Shooting Glass Products

Can anyone give me some ideas on how to shoot glass products that have been laser etched?

I've attached a pic that I took earlier tonight. The only thing I can think to help bring out the etching some would be to add colored liquid to the glass maybe?

Thanks.

Chris

i'd try some side or back lighting.


how did you light it? Looks like over head lights?

I only have two lights so I front lighted with both and I did a timed exposure.

I initially tried turning my soft boxes horizontal and used them to front/side light but got back reflections on the sides of the glass that drowned out the etching.

I'll see what I can dig up and try shooting again.

Thanks.

coreypolis wrote in post #2203682
i'd try some side or back lighting.

how did you light it? Looks like over head lights?

Try backlighting the glass and put a black reflector at each side as close as you can. The black cards will be reflected in the edges of the glass and the etchings and make it stand out.

I'm not a pro.... but you can try this:

- Try using a light tent with 2 or 3 light sources, 1 on eatch side + 1 on top...
- Try using a light tent with 2 or 3 light sources and put some coloring gel on 1 or all of the light's to play with color's...
- Try to take this shot with some liquid in the glass, use those coloring liquid thingies that normaly are used to color food (sorry, don't know the correct name for that) and play with the colors...
- Try to put the glass in the freezer for 10 or 15 minutes and then drop some room temperature water insede it, it will make the glass moist and if you get the shoot while droping the water you should get a verry cool shot...
- Try and put a CD under the glass, with the correct light it should make some cool color reflections...

Just my 2 cents....

P.S.: for the light tent, i got a look alike in the super-market that was made to put dirty loundry inside... work's like a charm!!! And it was only $6 US.

Get the book "light: science and magic", it's excellent for technically difficult lighting situations. There's two techniques, they're called light field and dark field I think, google will give you a head start. After reading it I did this.

Follow Tims advice - it is an excellent book and talks clearly about how to light and photograph glass objects. Good luck, Dennis

Glass is a very technical lighting setup...white panels to highlight edges, black panels for subtractive lighting. For etched surfaces, side lights that are masked into thin slits might prove to be best.

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to rework the shot glasses through the weekend and see what I can come up with.

You might want to get this book: Light Science and Magic. It has some great tips for lighting glass, metal and other hard to photograph items.

Mark