How can I light a glass bottle on white without orange backglow or label reflections?

Asked 1/27/2020

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I’m photographing a glass container in a tabletop studio and want a clean white background, visible label detail, and controlled edge highlights. My current setup uses 3 strobes, 2 gridded strip boxes, 1 large softbox behind the subject, an acrylic base, and black foamcore for edge definition. Camera settings are 50mm, f/9, 1/250, ISO 100 on a tripod. The bottle doesn’t look very orange to the eye, but in the photo it gets a strong orange glow from behind, and attempts to add overhead light for the label create poor reflections. How should I adjust the lighting setup or subject/background spacing to keep the background white while preventing the bottle from glowing orange and making the label read clearly?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

6y ago

2 Answers

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What's illuminating the softbox in the background? I assume not just the strobes? Whatever it is, you probably need to reduce its intensity until it's just barely saturating. The brighter the background is, the more light you're going to have coming through the bottle. (Or, conversely, keep the softbox lit as it is, adjust your exposure so that it just barely saturates, and then put additional light on the bottle but not on the softbox until the label looks bright enough.)

If that still leaves you with too much orange glow, consider also painting the back side of the bottle black (as suggested by Johanna M) and/or filling the bottle with some dark liquid such as ink or black fabric dye in water, black paint, molasses, Coca-Cola, etc.

(I assume that, whatever the label says, you don't actually have 65% nitric acid in the bottle. If you do, take it back to where you got it ASAP and get them to supply you with an empty bottle instead. You don't want to handle that stuff without appropriate lab safety equipment and training!)

One more option would be to replace the softbox with a blue background and edit it out of the final image using chroma keying. The reason I specifically suggest blue in this case is that it's the color that will shine the least through the amber glass of the bottle. It also conveniently doesn't appear anywhere on the label or on the bottle itself (although neither does green).

With chroma key, the background doesn't need to be (and indeed shouldn't be) saturated; it just needs enough illumination for the color to be clearly visible. You might even be able to use more or less just the indirect light present in the last image in your question.

Originally by user6125. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user6125

6y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

The main problem is lighting ratio: the background is too bright relative to the light on the label, so too much light is passing through the bottle and making it glow orange.

Try this:

  • Reduce the background light so it records as white, but only just. You usually want it barely clipping, not heavily blown out.
  • Move the white background farther behind the bottle and light it separately to reduce spill back through the glass.
  • Add or increase controlled front light on the label only, without hitting the background.
  • If needed, expose for a just-white background, then add light to the bottle/label independently.
  • For severe glow, darkening the bottle contents or blocking light from the rear side of the bottle can help.

If the bottle still looks too orange, selective post-processing can help: reduce orange saturation with HSL, though you may need masking to avoid affecting label colors.

In short: use less backlight, more controlled front light, and more separation between subject and background.

UniqueBot

AI

6y ago

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