How would you advise me to photograph my glass creations? I make stained glass wind chimes enhanced with glass beads. I have photographed them indoors and outside.
Outside seems to be the best with natural light but it's really hard finding the right place for a background unless I go about creating some sort of artificial backdrop. What would you recommend?
I have a great camera...Cannon EOS 6D. I uploaded a couple of photos or you can see some samples on my page if you like. I just think I could do better with some help. Thanks.
Carol
Replies
Visually your background is distracting where it's viewed through the transparent parts of the glass.
Short answer is to hang them in the shade with the sun hitting a white sheet or canopy wall hung in the background. That will give you a look as though they were photographed in a photographer's studio. It will also allow you to maintain the colors in the pieces by not having them wash out from the lighting. I try to attend one open jury a year and take notes on how different artwork photographs, especially difficult to photograph objects.
When I photograph glass, besides using the traditional two lights at 45 degree angles, I also use a back light from behind and above to make sure the edges of the pieces separate from the background, especially when I use a graduated background.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Thanks for your comments Larry.
Try a black matte board behind your pieces to make the colors come out as light backgrounds tend to wash out the color. Experiment with some lights out of frame, that are behind the glass to backlight the pieces at an angle. That should give the pieces some good snap and contrast. Bracket the shots up and down by about 3 stops exposure in 1/2 to 1 stop intervals. Use the images that doesn't go into overexposure on the highlights and tweak the rest of the file to get what looks best.
The black matte board sounds like a great idea. I will give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion.