Finally, here's yet another Boston glass but this time photographed against a natural landscape [Figure 12]. Sadly, the snow lay deep and crisp and even on the day of the photograph and we end up with another example of white on white. There actually IS a reason that Russian troops are kitted out with white smocks for winter combat: white-on-white makes for perfect camouflage!

Figure 12

The lesson here is that if we wish to make the label on a pre-pro glass stand out clearly, we need to choose as background that is as dark as possible.

This Old Landscape
Would-be sellers on eBay are frequently driven outdoors in search of adequate lighting, typically balancing the shot precariously on a convenient fencepost or railing.  Since little thought is given to the background, we're treated to a dizzying array of texture, color and highlights.  As a keen gardener, this can be an endless source of fascination, but it can also be a major distraction if the focus of hunt is pre-prohibition glass rather than a rare perennial Geranium. An example is shown in Figure 13. In the color version it's difficult to be sure if the intended subject is a bed of daffodils or the bloom etched on the Cassel Eye-Opener.  The season changes for the example in Figure 14, but again, General Wayne is having difficulty distinguishing himself from the backdrop of trees, lawn and siding. We move indoors for Figure 15 and now the main focus is the neighbor's house, while in Figure 16, the seller's hand dominates the image.  While hand-holding requires minimal set-up, flesh tones provide a decidedly sub-optimal background plus there is the issue of movement-induced blur consider.  On occasion the distraction of fingernails deeply impacted with what might well be recent privvy nightsoil is so disturbing that clicking on to the next listing is a welcome escape!
 

Figure 13
Figure 14	Figure 15	Figure 16

While most of the images shown above could have benefited greatly from tight cropping to remove peripheral distracting elements, the take-home is that if we wish to focus a viewer's attention on the glass, we need to provide a clean background.

Time for reflection
The other main barrier to capturing clean images of subjects made of glass is the issue of reflections. Curved vessels such as shots are particularly difficult in that they concentrate and focus light into vertical bands and they usually end up positioned so as to obliterate a crucial part of the label.  The stronger and more directional the source, the more obvious the problem becomes, as seen when one tries to use a flash [Figure 17].

 

Figure 17

Figure 18

Reflections can originate from either the back, the front, or both walls of the glass, depending on camera position. The photographer who created the image in Figure 18 was doing everything right in terms of a clean backdrop that nicely contrasts the label, but he was standing in full sun and so we see a pair of hands holding a camera reflected hotly from the front of the glass above the word "Shamrock". The take-home here is that one has to examine everything in immediate vicinity of the glass and evaluate it for its ability to show up as reflected hot spot in the final photograph.

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