Shooting subject behind glass

suzyoung

Hi Neil,
I need to do a similar shot to this one and can't figure out how I'll tackle it.

How does one light the people, with a pane of glass in front (hands pressing on the glass needed) without the flash becoming a nightmare.
Was this an ambient light shot do you think?

Zenon

Hard to tell. The guy on the left has a shadow casted on his forehead from his thumb which indicates strong light from above. If there is enough ambient then you should be OK. If using a flash the same principle as when shooting a portrait and a person has glasses. Light off to the side to prevent reflections. I'd either bounce off a reflector (if no ceilings or walls are around) or have a pretty big diffuser off to the side, higher up and pointed down to prevent refections.

I'm also interested in other opinions.

qrickman

Set your lights to the side, 45 degrees or greater from the front of the glass, the area in front of the glass should be dark as any light source directly in front of the glass would be reflected back to the camera. This is the same technique you would use to photograph a document or art work behind glass.

Neil vN

Like Quin says - have the lights at 45 degrees to either side, and very specifically so that *you* can't see the lights reflected in the glass pane.