Help required - product lighting: dealing with reflections

TimSandhu

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Tim
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Just looking for some help on dealing with some reflections in these glasses. I tried dodging them, but the results looked fake and clumsy. I used a light tent but am still really struggling here. My photoshop skills are lacking when it comes to things like this so my other option is to avoid the problem by lighting or positioning it correctly in the first place. Any suggestions appreciated.

Setup:
Single strobe placed top right.
(1/250 @f/5.6)

4399117349_897d2d473d_o.jpg
 
Yes, I can see that this is very new to you.
Trying to put it right in PS is the wrong approach, getting the lighting right is the right approach, then use PS only to improve a good photo, not to try to rescue a bad one.

And a light tent won't help you here either. What you need to do is to control the lighting properly.

The usual (and usually correct) approach is to point out that the angle of reflection = the angle of incidence. In other words, to point out that if a light strikes an object at an angle then it will bounce off of it at the same angle, so that the specular reflection (the reflection of the light source) will bounce off harmlessly and the lens won't register it as a reflection.

But glasses are convex, so although that must be your starting point it can't be your finishing point, because the light will be reflected from more than one angle. Therefore, you need a very large light source (at the correct angle) so that the bright specular reflection is converted into a diffused specular reflection, that you can see through to the subject beneath. This lighting theme on another forum explains it much better than I can.

And if that doesn't work (it will work, but if you're not entirely happy with the result) add lace curtain lighting - a light shining through the glass from behind but not pointing directly at the camera. These extra lights need to be brighter than the frontal lighting, but only just, and will add the finishing touch if needed.
 
go find this book: light, science & magic

read it starting from the front, don't try diving into the middle for a soultion to your particular problem as you'll miss stuff, its a linear read and builds the concepts up
 
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