Topic: Taking pictures of engraved glass,cheap and simple.

[johnphilip]

I have been having problems photographing clear engraved glass vessels
then like a bolt out of the blue it came to me Eureka, get some Guinness or Coca Cola
fill the vessel wait till the liquid goes flat with no bubbles use the flash hey presto it works
no distortion from engraving on the other side, then pour liquid into plastic bottle to use again,or have a drink and celebrate. I hope i am not teaching granny to suck eggs. JP
 :chky:     Sorry meant to put it in glass can one of you nice hard working people move it for me Thanks

[Pinkspoons]

Does anyone have any tips for photographing clear engraved glass against a shadowless pure white background? I've tried pretty much everything I can think of, and have failed miserably every time. *sigh*

I can't imagine pouring milk into the glass working.... espcially under hot photography lamps. 

[krsilber]

JP, could you post an example or two of how your photos turn out?  How do you avoid glare from the flash?

Photos of polished engraving can be very difficult!  I'm not the world's best photographer, but I'll explain how I do it using a white background, very cheap, lazy, and low tech.  I take a sheet of posterboard and curve it up against a wall.  Then I hold a lamp so that it's shining on the piece from above and slightly behind (or wherever works best) to try to eliminate glare.  I position it so that at least part of the background is in shadow cast by the lamp "shade" in order to provide the contrast necessary to show the engraving.  The lamp I use is part of a desk lamp, so it's on a post, allowing me to maneuver it and still hold the camera.  The photos below give an idea of how I do it - keep in mind that this is one of the hardest pieces I've had to photograph and that the photos were taken mainly for demonstration, so they aren't the best.  The first one is just to show the general set-up and doesn't show the glass well at all.

A lot of people put pieces of black posterboard or whatever on the sides or under the item to provide contrast.  This may help with rich (brilliant) cut glass, but I haven't found it terribly useful for engraving.

Hope this helps!

[Leni]

Cor!  Kristi, you're a real star!  :clap:  I must try again with my pics.  Thank you very much for the tips!   

[Andy]

JP,
great idea, i will try it out!
Cheers
Andy
 

[johnphilip]

 I have also found taking a birdseye shot straight down from above also sometimes shows the pattern
 depending on the shape of the vessel, thats without the liquid of course.JP

[Patrick]

Hi,
To get a white background you could photograph with a black background and then get the negative of the image. But i don't know whether it looks like glass then.....  See these 2 images.
regards Patrick

[krsilber]

I thought of another thing.  When you're taking a photo of a vessel and have to deal with two layers of glass (e.g. the first and third photos below) sometimes it works well to set the aperture as far open as possible (with the lowest number).  This decreases the depth of field so that the near side is in focus and the far side is blurry.  It helps minimize the confusing images of the engraving on near and far sides of the glass.  I didn't consciously do that here, but have tried it with other stuff.

Here are a couple other photos demonstrating the use of shading on a white background and indirect light.  For these I didn't shine the light on the glass, only at the background.  I've found white far preferable to dark colors for rock crystal (fully polished) engraving.  The third photo shows the best I could do with a dark background.  I've probably taken 100 photos of this vase.  Dealing with curved glass without getting a glare can be a real pain.

"Cor!  Kristi, you're a real star!"  Thanks for saying that Leni!  That makes me feel good, like I'm helping.   There's so much on this board I don't know about, I want to contribute what I can.

[johnphilip]

That was my point the liquid blocks out the pattern at the back of the glass so no interference.
 Try it with that glass.

[Patrick]

Hi Mr Hobbs,
 You must get your act together and sort out how to put images on here...........  You contribute a lot to this forum but you are being held back by the lack of images.
  Best wishes Patrick.
ps, Give the lovely Pinky a call and she could come over with her new laptop and DONGLE and show you how to do it.