photo problems

[Jerry Berg]

I've not had very good results with taking a photo of glass peices. I noticed most of the photos posted here look very good. What are your methods.

Thanks, Jerry

[Raymond Chapman]

Get a Polarizing lens. It will help reduce the glare from the glass and make your artwork really look sharp.

Mike Jackson told me about these when we were in Boise way back in '82.

[Doug Bernhardt]

I was doing a search to find this topic which has been discussed a few times but there were about 900 postings...will have to figger out how to narrow this a bit but anywho.....that was the long winded start to "what's reflected is the main thing right?" The reflection of a shelf full of one shot and a bald head ain't anywhere near as interesting as a park scene......I'm going to get and mount a cool art poster and put a hole in the centre for the camera.

[Jerry Berg]

Thanks Raymond, I figured as much. I've got an expensive digital / video camera. Don't know if they sell a polarizing lens for it. I'll check it out. Got rid of an older Nikon thinking digital was all I would ever need.

Doug, my ideas haven't been too far off your "cutting a hole" idea! Really though, I've tried about everything. I heard somewhere about somebody mentioning using hair spray. I could just see myself spraying a clients window front..... not.

Thanks guys.

[Jerry Berg]

I just did a little searching and found this. It looks like a hole in a backdrop is a great idea Doug.




OLD FORUM POSTS

Posted by Bruce Jackson on May 12, 2003


Quote:
Vance asked me how I photograph my work. Trying to photograph a gold leaf job on a window is something most of us have grappled with, It's a tough ask, even professional photographers have trouble getting a good shot of a reflective surface, let alone a mirror finish gold sign on a sheet of glass.

Here's a few things I've learnt.

The main issue is controlling reflections. You don't want a reflection of yourself taking the photo in the middle of the sign, nor do you want disturbing reflections of passing cars or the signs from the building across the street.

It is possible to totally eliminate reflections but for sign-related work some reflections can give a sense of place. You just don't want them to dominate.

The general priniciple to eliminating reflections is to remove anything in the background by having some kind of uniform backdrop. When professional photographers are dealing with small metallic or reflective objects, they put the object inside a cylindrical tent of white material. It will have one small hole for the lens and a light above.

This can be applied to photographing artwork by having a white backdrop (perhaps it should be a frontdrop) at the camera position. You could set up a backdrop with a hole for the lens. Personally I just put the drop slightly to one side and shoot from next to it. This gets the camera out of the image but gives a slight perspective. If perspective is a problem, it can be adjusted on the computer using Photoshop or other image software. You can also set the camera up on a tripod and juggle the position so that it's reflection falls in a part of the design that doesn't reflect as much, such as inbetween letters or in a dark section of a painting.

I've tried both white and dark backdrops, white being best for most work. Light or white is good for the gold areas but the colors in a painting, especially dark ones, can look washed out. A dark backdrop gives rich dark colors and matt gold shows up well but it makes the bright gold very dark, almost to a point of disappearing.

Photographing an artwork in the studio like this is easy enough but it becomes a bit more difficult shooting a shop front. I have sometimes set up a large cloth on a frame but usually the scale of the work on shop windows makes this difficult. The backdrop has to be huge to cover the whole background on a large window.

Generally with these jobs, I just accept the streetscape reflections. One thing you can do is reduce their dominance a bit. Walk around finding the best angle. One with the least brightness or contrast in the reflections. Sometimes a low or high position will work. Any areas with reflections of sky tend to look very washed out so shooting from a high position such as a ladder often works.
Remember you can always reduce or remove the perspective later on the computer so angles aren't really a problem.

The worst situation is where the sign is in a dark area under a verandah and there is a brightly lit reflected background on a sunny day. The reflections are so dominate. Depending on the setting, a dull day may be better, and you can also use a fill in flash to illuminate the work (not straight on, it should be on an angle).


Just a thought


Quote:
A year or so back a photographer friend came over and shot a couple of windows about to leave the shop. He like the ones you described tried to use a tent and of course all the bright lines were either black or white with little shimmer and the black spot Mike described of the lens. After some discussion with him it was decided that next time we'll use a tent but mount the lens through an art poster with some sort of cafe scene.


Lee Littlewood


Quote:
Thank you, Bruce. I have heard of a polarizing filter being helpful for reducing reflections, but maybe it would reduce the light off the gold as well??


Bruce Jackson


Quote:
I've tried polarizing lenses, but they didn't work for me. I'm no professional, and maybe I don't know how to use them.

It seems to me they are good for glare coming from off to one side. The reflections are coming straight from the artwork, so they're not incidental light like glare.

The gold is going to reflect something. You just want to control what that is.


Mike Jackson


Quote:
My experience has been basically the same as Bruce's regarding polarizing filters. I think everyone should have one and I would probably try it both ways, just in case it does help.

Polarizing filters seem to work best when there is quite a bit of angle of the light being reflected...such as the glare on the windshield of a car or the reflection on a lake. When photographing glass, you can remove some glare with a polarizing if you stand slightly off to the side of the glass, but that gives you a distorted shot.

I think they "can" help, but I don't think polarizing filters are "the" solution.

Best regards,
Mike


Sarah C


Quote:
The poloraizing filter is the best way to go. For a digicam you would use a circular polarizer. I use one on my dslr too. You also want the sun to be behind you or at a 180 degree to the glass to work best. They are also great for removing the shiny reflection on foliage in landscape shots.


Mike Jackson




Quote:
Hi Bruce,
Great post! I have been talking to SignCraft about an article that shows the tools you might use in Photoshop to straighten or square a distorted image. Maybe we will pursue it soon.

The photographer that we used for some of our glass pieces used a neutral gray background with a hole in it for the lense. You can see the dark area below the O and L area in the photo above.

Thanks again for the great information.

Mike Jackson

[Mike Jackson]

Jerry,
When shooting on location, you might not have a lot of control of the scene. The polarizing filter can help on some shots, as discussed earlier. Still, a gold leaf or silver leaf window will pick up whatever is in the reflection (you, buildings, clouds, cars and trucks, etc). Really, that is the simple secret. You need to move around with your camera so you get the least distractions, including the reflection of yourself and your tripod. That might also include shooting slightly up or slightly down on the piece of glass.

Another way to get a good shot is to take a sheet over to the spot and have a couple of people hold it up. You stand at a slight angle to the sheet so it is the background for the reflected image. You'll get a slight distortion or keystoning in the shot, but you can fix that in Photoshop using the Perspective Crop tool.

If you have the piece at home, you will have more control of the shot and can probably find a blank white wall to use as the reflected surface.

Good luck,
Mike Jackson