How should I light clear glass products for ecommerce photos?

Question

I’m testing ways to photograph clear drinking glasses for online-store style product shots. I understand that lighting matters a lot with glass, but I’m unsure how to judge the *quality* of light or whether there’s any generally preferred approach.

In quick tests I tried three looks:
- harder light by moving the white background farther away
- softer light by bringing the background closer
- a more specular look using a bare speedlight at about 45°

Each seems usable, but they give very different results. For product photography of clear glass, is there any objective or commonly preferred method, or does it depend entirely on the look you want? Are there standard techniques for defining the edges and reflections of clear glass on white or dark backgrounds?

user50964 · Answer

It's hard to say which is the best approach because, as usual, it depends on what you're trying to convey. However, I think the book Light—Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting is a great source for learning lighting in general, and specifically for tips on how to light glass, how to highlight the borders, how to create intended reflections, etc.

My personal preference is to highlight the borders. For example if you want a white background you could use a white background that just covers the frame and and black background that surrounds the white background (and is not visible in the frame).

In the following example I used a dark background, and a white background outside the frame to highlight the borders:

And here is the lighting setup:
_{(source: staticflickr.com)}

Notice also that instead of a frontal bare flash for specular light I used paper strips to create softer and wider lights in both sides of the cup.

How should I light clear glass products for ecommerce photos?

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