Photography - How to make your product look the best.

[bustagasket]

yeah i been trying to find my old tripod that i had for the camcorder but its elluding me atm so i might just get another. and yeah i had nitoced its tricky lol

[EmmaRose]

Good advice - especially regarding the tripod and non use of flash, but I'd have to disagree about macro mode. I wouldn't say never use it, but I would say it might not give the best results on all cameras. For example, on my DSLR I use the Aperture Priority setting at ISO 100 and I'll adjust the aperture for the kind of photo I am taking, and exposure for the background I'm using. This gives me much better results than macro mode would on my camera, although I do use a good macro lens. I also use manual focus whenever possible to get the picture just as I want it. The best thing anyone can do is play around with the settings on their particular camera till they get what they like out of it.

Also with lighting, its often best to make sure you diffuse your light source in some way. I use a light tent which can be home made or bought quite cheaply, especially somewhere like eBay. Or there are other methods such as placing a difuser over the light source itself.

Good lighting with a not great camera will give you better results that a great camera and not so great llighting, so getting that bit right is especially important IMO!

often macro modes set a low depth of field (amount in focus in front and behind of point of focus) which is why they don't work as well (they are assuming you don't have a tripod and can't hand hold a longer exposure) as d.o.f. is crucial!
Em

[Boo]

Jewellery photography is not simple by any means! Shiny and reflective things are a bugger to capture nicely, took me forever to be anywhere near satisfied with any of my photos.

I've just written a blog that might have some tips people can use - with some rather inadequate photos that ideally need re-doing when I have chance - on photographing reflective surfaces - with a quick and dirty trick that works a treat for getting better reflective surfaces.

I can't post the URL as I'm new, but it's my most recent blog and the blog site should be in my sig.

[agent_44]

Wow fab resource! Thanks, that'll keep me busy for a few hours!!

[Di Sandland]

I've just written a blog that might have some tips people can use - with some rather inadequate photos that ideally need re-doing when I have chance - on photographing reflective surfaces - with a quick and dirty trick that works a treat for getting better reflective surfaces.

I can't post the URL as I'm new, but it's my most recent blog and the blog site should be in my sig.

Neat site, Boo. I've bookmarked it for later.

[Yulian]

Well done!

[Cathy at the Beach]

First off- I know nothing about photography. I really suck at it. But I have listened to a few people who seemed to know what they were talking about and here is what I do now:

I use a tripod
I use a black background
I use a light tent made out of white nylon with two lights on either side
I use my macro setting- no flash
I have a panosonic Lumix DMC -ZR1
I bought the above camera about 5 months ago and choose it because it had the best macro lens of all that I looked at.
I have photoshop elements and I don't know how to use it. all I know is how to use "levels" which I do religiously

I know my pics could be a lot better but they have improved immensely since I have followed the above procedure.

[ShinyLauren]

I am by no means an expert on photography - I don't know what any of the f-stops etc mean on my manual settings, I just fiddle with the numbers and take about 50 shots of each piece until I find one I like!

But, my photography has got better since I built a little lightbox, use spotlights with daylight bulbs and a tripod. Also, using the 2 second delay timer button on my camera eliminates any camera shake which could be produced when you press the shutter button.

I use a fuju finepix 5700 (I think that's what it's called anyway...) but am looking to upgrade to a Canon SX20, having done a ton of research and asked pro photographer friends. I don't know enough to get an SLR!

Also, I have recently discovered Adobe Lightroom to retouch pictures, which is the bestest thing ever! I managed to turn the centre stone in a charm I made (attempting to attach pictures) all different colours for different birthstones without having to make and photograph each one separately. Brilliant!

[jhpe07]

I saw a really great and cheap idea some time ago online, get a big plastic basin (see-through type) cut a hole in the front, crumple tin foil and then flatten back out, attach this inside te bowl on one side, on the other get some tracing paper and place this on the oposite side, place a bright light on the side that has the tracing paper, this will defuse the light, but will reflect back of the foil, then set the white balance, get the camera into macro mode, and shot through the hole in the basin.

James
personalised-jewellery.co.uk

[SJEgan]

Ooooh just found this thread! Completely what I needed ebay never occurs to me! Going to get a light tent and see if I can get better pics! Kinda embarrassed of the ones I have at the moment!