Taking photos with chrome or glass objects in them?
Hi,
I am no photographer, I have a simple digital camera.
I am going to sell a few bits on ebay and need photos
Clothes, books and CD’s have all photographed well
I am having problems photographing a set of chrome taps, either the outline is blured or light seems to reflect back obscuring the object itself.
The other thing is pictures of glassware obviously the glass is transparent, but all I really get is the background with a faint shape of the glass.
I have tried taking pics with the flash on and off but nothing has come out that looks much good.
Advice on either glass or chrome much appreciated
Thanks in advance
WyleCoyote
on February 8th, 2012
for the glass hold a black board off to the side, this will give “shape” to the galss and the outline will show better
the other stuff see what pops up in my question below this one
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SkateRForeveR
on February 8th, 2012
Always wear your clothes for the photo
hey, you are the guy selling a table on Ebay aren’t you?
Fractalfallout
on February 8th, 2012
Try putting a diffuser of some sort, like a piece of vellum paper, in front of the flash.
ontheplains
on February 8th, 2012
You could stuff some tissue paper or cloth napkin into the glasses, then they’d show up. You could try rubbing some cornstarch on the chrome to dull it up a tiny bit, then just wipe it off after you take your picture.
Grapes
on February 8th, 2012
Use a white tent to light your subject and shoot through a slit in the wall nearest your camera.
StarGirl
on February 8th, 2012
I have only done SLR photography but I imagine the basics are the same.
I used to prefer to shoot objects by taking them out into the garden so that I didn’t have to use flash. Bright but hazy (and non-windy) days are best when there aren’t shadows, and also a mid-tone background cloth or board.
Never tried glass though.
Apologies if you haven’t got a suitable outside space and all this is totally useless!
NaughtyNinja
on February 8th, 2012
For your chrome taps, just shoot at a slight angle to the subject so the light reflects away from you instead of coming straight back into the lens. We could talk about transforming the image to get rid of the slight keystone effect, but this is eBay and not commercial photography, so you’ll be fine.
A quick and dirty technique for glass is to put it in front of a dark background and use an overhead light source with no flash. Again, this is adequate for eBay.
Here you go. I didn’t have any on file, so I did a sample for you. Please read the comments below the picture for details of the set-up. It would have been better if the light was just slightly behind the glass instead of about 10 degrees in front of it, but maybe next time…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...
~~~~~~
Okay, like I said it was late and I was sleepy. I did this again tonight but moved a couple of things so I could do it the way I am telling you was right. See the difference? Read the caption for the set up.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...
And now we have the same set-up shot with a D200.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstei...
I still have to try it with my 60 mm macro lens…..
Cocktail
on February 8th, 2012
Apart from the above, get yourself a polarising filter
that fits your lens, this is to control unwanted reflections.
Any Photo Shop salesman will tell you how to use it, and
if your camera will accept this filter. It will help you to
control reflections on crystal and metal objects.
You will have to use screen to view and not the viewfinder.
Good luck – Iain
CheeseCake
on February 8th, 2012
the glass is simple put it in a dark background with out the flash on and the chrome taps is again turn the flash off, with a dark background. light it up with a household lamp not to directly and it should come out soft but sharp
CrispApple
on February 8th, 2012
for crome use a couple of sheets of white paper to reflect light around the subject in natural warm light as the sun is nearing sunset about 1hr/1hr30minutes before the sun goes down..
QuirksByAnnie
on March 15th, 2011
Hi there! I struggle with this same problem all of the time. I sell just a lot of vintage glassware and if I am shooting clear glass I just don’t get the results I am looking for. I have tried all sorts of things…different backgrounds, lighting, etc.
Some of the suggestions above are very interesting and I am definitely going to try a couple of them. Mainly I wanted to confirm the links above in Naughty Ninja’s comment. When I click it gives me an error message. I tried adding the “n” that I thought might be missing and I do get a link to some great photos, but wanted to be sure I am looking in the right place and where the above examples are within that site.
Thanks so much ~ Annie