Metal & Glass

Photo © Jason Lenhart

This assignment was another studio assignment and of course right as we get comfortable with the studio, it's our last one. From here on out the photos from this class will be "out there". Anyway, this assignment is aptly titled "Metal & Glass". Why photograph metal and glass? Well, because they are extremely difficult to photograph in the studio. Metal is completely reflective, so unless you're camera sees this reflection, you won't see the metal. Glass, on the other hand, reflects no light, so you have to use two techniques to light Glass. Black line lighting, or white line lighting. Black line lighting means you light the background behind the glass. This gives the edges a "black outline" so to speak. White line lighting requires lights on the immediate sides of the glass object. With a dark background, this gives the edges of your glass and "white outline". With white line you may have to light the top and/or bottom to give the glass definition. Unfortunately I don't have any examples of glass. We shot this assignment with partners and my partner, Anne, got glass so you'll get to see metal.

Like I said, in order to photograph metal your camera needs to be within the group of angles the light creates when it reflects off the metal, otherwise you'll just get a black piece of nothing. Not sure how I came up with the idea for this assignment, but it worked out pretty well. Not perfect but sufficient. No, its not a real pistol (it's a BB gun), yes that is real ammunition, and Incense is how I created the smoke. The modeling lights had to be turned off for periods of time because they were beginning to heat the area up significantly. I'd rather not  have to explain why there are large holes in the ventilation in the studio.