Question on taking jewelery with a D200

[davidsimageline]

I tried to take some jewelry with my camera ( D200, 28-85mm macro lens & two SB-600 ) in manual model mode. My

where shutter speed set to 250 ( which is my camera sync speed ) aperture F11 & ISO 200. But my problem is the

gray back ground when it should be white. I tried to edit the second image to get the back ground white but I

would like to have it straight from the camera looking like the edited image.

<br>

Here is a sample

<a href="http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff296/bussiness4/PhotoDotNet/?action=view&current=2.jpg"

target="_blank"><img src="http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff296/bussiness4/PhotoDotNet/2.jpg" border="0"

alt="Photobucket"></a>

Edited

<a href="http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff296/bussiness4/PhotoDotNet/?action=view&current=1.jpg"

target="_blank"><img src="http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff296/bussiness4/PhotoDotNet/1.jpg" border="0"

alt="Photobucket"></a>

[michael_hahn]

I have run into this before ... the gray background is due to the light falloff between the subject and the background. You need to illuminate the background! Or use Photoshop and select the background and convert to white.

 

good luck,

 

michael

[davidsimageline]

Thanks Michael, I was thinking of putting one of the flash on the camera instead of off camera and put the next flash pointing on the background.

[elliot1]

I have also run into this problem. There are many ways to 'fix' this problem. The easiest and fastest is possibly using the Levels control in Photoshop. It takes just a few seconds to fix any photo shot this way.<div></div>

[elliot1]

It is very difficult to get the background pure or close to pure white in-camera but is fast and easy to fix on the computer.

[conrad_hoffman]

For still-life macro I prefer hot lights so I can see what I'm doing. If the background is really a problem, sometimes I put the subject on glass, get the background well away, and clean up any reflections in the glass during post processing. It looks like you already have the back ground away, so it's just a matter of lighting. Once you treat the subject and background separately, you can do a better job of lighting the subject- tents, softboxes, strips of dark and light to set off the glass, backlighting, etc.

[ilkka_nissila]

I use three flashes to shoot small objects. One lights the white background (and also, the reflected light from the background illuminates the object from behind, which is nice since the shot is then not so sensitive to the precise angle you shoot from. The second flash is the main light, and it is on the right side of the camera, at 45 degree angle to the subject (both 45 up and 45 to the right). The third light is my fill and it is a shoot through umbrella at the height of the object photographed, to the left. This seems to work well for most things. I think here the key is to add a background light. Photoshopping to "correct" bad light is IMO a very poor use of the photographer's time.