Your compact camera can't do jewellery photography

Well, that seems inflammatory enough...

I'm reading a new book on craft photography at the moment that claims that DSLR and (film) SLR are the only ways to do amateur studio photography in this area and that compact cameras are unsuitable because they can't set aperture and shutter speed. It's a pity, the rest of the book content is pretty good.

So what I'd like to know is - does anyone have a compact where you really can't set the aperture & shutter speed? I know it can be done with my OH's compact, I've asked around colleagues and theirs can too, so where's the cutoff on cost where this functionality drops out?

Peter, I think cameras on phones are a bit limited, but every digital camera I own has the option of manual adjustment. I am a camera nut so have lots of them in my collection, in film cameras I have 35mm. Minox, Olympus and Nikon, in 120 medium format film size a couple of Mamiyas a C330 and an RB67, in digital I have four Lumix models and one Nikon DSLR with enough Nikon lenses to stock a shop. Add to this a couple of tripods, a monopod, and a set of studio flash lighting complete with backdrops equipment. My latest Lumix is an FZ45 and it is great for jewellery photos, the photo shows a ring photographed with the Lumix FZ45, camera set on taken on Autofocus with the lens set for close ups and, only £220 from Amazon at the moment if anyone is interested, it's a good camera complete with a Leica lens.
James

Attachment 3396

Upto last November, I used my Sony Cybershot. The only way I could influence the exposure and aperture was to change the Exposure Value, or alter the ISO number. The result was I cold not achieve a white background (it was always blue or green, according to what light was specified). Also I could only marginally influence the aperture and so the depth of focus by changing the ISO.

All this was easily resolved when I changed to a Canon EOS1100D. Dennis.

If money is no object then you cannot beat the quality of a good DSLR with a good lens. I did some comparison photos for a friend who was considering buying a Lumix FZ. You may be interested in seeing the results, I set up one of my flowers and took these photos with the same natural lighting. Yes I can see a difference in the quality of the two photos and I prefer the Nikon DSLR photo, but when you compare the equipment costs the Nikon D90 camera and 60mm Macro lens cost me circa £900 and the Lumix circa £220.
What do you think?
James

Attachment 3397Attachment 3398

I switched to a DSLR (Canon 550d) fairly recently, before that I took all my pictures with a little Fuji Finepix. Aperture, and shutter speed could be controlled on the Fuji, but I prefer the results with the Canon, although obviously it was a lot more expensive.

Pictures taken with the little Fuji:

Attachment 3404Attachment 3405

And pictures taken with the Canon SLR:

Attachment 3406Attachment 3407

So yeah, I think saying you can't take pictures with a compact is nonsense, so long as the compact has some ability to manually control settings.

the husband is a photographer and is horrified because I use the camera on P. I figure if he doesn't like the results he should do it for me.

I do a lot of photography too, and use a Canon 5D for almost everything, but I often nick my husband's Canon G9 for macro work as I prefer the results! Although if I could afford the macro lens I really want for the 5D, I'd never use anything else! I'm just set up for portrait and landscape work on my big camera rather than "product photography"...


Melanie

http://www.spinysharklythings.com

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ShinyLauren

So yeah, I think saying you can't take pictures with a compact is nonsense, so long as the compact has some ability to manually control settings.

---

Seems to be mostly a consensus on that - although I note one person has voted for a compact with no manual mode, I'd really like to hear their input too if possible?

I use a Nikon D5000 - I decided I would rather buy lenses than worry about the quickly-obsolete camera body; my standard (no pun intended) lens for jewellery is now a 105mm macro although I have a couple of others too.

BTW Lauren - what are you using for a background on yours? I can't work out which is background and which is post-process.

Currently using an Olympus XZ 1, but as I get regular hand-me-downs from my partner who seems to buy cameras quite frequently no doubt that will change quite soon to a Fuji X10 as it is suffering from "orbs" whatever they are and so he is getting a new one.

I find for my purposes, product shots, the Olympus is very good and on the odd occasion I have the problem Dennis mentioned of not getting a true white background that is easily fixed in Photoshop with auto colour correction.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ps_bond

Seems to be mostly a consensus on that - although I note one person has voted for a compact with no manual mode, I'd really like to hear their input too if possible?

I use a Nikon D5000 - I decided I would rather buy lenses than worry about the quickly-obsolete camera body; my standard (no pun intended) lens for jewellery is now a 105mm macro although I have a couple of others too.

BTW Lauren - what are you using for a background on yours? I can't work out which is background and which is post-process.

