5D Mk IV – EF100mm F/2.8 Macro – Einstein 640W – 1/125, F/4, ISO 50

Thought I’d experiment with light today. When I was with ISP, the Tony George family, who owned the Indy 500, would send a crystal glass set every year to the Troopers who worked any of the 3 major races held at the 500. Since I worked the Indy 500 for numerous years (I typically worked the overnight criminal detail), I have a bunch of different sets of crystal. This particular piece is a whiskey decanter from the year 2000.

I was looking at the neck and wondered how light would act if I put a snoot right on top pointing straight down into the glass. I got the rig set up and put that light straight down from the top. The end result wasn’t what I’d hoped as it was very difficult to read any of the words. I then tried adding a second light from the left pointing toward the glass, but those results weren’t very good. I also tried putting a white background but, again, I wasn’t happy with the results.

I then went back to using a single light from the top. Instead of straight down, I pulled the light up, back, and angled it at 45 degrees toward the neck of the glass. That was what made the photo of the day. I tried really hard to clean that darn thing, but man, those water-spots were really hard to remove. The other thing I should have done was to pull the lens a little further back so it would better appear that the light was coming from inside the neck.