Glass

At the top of the lighthouse is the Fresnel lens, made up of many glass panes. Above the interior deck where I stood was the lens, and I could aim up and shoot through the rotating hole as the panes passed by.

Don't peak...tomorrow you get to see the outside of this beautiful building.

Glass...redux

Last week, in addition to the "Get to Know Your Rebel Class", some friends and I also took a Lighting class. One of the coolest things the instructor showed us was how to shoot glass. Clear glass presents a challenge because it's transparent. He reflected light off the glass and, with the help of a black background, shot some pretty cool images.

Here are a couple of my attempts to mimic his setup. I was using my light box, which is draped in a white sheet and has a white craft-paper "floor". I swapped out a black craft-paper floor and positioned it to also be a backdrop. Problem: It wouldn't stand up. I leaned it up against a tool box, but that caused a curve in the paper, which reflected more light. To fix that, I used the Dodge tool in Photoshop to darken up the reflected areas of the paper, while leaving the glass alone.

Also, I was dusting the glasses with paper towels..which left some streaks and dust motes. Next time, I'll take more care. A fun experiment!

Shutter: 1/100, f/4.5, ISO 1600, 55mm, hand-held, RAW. Only editing was to change the white balance to Tungsten (I forgot to do it in camera) and then use the Dodge tool as described above.

A party!

 

This third one, of the martini glass alone, is my favorite. I dropped the ISO speed down to 400, and switched off one of the side lights, which darkened the stem. It's straight out of the camera. Focal length 91mm. 1/100, f/5

One for Ron

Hey, Ron. As I was shooting this glass bottle, you came to mind for two reasons. This was shot with my 50mm prime lens...AND...look at the label!

Cheers!

Shutter speed 1/30, f4, ISO 100, hand held in my light box, aperture priority