Metal and Glass

In this assignment, I was responsible for working with glass while my partner, Andrew Williams, worked on metal. When I first started this assignment, I wanted to do something with a wide range of colors. I bought many different colors of nail polish and lined them up in a row against the black velvet material on a table. I had a light source behind the velvet and used a white reflector to place more light on the front of the nail polish bottles. I also placed nail polish bottles along with perfume bottles and other glass products on the fiberglass light table. I scattered them around and took pictures of them lying on the table with a light underneath it. I liked how these both turned out, however I felt like I needed something more creative. I looked around at different stores and found neat looking candleholders. I thought it would be really cool to use rubber cement and light them on fire. I also thought making the clear candle holders look red would look neat as well. I used the fiberglass white table and put a light underneath it with a red gel on it. I placed the black velvet behind the two candleholders and used a reflector to light the base of both candle holders.

Here is my favorite frame from the glass assignment.

Two glass candleholders catch on fire in the photojournalism studio on Monday October 12, 2009.


I shot this with an ISO of 200, a shutter speed of 1/250 and aperture of f/6.7 on the daylight setting. I really liked how this turned out becase it shows the shape of the glass. The red gel that I used in this shoot made the glass look really good and enhanced the photo. If I went back and redid the shoot I would try to light the bottom of the candleholders better. Even though they are visible, they are still a a little dark. All in all, I really liked this assignment. I was able to work with different shapes of glass and see what techniques worked in lighting them. I also learned a lot more about how to light metal after working with Andrew on his metal photo. We both worked together and were able to get through the problems we faced when it came to doing this assignment. After completing this assignment I have a better grip on what works and doesn't work when it comes to lighting metal and glass.