The follow-up shot: an easy way to shoot glass on a black

When I posted my last article (Shooting glassware on black background) to a few social media, I've got one very interesting comment on my post. Alex Morozov, a very talented photographer from Estonia, dropped very simple yet very useful idea. He suggested that the same shot could be done with just one light behind the subject with screen covering it and one in a front.

Simple, but I did not thought that way when I was working on that shot. I liked this approach and decided to re-shot my vodka and cocktail glass using this simplified setup. It was a very easy and fast, I spen about 10 minutes for the whole shot.

Even though this setup has more limitations then my original approach, it worked very well, take a look at the result:

This is almost as-is image, only few adjustments in RAW converter and few touches in Photoshop. Even though the lines not all symmetrical, and the image is not as clean as the previous one, it's an amazing result, isn't it? Genia (our retoucher) really likes this photo!

Here is the lighting setup:

Simple, isn't it? Large softbox behind our subjects, covered in the middle with black/white screen: black side facing front, white inside the softbox (to reflect back the light). By moving screen side to side I can adjust both gaps, making the reflection on our products even
Black screens on each side were covering the scene from studio surroundings. The same low-level softbox on the front to highlight a label on the bottle.

Nice solution. Put it in your lighting setup's bag, it may be useful:-) I am too spoiled having more that 10 strobes available for me in the studio, but I really like when it is simple.

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BTW, you may like to see the opposite, high key photoshot I recently had with the same subjects.

If so, check it out on Atlanta photographer blog:Shooting glassware on white background or how to make transparent visible.