sandtonman Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 Hi All I just want to share some photos I have taken with my light tent and Nikon D100/Sigma Macro 105, f2.8. You can see the rings taken with a different shutter speed. http://www.photo.net/photos/SandtonMan I dont like the gery bacjground behind the rings. Do I need to take this out with Photoshop or is there something I am doing wrong. I am using 500 Watt Tungsten Lamops on either side of the light tent, and set the Colour Balance to Incandescent. Any advice-criticism.. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCL Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 Switch to a different color background, or light the background with the color of choice. Be aware that the different color may affect the color of jewelry displayed. I typically use a piece of malachite or slightly pink marble for my backgrounds, with a little spotlighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandtonman Posted December 7, 2005 Author Share Posted December 7, 2005 HI Stephen Thanks for your response. Normally,what I see in jewelry catalogues are a clear white background...how is that possible? Is that done with photoshop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
image creations Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 It can be done in Photoshop if the background color is uniform. An easier way is to go to ebay and procur a small cube lighting tent, then position three lights around it; left, top, and right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCL Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 Steve - You can also move your background further away from the lens (or your jewelry closer), spot the background (color balanced white). You should have plenty of room with the lens you're using. The tent is a little small for my usage, but you should do fine. BTW (my monitor isn't calibrated), but it looked to me like the pix would benefit from a slight increase in contrast in PS...esp. the watch face. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeb Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 Many watches are photographed with out the watch crystal (glass face). You might try a polarizer or repositioning the lights to minimize issues with the watch crystal #3 and 4 have the most issues with glass. With jewelry photos, moving or modifing the light sources can make a big difference. You can take a long exposure and lower the light levels. I find bouncing hot lights off the ceiling when using a light tent gives a better image. With jewelry it is very easy to blow out highlights by using hotlights pointed directly on the tent. Play with some different lighting setups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandtonman Posted December 8, 2005 Author Share Posted December 8, 2005 HI Thank you all for your positive and constructive criticism. I get the feedback that: 1. The Photos are underexposed 2. Jewelry need to have a good contrast and a nice shiney photo. No, I dont know what I am doing wrong..I have 2 500W tungsten lamps so there should be enough light for the Light Tent. My Fstop is F22 and my shutter speeds go from 1/5 to 1/40th. So what else can I do? I am using ISO500 and my white balance is set on candecesent. Any help please.. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandtonman Posted December 8, 2005 Author Share Posted December 8, 2005 I have added 2 more images of the Ring...the 2nd image (no. 2) has a very good contrast, probably the best I have been able to get...It is shot RAW, with Spot Metering (on the Gemstone), F11 1/80, high tone and high sharpness...I cant think of anything else to do :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandtonman Posted December 8, 2005 Author Share Posted December 8, 2005 I have added few more photos of the ring..taken as RAW and corrected for underexposure and Contrast with the Nikon software http://www.photo.net/photos/SandtonMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friskybongo Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 Steve, Check this out: http://www.tabletopstudio.com/documents/jewelry_photography.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandtonman Posted December 8, 2005 Author Share Posted December 8, 2005 Louis Thanks..have you used this EZCube? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friskybongo Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Steve, After researching all the various brands of light tents, the one I purchased is made by Photek (http://www.photekusa.com/). It's relatively easy to open and close and produces great results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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