On Mar 23, 8:13=A0pm, b...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Burt Johnson) wrote:
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0http://www.modernbook.com/flowersandleaves/images.htm
>
> Pick any of them along the bottom. I am impressed with the whole batch.
> This person was part of a photo display at a local camera store
> recently. =A0I was wow'd enough that I thought I would try it... =A0and
go=
t
> junk... :-(
>
> Turns out to be harder than I thought to shoot transparent glass against
> white and knock out the background...
>
> My shots have the vase looking grey and dull, and I have a heck of a
> time properly knocking the background out because there are places the
> vase just disappears (it _is_ transparent, after all). =A0
>
> This person has somehow mastered this technique. =A0Nicely illuminated
> images. Great transparent glass, yet with well defined edges.
> Background cleanly knocked out -- I saw the 20X24 prints and up close
> they were immaculate.
>
> The plants in my vases look fine. =A0If I could get the glass to look
like=
> this, I would consider it a personal success.
>
> I have tried a light tent, and no tent. =A0Lights on sides, top, back in
> various combinations. I have tried tungsten, but not yet flash (I don't
> have enough of them for a good multi-flash setup), but can't see how
> that would make any difference for a still object like this.
>
> My Photoshop skills are "early intermediate" I guess. =A0I can do the
> basics, and periodically wow the family with fixing bad snapshots, or
> taking that tree out of the niece's head (or salvaging a terrible Board
> of Directors shoot my wife did last year where she did not notice the
> streak of light from the window going right over their faces...). =A0I
> barely understand masks, smart objects, or the other more advanced
> tricks of CS3 (which I own) though.
>
> Any suggestions? Hints? Tutorials (!) ?
>
> --
> - Burt Johnson
> =A0 MindStorm, Inc.
> =A0http://www.mindstorm-inc.com/software.html
As you say, glass is transparent. The only things you are
photographing with transparent glass are the reflections and where the
glass bends the light. A trick I learned to use is to include black
objects that the glass can pickup in a manner similar to the way a
lens works (refraction). In a light tent, which can be used, these
can be strategically placed strips of black construction paper inside
the tent. I generally light from on top with a softbox and the left
and right sides of the light table have black foam core panels.
I don't care for the punched out background look very much and only
use it for a very limited number of situations and subjects, so there
is probably a lot more to know. An aquaintance of mine who owns a
studio that does a lot of these kinds of shots turned me on to this
setup when I had to shoot some fine crystal stemware.
Vance
|
