jewelry photos

[odedidush]

Hi ,
My wife is a jewelery designer and i took photos to her jewelries with my Nikon D5200 before uploading them to her website.
the Jewelries were placed on a piece of paper and at the sides are light bulbs with a white covering light shade .
The photos took at the camera mode : Aperture F22 (maximum aperture) to get maximal depth of field and shutter speed - half a second at free hand camera without a tripod and at A4 white page . for the next photos already bought a tripod.
I saw online professional photography of jewelery has light tent for softening the light, shadow and increasing prevention of lightning from the jewel.


1.What would you change camera parameters and which parameters in Photoshop / Lightroom you configure to improve the photos?

2.The backround is always gray . how can i solve it ?


3.can you recommend a good light tent for Buying and suitble lighting?


By the way, we decided us to take our own pictures of the jewelry rather than rent proffetional photographer . budget consideration ...
photos attached .
Thank you .

 

[J-see]

Let me first say I know next to nothing about photographing jewelry, well make that nothing, so take this with a grain of salt. However, what I can't but notice is how dull the jewelry looks. The third is best of the three in that regards.

Dull is nothing I associate with jewelry. To "fix" this you might up/change the lighting or process them differently. Maybe a different background color might also make it "shine" more in comparison.

I checked one shot in LR and you seriously underexposed the shot. It can use almost two stops more which increases your dynamic range, makes it pop more and turns the background whiter.



Now it looks more like jewelry.

 

[odedidush]

Hi ,
how can i expose the shot ?
do you mean open at two stops the Aperture and this will increase the dynamic range ?
what parameters did you change in LR in order to get this result ?

 

[J-see]

Hi ,
how can i expose the shot ?
do you mean open at two stops the Aperture and this will increase the dynamic range ?
what parameters did you change in LR in order to get this result ?

You can either adjust the exposure on your camera when shooting or adjust it afterwards while post processing. If you adjust the tones so they fill the whole range between darkest and lightest (black and white) there is much more variation which makes the images better. The way you shot or processed them, you ended up with only tones from the shadows up to about the midtones.

All I did in Lightroom was look at the histogram, increase the exposure accordingly until it moved to the right side and then set my black and white point to minimal clipping. It's a couple of seconds work and it makes all the difference.

I don't know in what mode you shot them but if any auto-mode, try using exposure compensation and set it to -1 or -2 stops. You have to experiment with it to see what gives the best result. In auto-modes, depending the metering it uses, it'll decrease exposure because of the heavily weighed background (white) so you have to work around that by using compensation.

 

[Horoscope Fish]

I would suggest you NOT use f/22; you don't need maximum depth of field here, you need the correct depth of field. Using f/22 is probably causing diffraction and softening the shot; f/8 would be fine. You have a tripod on order which is good because 1/2 second shots handheld are going to be soft at best and blurry at worst. Further, I'd suggest you use the Exposure Compensation button to increase the exposure by about 1.5 to 2.0 stops to correct the exposure.

To start better understanding how your camera exposes I suggest you start with this article, Metering Modes and How Your Camera Meter Works

 

[Needa]

There are several thing you might try checkout.

1 Light booth or light tent as you mentioned (Check for DIY on internet. Mine was made with pvc and linen )
2 Use fabric backdrop (felt works well) Try several colors black, blue, white and gray
3. Tripod
4. Manual focus
5. Custom white balance for the booth

Haven't shot a lot of jewelry but quite a few small shiny objects for an E-store.

 

[J-see]

You could even shoot at the sharpest aperture of your lens which is usually one stop smaller than your widest. You then increase your depth of field by moving further from your subject.

Since you're using them online, you don't really need the maximum resolution and can easily crop them.

 

[aroy]

Jewelry have a lot of shining faces, so you must have diffused lighting. Here are some suggestions
. Use white Thermocole instead of white paper for base. EPS Sheet - EPS Thermocol Sheet, Thermocol Sheet, EPS Insulation Sheets and EPS Thermal Insulation Board Manufacturer & Supplier from Gandhinagar, India
. Make a booth roughly 2'x2', a box shape would do
. Set up the camera on a tripod
. Use an external flash and aim away from the jewelry, preferably at the box top
. Shoot at aperture priority, ISO 100, F8 to get sharp images
. Set AF to "Single Point" and metering mode to "Matrix"
. Shoot RAW. Use the Nikon View NX supplied software to review the shots. Try various "White Balance" options to get the background perfectly white.

If you can, use DIGICAM Control to shoot tethered to computer, then you can see the effect of various settings.

 

[Zerobeat]

Maybe if he were to use a black backdrop in a light box, set his camera up as aroy and Horoscope Fish described, but use spot-metering instead of matrix, and take his reading off of the jewelry. It would underexpose the backdrop, but could make the jewelry seem to float. Maybe?

 

[odedidush]

Hi ,
which application to use for DIGICAM control on my D5200 ? is it came with the cd that i got when i cought the camera ?

 

[kaytstudio]

Best backdrop is a good grayscale. It works great for all colors and metals.
I had my best luck shooting my jewelry with bright lighting through a light tent. Lights actually from both sides and the top to diminish shadows.


Learning with a D5100

 

[aroy]

Hi ,
which application to use for DIGICAM control on my D5200 ? is it came with the cd that i got when i cought the camera ?

Digicam Control is a stand alone application. I always download the latest version from the NET.
. Connect your camera to PC using the supplied USB cable
. Start Digicam Control Program

The program should show the camera as connected. Now use the various controls, including Live View as you would the camera.