Carafe & Wine Glass, Help

[travis4567]

Trying something completely different for me, shooting glass on a white background. There are some issues with this photo..I don't like the texture of the foreground & the grey tint surrounding the glass ..Comments please.

[Mike Buckley]

Gorgeous subjects, Travis!

This type of photo is something that I hope to graduate to soon, so I can't provide foolproof help, only ideas based on my experience photographing glass in a different style.

To eliminate the wrinkles in the tabletop, iron the fabric.

To eliminate the grey areas on the background, light it separately. One method of doing so is to use white translucent material such as acrylic, tracing paper or vellum and and to add a light source that shines light through it from behind. Doing so will provide the added benefit of defining the edges of the transparent and translucent parts of the glass with an attractive dark outline, which will also separate it from the white background.

If the carafe and wine glass are both translucent (it seems that the colored part of the wine glass may be opaque), light them from the rear, not the front. Maybe the light placed behind the background will be sufficiently bright shining through the translucent glass or the light being reflected from behind the subjects by the opaque background being lit separately will provide sufficient brightness. If not, add another light source from behind and the side of the glass not shining from behind the background.

If you need to light the wine glass from the front because it's opaque, light only its bowl.

If you want to easily provide various light sources mentioned above to make sure that the transparent, translucent and opaque parts are ideal, use three lighting setups, one for each part of the glass. Then digitally combine the three images to get the best of all worlds.

Better yet, contact Terry (Loose Canon). He's an expert at photographing colored glass and he's always happy to help.

[travis4567]

Thanks Mike for the input, I've seen your photos of glasses and love them..a ways to go for me to get to that level. My mistake as you pointed out was not lighting the background separately. This was shot in a light tent with lights from either side and the top. Next time I'll add a light directly behind to keep the background white. Thanks again.