Posted by Andrea Hadley on November 18, 2009 at 1:29 PM
Okay, I'm looking at different glass styles to take photos of, but I'm wondering where I can find lighting or colored lighting, to make the glass rainbow like or just to make it really cool looking. If I"m still not being clear, please tell me, but if you have some clue of what I am talking about or think you might know, please tell me or explain what I'm trying to explain
Posted by Kelly Rowe on November 18, 2009 at 2:53 PM
'splain me, Lucy! What is it you are after?
Posted by Andrea Hadley on November 18, 2009 at 2:56 PM
Hm...basically using light or different lighting to bring out cool effects on glass, does that make any sense yet?
Posted by Kelly Rowe on November 18, 2009 at 5:09 PM
Lighting glass and jewelry can be a real challenge. Unfortunately, it's never the same challenge. When asked to do a commercial shoot for either, I'll usually bring half a dozen strobes, and an assortment of snoots, grids, barn doors, gels and light boxes to get the exact look I want. Even with all that in place it usually takes some post processing work to get it perfect. Then the client tells me it's for a newspaper ad.
The best source of usable information on lighting, other than the school of hard knocks, is Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Biver and Fuqua.
I suspect what you're looking for is light modifiers, whether gels or full-fledged filters for lights. We've long depended on Calumet for studio equipment including a wide variety of gels. For your convenience here is a link to their first page of lighting accessories. With 300 different products to pick from on the following pages, I bet some of it meets your needs.
Most of what we use are rolls and larger pieces of gel to go over studio lights, room lighting and even windows, but the smaller pieces are great to cut up for on-camera strobes. You can get a sizable "kit" of gels for not much money at all. There's one with what looks like about 20 different 10" x 12" gel sheets on that page for $35. I doubt they sell any smaller sizes, but if you know the particular color you want, you could probably save money by buying smaller quantities of individual colors on the following pages.
Actually causing the glass to "rainbow," if I'm following you correctly might require a polarizing filter on your lens PLUS another over your light source. You can adjust the rotation of the two polarizers to bring out some rather startling colors in reflections, and I assume in your glass. There's a 17" x 20" polarizing sheet on that first page for $40, but I'm assuming there are much smaller ones for less money on the following pages.
Hope this helps. We've used Calumet as our principal source for studio supplies for over 20 years, and their line is extensive. So extensive in fact, that it can get pretty confusing. We keep going back to Calumet, because any time we pick up the phone there's someone really knowledgeable waiting to help us sort through our needs. That's priceless!
Posted by Andrea Hadley on November 19, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Thank you for your advice, I really appreciate it .
Discussion
5 repliesThe best source of usable information on lighting, other than the school of hard knocks, is Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting by Biver and Fuqua.
Most of what we use are rolls and larger pieces of gel to go over studio lights, room lighting and even windows, but the smaller pieces are great to cut up for on-camera strobes. You can get a sizable "kit" of gels for not much money at all. There's one with what looks like about 20 different 10" x 12" gel sheets on that page for $35. I doubt they sell any smaller sizes, but if you know the particular color you want, you could probably save money by buying smaller quantities of individual colors on the following pages.
Actually causing the glass to "rainbow," if I'm following you correctly might require a polarizing filter on your lens PLUS another over your light source. You can adjust the rotation of the two polarizers to bring out some rather startling colors in reflections, and I assume in your glass. There's a 17" x 20" polarizing sheet on that first page for $40, but I'm assuming there are much smaller ones for less money on the following pages.
Hope this helps. We've used Calumet as our principal source for studio supplies for over 20 years, and their line is extensive. So extensive in fact, that it can get pretty confusing. We keep going back to Calumet, because any time we pick up the phone there's someone really knowledgeable waiting to help us sort through our needs. That's priceless!