Wine glasses with an etched logo

[Jryan]

I'm sort of stuck here. I'm trying to photograph two wine glasses with an etched logo on the front and a different etched logo on the back. Person would prefer that they be empty (my first thought was to put wine/food coloring or something in them).

Anyway, I have at my disposal the gear in my sig, an efs 60mm macro, and a lightbox.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[rrdjserv@earthlink.net]

Kind of difficult to take a picture of a glass and not see through it. Two possible suggestions. Can you aim your flash on the inside of the glass pointing toward the camera. That way it would light the front logo and perhaps darken the back logo. Second idea: Fill the glass with cherry Koolaid (or something color contrasting) then try to PS it out after the shot.
I don't believe either idea is acceptable, but it may work. Good luck.
--Rick

[DigitalSpecialist]

Try using a dark colored or contrasting color behind the Wine Glasses. You might even want to shoot the glasses from an angle. So as to reflect off the insignia. Just my two cents!

[Jryan]

Thanks, I'll experiment with those ideas.

[milleker]

Kind of hard to explain, glasses on dark background, off to each side use white cards which you will hit with your light - this lights the glass from behind and no reflections/hot spots.

The dark background will give you enough separation that it should keep your etching much lighter (might need a bump in PS) and the white sides not only give you a place to project light from, but will give you a white edge in the glass.

If you shoot glass often I highly recommend Light Science and Magic as they have a wonderful whole chapter on lighting glassware.

[brecklundin]

here are some examples of what I suspect you are trying:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=287986&stc=1&d=1215930080

I actually started a thread about it to get suggestions...the comments I received in the thread were really helpful...here is a link in case it helps:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=535580 (there are a few more shots there too)

one crutch I also used is Live View at 5x or even 10x with spot metering on the cut portion (in your case etched) of the piece and manual focus to really get sharp detail of the pattern which also seems to move the pattern on the back side of the piece so out of focus it really does not interfere with the front side. I was specifically working with colorless glassware that day (often called "crystal" in the collector world even if the piece is not true lead crystal glassware) but the concepts port over to colored glassware perfectly.

I will reiterate something from my previous thread...getting good sharp shots will reveal every minor imperfection either in the surface of the piece or within the glass itself. These are not typically visible to the eye under normal conditions. So, you will likely want to spend some time cloning out the "nastiness"... ;)

[brecklundin]

If you shoot glass often I highly recommend Light Science and Magic as they have a wonderful whole chapter on lighting glassware.

COOL....running to look into that book as I shot a LOT of glassware...thanks even if it's not my thread!!

While reviewing the book on Amazon and trying to understand the difference between the $45ish 5th edition and the $30ish paperback 3rd Ed. yet both published in the same year...??...I just ran across the flickr group dedicated to the book:

http://flickr.com/groups/84897717@N00/

A fast glance shows they are working on a 4th ed of the paperback version. And there are a ton of amazing shots there to try and figure out...

[Jryan]

Awesome, thanks for the advice!