Jewelery photo shoot

[photograpix]

<p>I am working with a jeweler to do catalogs of their creations. I need some advice on the lens I should use. <br>

My current gear include 5md2, 100 macro, extension tubes of various lenghts, light meter. For lighting, I have both continuous lighting and Monoblocks. <br>

I tried using 100macro to test on a few jewlery pieces I have and I noticed that when I fill the frame with a ring lets say (examples below), I do not get the complete ring in focus due to the DoF. <br>

<a href="http://real-eye.blogspot.com/2011/11/jewellery-photography-assignment_13.html">http://real-eye.blogspot.com/2011/11/jewellery-photography-assignment_13.html</a><br>

Whats the solution to this problem?<br>

I read tilt shift lenses are a best option for jewelery. is it true? can't I manage it with a 100 macro alone?</p>

<p>all comments and help is greatly welcome.</p>

 

[Matt Laur]

<p>You can't beat the laws of physics, Vicky. Once you stop that lens down to the point where you're getting the greatest DoF you can without losing sharpness to diffraction (which shows up pretty readilly on jewelry), you've hit a hard optical wall. <br /><br />Without going to a TS lens, you can look into focus-stacking software. That allows you to take multiple shots at slightly different focus points, and to combine them after the fact for the appearance of more DoF. If you search this site for threads on focus stacking, you'll find many discussions. But that <em>does</em> add post-production time, and if you're on a long-term project with a lot to shoot, getting it right in one exposure may be cheaper (because your time is a very finite commodity). <br /><br />Perhaps rent the right lens for a week or so, and get a feel for whether or not it's the way to go? Otherwise, it's going to be all about changing your composition so that the piece is on as flat a plane as possible, relative to the camera's sensor.<br /><br />Also: consider that for many uses, you may not <em>need </em>to fill the entire frame with the piece, and that you can back off to a more flexible working distance, and crop afterwards. Depends on how the images will be used.</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>Two things jump to mind, focus stacking and the 90 mm TS-E.</p>

<p>Focus stacking is software so you could use the 100 mm macro.</p>

<p>The TS-E allows you to tilt the plane of focus to the most appropriate angle, this can help a lot, but you still need accurate use of DOF for high quality results. Using tilt would help all your feed images apart from the third, two ring, set up.</p>

<p>Best suggestion, read up on tilt use,<a href="http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/using_tilt.html"> here is a great site</a>, and if you can rent one for a weekend.</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>WOW,</p>

<p>Matt and I are separated twins!</p>

[zack_lau]

<p>You might also experiment with a small sensor compact camera with a wide angle close focus lens to see if you can get images of acceptable quality for your catalog. The results can be surprisingly good.</p>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>After looking at your album, I think your photos would benefit more, immediately, by improving your lighting instead of investing in an expensive, fiddly tilt-shift lens.</p>

<p>Most of your photos are underexposed and/or show strong reflections of your lights (pearls and beads especially). You should buy and read "Light - Science & Magic" to learn how to control reflection and shadow.</p>

<p>Once you have some stronger lighting, you will be able to shoot with a smaller aperture and gain some much needed depth of field.</p>

<p>Search here for "jewelry photography" and "watch photography" to see some of the solutions Matt and I have suggested to others in the past. I also suggest you investigate some of the "Lighting Themes" series over in the Lighting forum. They are listed in the right-hand sidebar there.</p>

<p><Chas></p>

[adam_puzach]

<p>Hi hopefully i can be helpful to you as i have shot quite a bit of jewlery. I have shot with both tilt shift and focus stacking. Both work well. Tilt shift takes slightly more time shooting and focus stacking takes more time in post. You are going to need a powerful computer to stack images though so make sure you have the ram to do it efficiently. Also i looked at some of your images and i reccomend building a light tent. It basically is a tee pee made from white cloth. This soft light works great for the medal and also the tent prevents noticable reflections. Just the lens of your camera will peak through to prevent reflection. Hard light is needed for diamonds. I usually not only focus stacked but also combined different lighting for different parts of the image. LED lights work great for adding depth to a diamond. This workflow would take a very long time for a catalog but would be great for any larger images. I would reccomend shooting catalog images in the tent either focus stacked or renting a tilt shift. Then if there are any full size images use multiple lighting setups combined later in post. Also i have to agree with charles that you may need more light than you are currently using. Hope this was helpful<br>

Adam</p>

[bobcossar]

<p>Vicky....many won't like this...but maybe a good p/s camera would do a good job. Small sensor equals lots better depth of field....it can work very well.....just get the lighting right etc., here's a picture from an Elph 980 from last fall....Regards, Robert</p><div></div>

[scott_ferris]

<p>Robert,</p>

<p>It isn't that people won't like it, it is the physics of the thing, P&S sensors suffer from diffraction much earlier than larger sensored cameras, this severely limits their dof, there is no free lunch in macro :-) Besides, the shooting distance gets so small with P&S's at decent magnificatins that the camera runs the risk of disrupting the lighting.</p>

[bobcossar]

<p>Scott....there are solutions to the acknowledged lighting issues and as to the physics...well....look at the photo I posted. Of course it depends on the magnification to a degree...but more important is the final size image needed...Certainly this is not the approach for billboards, but it can, and does, work fine for much of the illustration images so often needed....Regards, Robert</p>

<p>Oh...and many people don't like this kind of approach because it doesn't require you to buy a big expensive lens etc. This is a solution centered answer.</p>

[zave_shapiro]

<p>For several years here on PN we had lighting guidance from two people who taught me a lot. As you get in to a specialized field like shooting jewelery it's useful to understand dof and also where to reflect light, when to absorb it. Try the Lighting forum and on the side click on administration. We had guidance from Brooks Short and Garry Edwards. While the columns were usually just titled Monthly Challenge if you start on the newer posts you'll keep clicking back. A few hours perusing their columns and advice will give you a fresh look at lighting issues. Things that sparkle and reflect light are a very specific challenge. Use the archived material and it might give you a fresh way of looking at the problem.</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>Robert,</p>

<p>I did look at your picture, that is why I maintain that for Vicky' needs a P&S is not a solution, it is an adoption of a different set of compromises that gets her no closer to her goal.</p>

<p>I have been very happy to recommend P&S's for macro product work before, most <a href="../beginner-photography-questions-forum/00ZWre">recently in this thread</a>. But for Vicky the simple answer, given the camera she already has, is either focus stacking or a TS-E lens. Focus stacking is cheaper and available tonight. But for serious product work movements are required and once you are used to using them the out of camera result can save many hours of post production time.</p>

[photograpix]

<p>Thank you for the link Scott. Its very informative and exciting</p>

[photograpix]

<p>Thank you for the link Scott.   Its very informative and exciting</p>