Lighting glass is freakin hard

[JAC526]

So I tried to do some dark field lighting with my subject being a glass pitcher.

The setup is as follows:



lighting-diagram-1355157584 by JChick526, on Flickr


And here is the result:



untitled-8474 by JChick526, on Flickr

The only reason I used two strobes was so I could use less power on each and not worry about killing them.

Thanks for looking,

Joe

 

[Frequency]

Simply outstanding :thumbsup:

 

[Rick58]

Yep, what this guy said^

 

[snowbear123 55]

Beauty. Being almost completely ignorant when it comes to studio lighting, what is the second (from the top) item in the diagram? I'm guessing a diffuser of some kind.

 

[Mully]

Glass is a specialty of mine .... light 2 cards back on each side of the pitcher and see how your pitcher changes.

eg.

 

[shinycard255]

It's pretty easy once you understand how to do it.

Outstanding shot by the way. Very clean and simple

 

[JAC526]

Simply outstanding :thumbsup:

Thank you so much.

Yep, what this guy said^

Again, thank you so much.

Beauty. Being almost completely ignorant when it comes to studio lighting, what is the second (from the top) item in the diagram? I'm guessing a diffuser of some kind.

The white is a translucent diffuser panel. The black is a flag/gobo to create the black background.

Glass is a specialty of mine .... light 2 cards back on each side of the pitcher and see how your pitcher changes.

eg.
View attachment 28071

So do you mean to put two bouncecards directly on the sides and bounce flash off them?

It's pretty easy once you understand how to do it.

Outstanding shot by the way. Very clean and simple

Thank you I really appreciate that. Especially after seeing that toothbrush shot of yours.

 

[Mully]

So do you mean to put two bouncecards directly on the sides and bounce flash off them?


Yes low and at an angle.
​

 

[JAC526]

I'm setting it up as I type this. Should have some examples for you to tear into in a little while.

 

[JAC526]

So I tried.....and two things happened. First I couldn't get anything that looked different or better than the first shot I posted.

Second...depending on how I angled the pitcher I would get big direct reflections of the bounce cards showing up as very bright highlights on the sides of the pitcher.

I think I may be missing something. I would post an example but there really isn't anything that is worthwhile.

 

[Mully]

Don't give up ....since your pitcher is plain you need to work( move near and far and L to R) those card reflections in the glass image .... the size of the card matters, most of the time I am using 4x8 foam core. I will upload an example of smooth glass.

 

[JAC526]

I need way bigger bounce cards. I think that was a major issue.

 

[Mully]

Try it with bigger cards ..... don't worry you will get there and i will help you.

 

[JAC526]

Try it with bigger cards ..... don't worry you will get there and i will help you.

Thanks man. I really appreciate your help.

 

[TATTRAT]

I think it looks pretty damned good.