Shooting method of glassware

Glass is transparent and reflects bright flashes. Showing the characteristics of glassware when shooting still life. How can I shoot glassware well? Below I will introduce you to the shooting method of glassware, hoping to help you.

Shooting method of glassware

First, the background is very important.

Second, light, we should pay attention to the edge light, not the light on the bright spot, and we should color and harmonize the light and dark levels, so that we can have a sense of texture.

Each object has its own unique texture and surface details. In fact, it is often the most striking feature of an object. The successful performance of this texture in photos can greatly enhance the effect of photos, especially the fascinating and eye-catching effect.

It is not very difficult to express the texture, just some observation is needed. The key is to know what light works best for different subjects. Once you know the lighting effect you need, you can be half sure of taking a good photo.

In order to express the texture, the most obvious and commonly used is side light, which illuminates the surface of an object at a low angle. This will have an excellent effect on wood, stone tools and textiles. But it needs a point light source, sunlight for outdoor photography and a flash for indoor photography. If you look carefully, you will see that every tiny skinny surface has a long, contrasting shadow, which has a strong effect.

Sunny weather is an ideal time to practice shooting. You can practice observing the subject from different angles and changing the shooting position to get the best results. In order to take unusual photos, it may take several hours until the sun is in the right position, or come back the next day. Nine times out of ten, it's worth it.

However, sidelight is not always effective. When the side light is just right, its effect will be very good, but sometimes there are too many shadows, which is also messy. When the effect is too strong, this phenomenon will occur. Choose an outdoor scene and observe the effect when the sun moves. First of all, when the light angle causes more and more shadows, the texture becomes more and more obvious. But when the shadows began to grow long and occupied most of the picture, the problem came out and the effect was destroyed. Part of the skill of using sidelight is to be able to judge when the light angle is the most suitable.

If there is a deep depression or a complex shape on the surface of the subject, another difficulty will appear. Side light can not only show the texture of the object surface well, but also project a huge black shadow from the rest of the object structure. One day, when I was photographing the wreck of an old ship, I saw this example. I showed the texture of the rusty axle well, but when I printed the photo, I found that the messy shadows projected by the rest of the axle were very prominent.

However, despite its shortcomings, sidelight is still a convenient and useful weapon for photographers. You don't have to use sunlight, but you can provide side light for indoor photography without installing a flash on the camera.

Even better, if you have a slide projector, you can use it as a light source. With this light source, you can adjust the light angle and the position of the camera until you are completely satisfied. The light of the slide projector is strong and clear, and it is an ideal light source. This light is also very bright, and the exposure does not need more than a few seconds.

When shooting with sidelight, the depth of field is an important issue worthy of consideration. If the subject is parallel to the camera, you can use a large aperture to blur the messy background without losing the clarity of the subject. This will make the subject look clearer and make the subject more eye-catching. If your single-lens reflex camera has a depth of field prediction button, you can use it to determine the best aperture of the subject.

Besides sidelight, there are other ways to express texture. For example, backlighting can be particularly effective. When this light hits the surface of the object and reaches the camera, details and nameless things that you never thought of will appear.

In some cases, backlight can achieve a good effect similar to side light, but let the camera face the light instead of letting the light shine from the side. The real charm of backlighting lies in shooting wet or slightly glowing surfaces? The light reflects thousands of small bright spots, which are very eye-catching.

Because there is a lot of bright light, you must be careful in exposure. The bright light part enters the sidelight instrument, which will cause underexposure and half silhouette effect. If you want to achieve that effect, of course, it's better, but remember, if you want to achieve a more normal effect, then you have to increase the exposure by one or two files. In this case, the backlight control buttons on many automatic cameras are very useful.

Another problem that you must pay attention to is lens halo. It is generally okay for you to shoot the bright part of the wet surface, but the sun may be in the picture or near the edge of the picture, which is easy to produce lens halo. You can use the lens hood as a preventive measure, but the hood should have an appropriate length to achieve good results without covering the lens.

If this does not produce a halo, you can try to close the aperture. Halo usually occurs when the lens is opened to the maximum aperture, and the imaging quality is not good, but narrowing the aperture can obviously improve it. Even common? Hot spot? And the fog can be eliminated. The depth of field prediction button is very useful here.

Regarding the depth of field, the angle between the camera and the subject is very small when shooting the subject in backlight, especially when shooting the subject at very close range. In order to keep the whole film clear, a small aperture is needed.

So far, we have studied how to express the texture of rough surface. But how do you shoot a flat and shiny object? Leave them alone? Is there a texture? There is no denying that smoothness is a characteristic of many objects. For example, glassware has its most fascinating aspects. So how do you record this feature on film?

Obviously, neither side light nor backlight is suitable, because glass has no surface details to show. What is needed is some way to emphasize the lack of texture. If you want to know how to shoot, you might as well observe some advertising photos about cars.

The answer is that bright surfaces reflect light easily. Advertising photographers often use large-area lighting because they often shoot bright and smooth objects. For example, glass completely reflects light used to emphasize its smooth surface.

You can try it yourself. Not many of us have as complicated lighting as the studio, but we can try simple window lighting. Glass bottles are difficult to shoot even under the best conditions. But you can try to put it a few feet away from the window and observe how the reflection really shows the shape and texture of the glass bottle.

What does it take to make a smooth and shiny surface? Plant a large and uniform light source. This light source is easy to arrange. It is usually possible to use the blank sky between several trees or buildings as a uniform light source. Indoor, as we have seen, we can use the window light or the light reflected by the reflector emitted by the flash (not the kind of light that the flash directly shoots at the subject).

If you have a slide screen, you can use it and put it away when you need it. Don't forget the small screen? Specially designed for high reflectivity, so when you use it to reflect the flash, the light loss is minimal. You must test the best reflection effect by changing the position of the camera until you see that the light hitting the object is in the right direction. For indoor photos, you can try to use the light of a slide projector instead of a flash, so that the light always shines on the object and you can accurately observe what is happening.

Your use of this technology is not limited to shooting solid objects, but water is also the subject of many photos. Sometimes the water is completely still, and sometimes it is unpredictable and blue. However, you will find that, for example, when you shoot a river, if you choose a place surrounded by high banks or trees, then a small piece of sky that you can still see will be reflected on the water surface, and you can shoot a beautiful water surface.

The deeper you study the effects of different types of light on different objects, the easier it is for you to know how to achieve these extremely special effects. In fact, you can almost say that texture is something you can feel.

Matters needing attention in shooting glassware

1. Because glassware is transparent or translucent, its surface is smooth and easy to reflect light, indirect illumination is generally used instead of direct illumination. You can shine light on some bright reflecting surfaces, and then turn the reflecting surfaces to the object. Glassware can also be placed in front of a flat background, with lights illuminating the background and soft reflected light from the background as the only light source to illuminate the glassware. In this light,

You can choose any bright or dark background. For example, use glossy matte black paper or cardboard as a dark background, or use white or light matte paper as a bright background.

When shooting, don't let the shadow of the camera be reflected on the glassware. You can use a piece of black paper with a hole the size of a lens in the middle and put it in front of the lens to eliminate the shadow.

When shooting color movies, you can use a large piece of color paper as the background. The upper end of the paper is nailed to the wall, and the lower end of the paper should be hung about a foot in front of the table. Glassware can be put on paper. The light source can be placed behind the background to produce a backlight effect.

5. When shooting the glassware in the window, we should shoot it from the interior to the window, and use the backlight incident from the outside to express the transparent texture of the glassware.