Cleaning one side of the glass is worth doing really well before spraying with black paint. We don't want any dust spots sealed between spray and glass.
Two coats is enough to give a longlasting scratch resistant finish. When dry, turn it over to reveal a perfectly smooth shiny black mirror that will be the base for my product photography for years to come.
Now let's find a few items to photograph. I choose a bottle and a large glass into which a plastic rose is placed, the last two are both painted with a matt white spray from B&Q a DIY retailer at £9
A scrap kitchen base unit mounted on a couple lengths of square plastic rainwater pipe instead of legs means I can slide the whole thing around my studio without effort, a larger than normal top gives a table sized area for my product/still life photography.
I lay the black glass on the tabletop and drape a black cloth beyond for a background.
To create a background support a pair of woodworking clamps are clipped on and 3 foot long plastic overflow pipe at 22mm diameter is slipped over the metal ends for uprights. On top are two 'Tee' joints. A length of 15mm copper pipe slids easily through the two tee joints and supports my black cloth background. It can also hold tracing paper, a bamboo curtain, a roll of white wallpaper, thin scrim, a Venetian blind, etc.
Camera on tripod set to F16 for a good depth of focus plus it gives me chance to wave a torch a at my subject. ISO 200 and 20 seconds seems to return a fair result. Two second timer so I can get into position, keep the torch at near enough the same distance and we have the first exposure in the bag.
Avoid getting the light onto the glass so it remains dark and the reflection is improved. Hold the torch low so it skates across the glass surface and illuminates the subject from low down. This will look better in the reflection.
The torch and arm can go between the lens and subject without disturbing the finished result.
I like to merge several exposure in edit and will concentrate on one major part of my setup at a time.
My light is an LED block from Maplins at £10 It takes four AA rechargeable batteries which last for weeks at a timeas a work light in my day job as a plumber working in cupboards and under kitchen sinks.
