

amvasey · Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 114 Location: New Jersey

I see what you are saying David. How would you fix it?

graphicphoto · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 7:21 pm

davidcrehner · Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Posts: 4839

amvasey · Joined: 14 Nov 2006 Posts: 114 Location: New Jersey

Wow, with the changes that Annette and David made my shot really changed for the better. I knew that the photo was a little crooked and the glass is not even polished. I figured that those were easy things to fix on a reshoot once the major problem was solved. Thank you both for all your help and advice. The black granite looks so much better (before it had a brown cast) and the glass looks great. David, I am still a newbie to photography so please be patient with my next question. You said you did a soft light layer at 36 %, what is that and how do you do it?