Dielectric Lighting/Environment

[Rens]

Take a look at your third example.
You can get that kind of set-up by having a brightly illuminated background on one side and a dark area on the other side of the subject.
You see the light is very bright on the left but it probably falls off rapidly to black just outside of the right hand edge of the picture. This creates a nice illumination for the backdrop but as the water and glass reflect much more of the set the dark areas will be visible in there.
You could place some black objects out of view to create dark areas more easily.

By putting some bright objects in front of the subject you can add some highlights by reflection instead of refraction. This doesn't always work properly with bright areas behind the subject, especially with water like that as the refraction can get pretty impredictable. You might end up highlighting the dark areas with that which will kill contrast. So in the third example you'd put the light(s) behind the subject, close to the backdrop.

The first image is probably created with a black backdrop and a bright light with a diffuser (area light) on one side.

The second image is harder to tell but I'd guess at a dark bowl with the water in it and a white and blue background so it reflects in the water.

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