Still life with glass

GraphyFotoz

I'm thinking about doing some still life with glass.

Now an idea I have been toying with is taking a cardboard box and painting the inside flat black.....cutting a hole in the side and in the bottom.
Thus....I can take a light source like maybe a flash light from the side for a soft side light or shine threw the bottom up threw the glass.

Is this a viable idea?:dunno
I'm open for ideas as this will be a new venture for me to learn indoors with winter coming on.

To answer the 1st question anyone would ask me....no I have no studio lighting or flash other than what's on my 828.

Dee

A sheet and a folding card table
A tripod, the self timer and some work lights (halogen on a stand) will give you a "studio."

Well, for small table top stuff anyway.

I have a folding card table sitting sideways on my table. I draped semi-translucent white material (white ripstop nylon, in my case, but people use white sheets) over the "legs" of the table. I then attach a big piece of white plastic to the top of the table under the material, and curve it gently and tape the plastic to the table.

The work lights go on the sides of the table shining thru the material to produce a soft even light (no harsh glares) on whatever I place inside my "tent."

I have a tiny tabletop tripod, and I used to use the self timer to get my photos. I recently purchased Nik's remote, so now I can shoot away at will! (Whoever Will is, ).

I also have a black piece of plastic but I found it too reflective, and dust showed too easily.

I also use a halogen desk lamp shooting thru the opening for extra lighting when required.

The good thing is my "studio" can be dismantled in a matter of minutes, folded up and put away...

There are a lot of links to building "studio tables" out of PVC pipe too. But my folding table was already in the garage, and it folds away...

NO, I don't have any pictures of it. ...

GraphyFotoz

Only One Reply?
Surely there must be others out there with ideas or input?

I did shower Guys!!

Shay Stephens

Yes, it is viable, and can be quite dramatic too.

Some thin black fabric and some white polyester lining fabric can give you a myriad option for very little outlay of cash. You can use the balck fabric to abosrb light and reflections, and the white translucent fabric can diffuse a point source of light and vary any resulting reflections so you can get what you want.

a sheet of plate glass can also be really nice to work with as you have more options opened up in lighting the objects. Use the glass raised up and set the piece on it. Using these techniques, a while back I got a shot of this:

GraphyFotoz wrote:

Is this a viable idea?

GraphyFotoz

Super!!
GREAT info Shay!!!

I suspect this takes lotsa practice and trial and error?

Shay Stephens

You surmise correctly ;-)

But if you have the winter to work on it, then by the end, you will probably have better stuff than I posted ;-)

The trick is all in the lighting. Really concentrate on where you place your lights, and how you modify the lights to give hard and soft light, and the effects that has on the resulting photo. Getting the right balance for each piece you shoot is the key to a standout photo that make the glass piece really come to life.

Don't worry about being able to pump out the work, worry instead about learning the lighting, the how's and why's, the, "if I do this, it will probably look like that", type thing.

GraphyFotoz wrote:

GREAT info Shay!!!

I suspect this takes lotsa practice and trial and error?

rahmonster

I did something similar about a year ago with film and all i used were cardboard, wine glasses and natural light. I tried some with flash but they made tukky reflections on the glasses I thought. You could always experiment With tissue paper etc and try to make a couple of soft boxes. Anyway here's what I came up with. I know I scanned it in crooked and theres a dust mark but I didnt have time to do it again...sorry

babybluetx23

Another idea is this........

Get an Air conditioning filter without any thing in the center of it, Place it on a saw horse or something you can shine lights through without interuption, then you can get a piece of Plexi glass for a stable surface. Then you can play with the placement of lights and objects.
You can also get a piece of plexiglass and give it that "Smoked" look by gently scuffing it up with a light grit sand paper. At that point you can then place it on two saw horses or something that you can shine light uninterupted through and play with lights and objects that way.