Every now and then I have to shoot stemware (wine glasses etc) against a pure white background.

Keeping the background white while preserving detail in the glass is tricky.

Looking for tips on creating a quick non professional studio setup that might make this kind of photo easier to execute.

I do own five monolights, softboxes, boom pole, stands etc.

Any tips or shooting diagrams will be most welcome!

Max

Make yourself a lightbox:

Just get some PVC tubing, make a box, roll some seamless paper in it, cover it with diffusion fabric, and set up 3 lights- 2 from the side and one from above. Shoot through a hole in the front.
Like this, but with better lights:

PhotoMaximum wrote:
Every now and then I have to shoot stemware (wine glasses etc) against a pure white background.

Keeping the background white while preserving detail in the glass is tricky.

Looking for tips on creating a quick non professional studio setup that might make this kind of photo easier to execute.

I do own five monolights, softboxes, boom pole, stands etc.

Any tips or shooting diagrams will be most welcome!

Max

Get yourself a copy of Light: Science and Magic. They go through this type of setup in great detail and have a ton of diagrams.

an effect like this?

I believe stemware (glass) is best lit from the bottom and or top. You can experiement with a piece of white or clear plexi-glass from Lowes, Home Depot, etc., and lit from underneath with a diffused light source (even gel the source for colored effects). You can use any background. Also try a light with softbox directly overhead and very close to minimize specular hightlights.

Get yourself a copy of Light: Science and Magic. They go through this type of setup in great detail and have a ton of diagrams.

Yep, a full chapter just on this subject. The book is really incredible. Not your typical photography book. I had to read some of the chapters a 2nd time to let it all sink in (thick skull).

Thanks, I will try that book.

I just finished a recent catalog shoot with all kinds of products against a white background. I used a large 3x4' softbox positioned real close, suspended with a boom from above, with several large sheets of white foamcore as reflectors. I also had two strobes hitting the background angled in from the sides. This helped ensure the background sweep was pure white.

When it came to the stemware I tried using sections of black foil on either side of the glass angled in from the rear of the stemware. This worked OK but the foil created new problems in that it created unwanted gray tones on the white sweep at the bottom of the glass. The foil did help add a thin dark line to give the edges of the glass some separation from the background though.

I think the main element I was missing was adding a light from underneath. The time factor and budget made this not possible so I did the best I could. I need to get some thin white lucite sheeting so I can practice adding light from the bottom. This is a technique that I need to get familiar with...

Thanks!

Max

Rather than lighting the background with two lights you could use a large softbox at the rear facing the camera, if you have the room. It only needs one light. In addition to the other tips.

glass is usually best lit from underneath. You can add some coloured gels to your lighting... and a dark background is usually ideal.

This photo was done with one simple speedlight illuminating a white background. The table top remains dark, so it may not be what you are looking for. Hope it gives you some ideas.

Some nice samples...

In the case of the last catalog I did the background had to be pure white, as in CMYK equals 0,0,0,0. All of the items shot had to have a pure white background so the designers could drop the items onto the pages cleanly. Some of the items were white or glass which made the whole shoot a challenge given the time factor. The client is happy, but I need to add some better stemware technique to my bag of tricks. I am not a full time studio or product shooter so I need to practice more obviously. As mentioned I think adding some light from below might help matters...

Here are a couple of these shots of light colored items against the white...

Nice, though the opener has a strong reflection in the center pivot that could be cleaned up in post. I think the first one is good, but I'd have shot it with the openers higher in the frame, but if you need the space for ad copy...

Care to share how you lit/set up these?

<Chas>

Glassware really benefits from frontal lighting - preferably strip. This gives the specular reflections that are needed to convey shape and the smooth surface. A blown-out background destroys that hard work. Better that the background be captured and encoded in the alpha channel, and the ultimate background layer be off-white.

PhotoMaximum wrote: Every now and then I have to shoot stemware (wine glasses etc) against a pure white background.

Keeping the background white while preserving detail in the glass is tricky.

This technique is called "bright-field photography" or "bright-field illumination" should you want to Google it, and yes, it can be very tricky to get it right.

PhotoMaximum wrote: ...When it came to the stemware I tried using sections of black foil on either side of the glass angled in from the rear of the stemware. This worked OK but the foil created new problems in that it created unwanted gray tones on the white sweep at the bottom of the glass. The foil did help add a thin dark line to give the edges of the glass some separation from the background though.

I think the main element I was missing was adding a light from underneath. The time factor and budget made this not possible so I did the best I could. I need to get some thin white lucite sheeting so I can practice adding light from the bottom.

Instead of (or in addition to) white Lucite, try clear glass. You can set the stemware on the glass, which is elevated well above the floor. Then you set black panels on either side of the background, just out of frame, and another underneath, also just out of frame. The black panels reflect on the edges of the stems, giving them outlines to delineate their shapes, but because they're sitting on clear glass there's no "unwanted gray tones" or reflections under the base of the products.

If you're only shooting glass, this method only requires one light, the background light, which greatly simplifies the shot. The background can be opaque white material, lit from the front, or translucent material, lit from behind. Either way works fine. Meter the background, and add two stops or so to bring it up to white level.

If you're shooting glass and accessories, like the bottles and stoppers example, you'll need additional lighting for the accessories, but it needn't be too complex.

HTH.

Thanks Brian, thats really good info.

I don't own a studio. This was all done in my garage. The glass stuff was just a small portion of all the products I had to shoot. The rest went fine with the setup I had. This whole shoot was a volume-quality-time equation: I was under a lot of pressure to get it all done.

I will try this technique soon so I can get the practice. In the future it might make sense to create two setups: one for the glass stuff and one for everything else. I have enough basic lighting to do this: five White Lightning Ultra's (1200's &1800's) and around ten or so Canon and Nikon strobes. Space is the real issue: I am fighting all the usual garage junk. I used to have a nice basement room for studio work but that has been recently converted into a home gym.

Max

PhotoMaximum wrote:
Here are a couple of these shots of light colored items against the white...












Great shooting!

The trick to shooting clear glass against against a white background is to add dark edges to the glass. The way to add dark edges is to place black panels outside of the frame, that the curved edges of the glass will pick up. The easiest way to do do this is to take a large piece of black foam core and cut a window in the middle of it. Place a diffuser panel behind the window and light it from behind to give you your white background. Shoot, so the black is just out of the frame and it will edge the clear glass with black.
If you want the background to be dark and the edges of the glass white, then just reverse it by putting the dark background in the middle of a large backlit panel.
Here is one of mine on a dark background edged with white.

Another vote for "Light: Science & Magic" by Fuqua. Brilliant book! Shows all these tricks, with diagrams. There's a ton to understand, but the book breaks it down nicely. Required reading for anyone interested in product photography. Or portraits. Or ...

Got the book and did a "bright-field" light test. Works like a charm...

Max