Product photos - Handmade Glass Signs

[memobug]

Earlier this week I was hired to photograph a client's handmade glass artwork. These are antique style glass signs in a range of sizes from 10' wide to just a few inches.

Photographing glass, mirrors and other reflective surfaces present a lot of unique challenges. Lights sources must be carefully positioned or they may reflect in the product and even flare in the camera. Objects in the environment must be similarly controlled or they may appear reflected in the object being photographed.

We had a large warehouse available for the photography. I used the S2 mounted on a tripod with the 24-85mm lens and a Profoto 600e system firing into umbrellas. The backdrop for most of the photos was a 6x8' black Photek screen. The product was cantilevered in front of it, either hanging from stout fishing line or affixed right against it in some cases.

Here's a photo of the general setup. That's Larry White, the artist, steadying one of the pieces

[memobug]

Here's how the photo came out.

http://www.s2pro.com/gallery/data/510/160Dscf1735_sm.jpg

We got much better blacks with the artwork suspended 10 feet or more in front of the piece as shown in the next photo. This piece is viewable from both sides, so I used the heads without the umbrellas to get a more specular quality to the light. Otherwise the gold & copper come off looking to plasticky. The other thing we did was fire one of the flashes into the edge of the art to transluminate it.

[memobug]

Here's the result. One thing I found was the translumination brought up the dust level quite a bit. So I had to spend some time in Photoshop cleaning up the dust.

http://www.s2pro.com/gallery/data/510/160Dscf1722_sm.jpg

This next shot gives you a good lock at the suspension technique. We had a very heavy rollaround cart handy, but this could have been a boom or lightstand. The shooting position was right between the lights, and the lights are feathered by positioning the umbrellas to almost point directly at one another.

Since I was shooting much closer, flare was not a problem.

[memobug]

Some of the pieces were shelving supports and such, so these were supported with freestanding blocks. The backdrop was draped over a long table.

http://www.s2pro.com/gallery/data/510/160Dscf1672_sm.jpg

It was great having a huge amount of space to work in, and the S2 did a fine job!

Regards,

Matt

[DaveNJ]

Great shots !
Thanks for sharing the photos, set up and lens used.
I would be very pleased with the results if I were the client.

Dave

[ali]

Great work! This further shows that digital cameras aren't just toys. Most of the photographers I know don't want to try digital because they think digital cameras are just toys when they see overexposure problems with digital cameras. Thanks for your time in providing the samples of a difficult lighting situation.

[Chris G]

Yes, thank you for sharing. Those are great! Lighting the glass through the edge was an excellent idea.

[bjnicholls]

Great problem solving for a difficult subject...