It's really hard to photograph irids

Yesterday was the last day of the irids and micas class. Before I get into that, I wanted to share my final project from this class. This is the irid on irid on deep royal blue irid transparent, topped with clear rainbow irid. I just finished slumping this and have spent a long time trying to get a good photograph.

Close up detail

I must have taken 50 or so pictures before I found ones that I'm happy with. The camera cannot seem to capture the depth of the glass as your eyes can. In addition, your lighting has to be just right as reflections are always a problem photographing glass. I've also found the color blue to be very challenging, this is a very deep royal blue and the camera seems to wash out the color. I have tried so many settings. If anyone has any suggestions on photographing irid glass or dichroic glass I'd love to know what settings you use on your camera and your lighting setup.

Here is the final process we learned in the class, it is using a photopolymer material to transfer an image to the glass. The amount of detail that is possible using this technique is amazing. After transferring your design to the glass, you sandblast the polymer and your design is etched into the glass. If you ever get a chance to experiment with photopolymer, I would highly suggest it. But beware, the material and the equipment needed to do this process can be expensive.

This is a 5 x 5 test tile irid rainbow on black glass. I haven't decided what I will do with this yet, I'm tempted to airbrush some mica on the design to make it pop.