Jewelry lighting setup?

E

eye4get

New member
I am building a jewelry studio. I've built a [60cmx60cm] light box and three florescent daylight color lamps. I just purchased a new D3200 and every shot the flash in indicated and fires. I've added additional LED flood lights, a macro ring light and the camera still indicates a flash is needed. I knwo I am leavign out sufficient infoamtion, but I don't understand why 7 lights (regular hardware store bulbs) are still not enough. Do I really need to buy softbox studio lights?

My question is: How much constant (however it is measured) lighting is adequate to photograph jewelry, products, etc.
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Re: Starter lighting studio

eye4get said:
I am building a jewelry studio. I've built a [60cmx60cm] light box and three florescent daylight color lamps. I just purchased a new D3200 and every shot the flash in indicated and fires. I've added additional LED flood lights, a macro ring light and the camera still indicates a flash is needed. I knwo I am leavign out sufficient infoamtion, but I don't understand why 7 lights (regular hardware store bulbs) are still not enough. Do I really need to buy softbox studio lights?

My question is: How much constant (however it is measured) lighting is adequate to photograph jewelry, products, etc.
Click to expand...

Get a tripod, use Aperture mode around f11-16, iso 200 and the flash won't pop up. It's only because you're using Auto mode that the camera wants to use the flash.
 
E

eye4get

New member
Re: Starter lighting studio

Thank you for the reply. I tried many settings including the Aperture Settings you suggested. The ? is displaying in every setting. In Automatic mode the flash will pop up. In the other settings (P,A,S,M and macro) the need for a flash is indicated. I added two more lights and the ? still flashes. I am worried the light meter isn't working properly since the lighting [not low level] is more than adequate. I put the battery in the charger and reset the camera to default settings. I'll test it again in the morning under normal lighting conditions.


DSC00506w.jpg DSC00507w.jpg
 
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M

Moab Man

Senior Member
You can't entirely trust the metering on any camera. It does the best it can with what it has in front of it.

If you have it lit like you want then take a picture. Too dark then increase your exposure time so that the camera accumulates more light and brightens your subject. The flash indicator is telling you at the parameters you have set the picture will be under exposed... except for what I mentioned at the top.
 
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