I recently had a very creative shoot with the fantastic Ella Ru using some ‘distorted’ glass.  It was our second shoot together (see more of her in the people section) and we had some fun working out how to use this piece of glass to get some good shots.  Here are a few notes on the shoot in case you’re interested in doing something similar.

Initially I was inspired by some images I’d seen where the photographer used plain glass smeared with Vaseline, oil, paint, etc - the results looked good, but I imagined it was a very messy process, so I opted to buy some already ‘distorted’ glass.  I bought two pieces, one ‘Reeded’ (used in the images below) and one ‘Flemish’, which is more of a random ripple effect that turned out not to work at all, so we abandoned it pretty quickly - I may try it again sometime, but during this shoot, it was obvious we weren’t getting good results.

A few things to consider before going for a shoot like this:

Where can I get some glass?  I bought mine directly from a glass supplier not far from my house.  I just popped in to their trade counter and they cut it for me on the spot.  I did look online, but I wasn’t sure about shipping glass through the post - on Amazon I saw some sticky plastic films that could give different effects, but you still needed plain glass to apply it to.

How big a piece do I need? I got mine cut to 800mmx700mm so I could easily get it in my car.  If you have a bigger car or van and somewhere to store it, then go bigger as it gives more scope for posing.  With what we had, we could get half body length when Ella was standing or sitting on a stool (top and bottom images), or full body, when she was curled up (middle image).

Is it safe? Not really - be very careful! Even though the supplier sanded the edges and they were OK to hold, I was still wary and put some anti-slip tape on each edge and the corners to be sure.  If you plan to use this repeatedly, I’d recommend framing.  Also, consider getting the safety glass version if it will be in regular use (e.g. in a studio) - it’s more expensive, but probably worth it if it gets dropped or whacked by a stand.

How do I hold the glass in place?  Some clamps/stand will do fine, though I was a bit worried about overtightening and cracking the glass.  With this in mind we went with the safer (!) option of having an assistant hold it steady for each shot. For a pattern like the ‘Reeded’ glass, try to keep it at right angles to the camera, this keeps the pattern regular across the shot - you can correct some mis-alignment in post, but it’s better if you don’t have to.

Image 1  (above) The first shot has Ella and all the (continuous) lights behind the glass.  Typically, we had two side lights and alternated a third light above, below or behind her.  Unfortunately, as I had no plans to write this up, I didn’t take any setup shots or notes, so I can’t say for sure what lights were where - just move them around until you get an effect you like.    This image also shows one thing to avoid: the model touching the glass - this blocks light from the sides reaching the touching parts.  Notice that Ella’s arm is quite dark with no detail - it just isn’t getting any illumination as it can’t get between her and the glass.  I think we get away with it here as the shadow on the forearm works with the shadows elsewhere, but other images were rendered useless due to this.

Image 2  (above)  In this shot, Ella is crouched down on the floor.  The colour grading here is the closest to the actual lighting on set. The other images do not use gels, RGB, etc, for their blue/pink tint - they were adjusted in Photoshop.

Images 3 and 4  (below)  These are just variations on the overall theme, but give me  an excuse to mention one more tip: make sure the glass is ultra clean - I thought I’d cleaned it thoroughly, but the side lighting picked up a lot of stuff I didn’t even know was there.  Also, make sure the model and other objects in shot are also as ‘clean’ as possible as it is more difficult to correct in post since you may end up with several copies of a stray hair or similar to remove.  Similarly, blemish removal and skin smoothing can be a bit more tricky.