Glassware can one of the trickiest products to shoot, but when you nail the shot, you'll find the results were well worth the effort. This quick and helpful video will show you how to eliminate pesky reflections and get a clean, well-defined shot of glassware.
Coming to you from David Bergman with Adorama TV, this great video shows you how to deal with two common issues when photographing glassware: unwanted reflections and getting well-defined edges that separate the product from the background. Of course, the problem with something like a wine glass is that its geometry makes it very tricky to avoid reflections, as it seems almost any angle results in a reflection somewhere on the product. And then, the other problem is that once you've eliminated those reflections, you might end up accidentally making the edges blend into the background, making it difficult for the viewer to clearly discern the outline of the glass. Resolving these issues takes some careful control of the light, but it's not that difficult once you learn how. Check out the video above for the full rundown.
And if you'd like to really dive into product photography, check out "The Hero Shot: How To Light And Composite Product Photography!"
I love how he gets four/five quick tips in so quickly... A+
So many good things here, but at the top of the list is that 1) he gets to the point -- I've been eight minutes into a video before we even start in with the subject; and 2) he's not all hung up with the "perfect" or "professional" gear -- white foam core, black velvet, etc. all show a can-do attitude.
When I was in advertising we were doing a commercial with a legendary director in the 1980s. In one scene we were shooting in Cafe Reggio in NYC, and it was super tight. He asked if they had a mirror anywhere, and they brought up a 1/3 missing full length mirror from the basement. He shot into the mirror, doubling his focal length, and just reversed the film to un-mirror the image. Total time, about 10 minutes including some liberal use of Windex on the mirror. In another scene he had an on-the-spot idea and lit it with one of those $10 clip-on aluminum lights you get at Home Depot. The point was that he just used ordinary objects to find fast solutions, and I felt a lot of that refreshing energy and attitude in this video.