Bright-Field Lighting

It took me 6 hours to photograph a glass - 6 hours !!! This included two 15 minute coffee breaks and one 5 minute tantrum.



If it wasn't for the fact that it is nearly 4 am, I'd put some wine in it!

Update: Saturday - at a more respectable time.

Bright-field lighting gives good edge definition to glass. The dark lines around the edge delineate its shape. Distracting reflections are eliminated.

How does it work?

The object is lit from the back. There should be no light within the family of angles (at the front) which would produce direct reflection. It is important that the back-light is completely outside this family of angles and that it does not light the edge of the glass. The extreme limits of the family of angles must remain dark. It is this area which determines the appearance of the edge of the glass. The lit background must not be any larger than the frame of the photograph (a background larger then the frame will extend the light into the family of angles and light the edge of the glass). The closer the object is to the camera, the more clearly the edges will be defined - as the subject moves away from the background less light reflects off the edges.

How did I do it? (eventually)

1. I cut out an A4 (approx.) sized rectangle from the the middle of a large piece of heavy cardboard. This large piece of cardboard (with a vertical, rectangular hole) was wedged into the back of a 2 X 2 ft light tent.

2. The glass was placed inside the tent on a piece of white acrylic (a box of tea bags was placed under the acrylic sheet to give it some height).

3. A piece of black velvet was draped over the sides and top of the light tent. The front of the tent was left open.

4. A desk lamp and some additional diffusion material were placed behind the tent.

5. I took the shot. To help the lighting, I fired off-camera flash behind the light tent.

6. I made different variations of the shot by adding colours in Adobe Lightroom.

7. The images were cropped and put together in Photoshop Elements.

Note: Where there is a will, there is always a way.