---

Oooh, I'm getting a Canon 100mm macro soon - exciting! Just using standard kit lens that came with camera at the moment.

Everything is background, nothing is post-process except for the standard sharpening and dust speck removal. It's glossy photo paper that I printed with sort of coloured gradients and circles if that makes any sense? It's looking a bit battered now though - been using it for years!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ShinyLauren

Oooh, I'm getting a Canon 100mm macro soon - exciting! Just using standard kit lens that came with camera at the moment.

---

It's quite nice being able to get quite so close, but you do see every little scratch that's invisible to the naked eye.

Quote:

---

Everything is background, nothing is post-process except for the standard sharpening and dust speck removal. It's glossy photo paper that I printed with sort of coloured gradients and circles if that makes any sense? It's looking a bit battered now though - been using it for years!

---

Ah, that explains it - it's very effective; I'd wondered because of the combination of gradients & reflectiveness if you'd put the colour in afterwards.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ps_bond

Seems to be mostly a consensus on that - although I note one person has voted for a compact with no manual mode, I'd really like to hear their input too if possible?

---

that's me :)

basically I find digital cameras too confusing and technical but getting colour film printed and then scanned is a drag, so I use to use my old canon G6 on auto plus the macro attachment. I then tweak the colour balance in iPhoto if necessary. I think you've seen the pics on my website and I don't think they are too awful.

we now have a samsung digital but that is way to complicated. I can't even turn the damn thing on!

A good and relatively cheap option is the Canon G12 compact.

I've got both a Canon 550d and a G12 and they both take excellent images. However the macro mode on the compact is superb and if you shoot in RAW format then you can tweak the exposure / white balance and everything else until the cows come home.

Nick

Just got my paws on a Nikon D3100 but have only been playing taking pictures of the cat so far lol. Was v tempted by the D5100 but it was 150 more and thought this would prob suffice in case we get mugged in Barca ..............again. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

To add to this, I've got a Fuji Finepix 9600, which has a macro setting and aperture/shutter settings. I can't get really sharp jewellery pictures using it, so bought some closeup lens filters, but they don't seem to make much difference.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Petal

To add to this, I've got a Fuji Finepix 9600, which has a macro setting and aperture/shutter settings. I can't get really sharp jewellery pictures using it, so bought some closeup lens filters, but they don't seem to make much difference.

---

Have you tried using a tripod, setting the camera to A and then setting it's aperture to the highest number available F8 or higher and then setting the focus mode to the central area only as most auto cameras take an average focus reading rather than a definate central area. The usual cause of slightly un sharp photos is through camera shake, which is why using a tripod is a good method to cure camera shake.

James

Hi James, Yes, I'm using a tripod, setting the white balance etc etc, plus we have a light tent and two lights, which we usually put either side of it so there is no shadow. F8 is the highest setting it will go to.

Sounds like you are doing the right thing, my Lumix FZ45 will go no higher than F8 also. But my Nikon will go to F32. You may like to try some experiments by taking the same subject from different distances and using the zoom to keep the image size the same. When you use a zoom at slight telephoto, it compresses the focal distance and can make close ups look sharper.

I took this photo with my FZ45 set on F8, standing about 4 feet away from the flower and using the zoom to frame the picture I wanted, without a tripod and the depth of focus is quite good.

James

Attachment 4893

Jules, have you tried using the 2 second countdown timer to take the picture, rather than pressing the shutter release button on the camera? When doing macro, even the tiniest shake from pressing the button can result in less sharp pictures.

Many thanks for the suggestions James and Lauren. I'll give both of those a go and let you know how I get on.

xxx

Its not just the shutter release, but light cubes are quite unstable and will go on vibrating slightly for ages after placing your piece inside. The biggest offenders are pendant earrings. Dennis.

Hey buddy, you should to try using glidecam or some kind of stabilizers for prevent shaking in the frame which in turn will contribute to a better focus and it will greatly improve the quality of video, you can find more about gimbals by yourself. But I assure you it can solve a lot of problems.

Nobody mentioned video. Nobody mentioned tinned meat either, which I expect you'll grace us with in due course.
(My mistake - found it. No, trying to hide links in plain sight doesn't work either).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ps_bond

Nobody mentioned video. Nobody mentioned tinned meat either, which I expect you'll grace us with in due course.
(My mistake - found it. No, trying to hide links in plain sight doesn't work either).

---

Last nights one was really busy just taking out large chunks of our posts and reposting them

I confess I rarely read all of the spammers posts - there's a pattern they follow and thereafter I only need one confirmation.