Glass Setup Shot #1

Setup shot #1 for "Flower, Wine, and Glass" and "Oranges Float".

 

What little I've learned about lighting glass I learned in Kindergarten? No, I learned it from "Lighting Science and Magic". Wonderful book.

 

Here's are the main issues I had to overcome:

 

1) Contrast: The sides of the glass need to be separated from the black background. To do that, they need to reflect white light. To do that, they need to "see" white light. To do that, the background has to *just* fill the frame, and the rest of the background and sides have to be bright white. As you can see here, I used a sheet of flexible black foam (bought at any craft store) as the black background. The white background (and sides) are a combination of white foam cards and a "science fair" board (also bought at a craft store). I fired a Canon 580 EX II on full power into the back board.

 

2) Lens Flare: Shooting a small black background back lit in white is a sure way to get lens flair. To kill that, I added two black cards (not seen in this setup shot, but in the next). That way the camera never sees the white background, only its reflections in the glass.

 

In summary, I created a light box with a black front facing the camera. Inside the box is a small seamless black background on which I placed the glass.

Done