Jewelry post production using Adobe Camera Raw

[daniel_seo2]

<p>Hello guys, I am just learning how to use Adobe Camera Raw to edit my jewelry pictures. Can you give me some useful tips on how to make the pictures as natural as possible? I am trying to whiten the background(shot on a white acrylic board), not affecting the naturalness of the stones. I've mostly been using the adjustment brush, graduated filter, and the radial gradient, to apply an increased exposure only to the background and not to the stones. But no matter how small I make my brush to be, it's impossible to make the edge of the stone look natural. Auto mask does not help. Thanks. </p>

<p>Daniel </p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Without seeing an example image (before you've worked on it), it's hard to make suggestions. <br /><br />But I'll start with the most important one: fix it <em>before</em> you take the photo. If you're going to do this with any regularity, get the lighting right so you don't have to spend (at least as much) time in post making up for not having done so. White-background product photography is challenging, and jewelry is especially notorious. But there are ways to get it a lot more right in-camera in order to save yourself a lot of time and to get the look you're after. You may find you need a proper product shooting table with a translucent base and the several light sources it takes to control the situation properly.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>I agree with Matt. Most of what you're talking about is a function of lighting. Trying to do this in post processing would be a matter of fixing something that went wrong, not the place to start.</p>

[daniel_seo2]

<p>Thank you for the advice. Lighting really does seem to be the most important thing and the hardest. I have two continuous halogen lamps which have flash functions as well and have quite a bit of power intensity. Is this enough? I am actually thinking about getting another light as a pointing light, but I am not going to if this is something that can be achieved depending on how I get the right combination of light intensity, position and camera parameters. I've attatched a picture of one of my stones that I took today. Both of them are edited in Adobe Camera Raw. Any comments will be helpful. Thank you guys. <br>

<img src="http://cafeptthumb1.phinf.naver.net/20150909_98/dannymudd_144172830055094qE5_JPEG/CRW_0003_%BC%F6%C1%A4%C8%C4.jpg?type=w740" alt="" width="740" height="493" /><img src="http://cafeptthumb4.phinf.naver.net/20150909_224/dannymudd_144172830068834vJl_JPEG/crw0003%BC%F6%C1%A4%C8%C42.jpg?type=w740" alt="" width="740" height="495" /></p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>"I have two continuous halogen lamps which have flash functions as well"<br /><br />Never heard of a continuous light that is also a flash. Do you mean you have a studio strobe that has a modeling light? What brand, model, etc.? How many watts is the continuous lights and how many watt seconds (WS is different than watts) is the flash? if that's the case, the continuous light is intended for focusing and composition, not taking the picture. That's what the flash part is for.<br /><br />No need to buy a third light until you've learned how to use the two you have. You may or may not need more, but exhaust the possibilities of what you have before getting more.</p>

[daniel_seo2]

<p>It says 400W/s maximum. I just found out that these lamps are not continuous. Like you said, the halogen lamps were not continuous light. They are modeling light. These are flash lights. I should have paid more attention to the sales person in the lighting shop. The brand name is FOMEX. It's a South Korean product. Does modeling light have much effect on the product? </p>

[daniel_seo2]

<p>I have some more questions regarding how to use the modeling light (Sorry, I really should have learned these before I'd bought it). First, I cannot figure out how to match the model light and the flash light. The model light knob has a minimum end and a maximum end, and the flash light knob goes around 360 degrees endlessly. The flash has values of 4.0, 4.1, 4.2 ........ 9.8, 9.9, 10. I just cannot figure out which point of the model light knob matches each of the flash light values. </p>

<p>And I have one more question. If I shoot the photos with both the ambient room light and the modeling light off (ambient light off to get a better picture and modeling light off to save the bulb), how do you meter the flash that will come out only after the shutter button has been pushed? I tried this and couldn't get either exposure or the focusing. I've tried manual focusing, but could not see anything on the viewfinder because it was too dark. </p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>Googling shows that Fomex makes a 400 watt-second monolight, which appears to be what you are describing that you have.<br /><br />A monolight is a studio strobe (flash) that has the flash head and power supply built into one unit as opposed to separate pieces.<br /><br />The modeling light in a studio flash unit is intended only to 1) give you enough light to focus and compose by and 2) to give you a general idea of what the light from the flash will look like (where the shadows will fall, etc.)<br /><br />The modeling light is not intended to take pictures by. Even though some are bright enough that you could take a picture by them, their light output is far, far weaker than that of the flash itself. Unless you are using a high ISO with a slow shutter speed and the lens opened up wide, the modeling light does not usually put out enough light to register in the photo.<br /><br />When shooting with studio flash, keep your shutter speed at 1/125, maybe 1/250, whichever is the highest your camera allows you to use with flash. Shutter speed does not affect exposure with flash, and a high speed will ensure that the light from the modeling light does not register in the photo.<br /><br />The arrangement on your flash for setting the level of flash output and the level of modeling light does not appear to be well designed. The modeling light normally has two settings -- one where it it at full brightness and one where it "tracks" the level of the flash output. For your purposes, I would simply set the modeling light at its brightest position regardless of your flash setting.<br /><br />"If I shoot the photos with both the ambient room light and the modeling light off (ambient light off to get a better picture and modeling light off to save the bulb), how do you meter the flash that will come out only after the shutter button has been pushed?"<br /><br />Don't do that. You wont' be able to see anything let alone compose or focus. Turn off the room lights but turn on the modeling lights. The bulbs last for years, so don't worry about that.<br /><br />As for metering the flash output, ideally you do that with a flash meter. If you don't have one, but are shooting digital try some test shots to determine the exposure. Start at the widest aperture your lens has (2 or 2.8 perhaps) and make a series of shots working your way down to the smallest aperture (probably 16 or 22). See which looks like the best on the camera LCD. Better yet copy the files to your computer and check on the monitor to see which you like best.</p>

[daniel_seo2]

<p>This was very helpful. Thank you so much for taking your time to answer. :)</p>