Looking to improve, so pointing out good or bad is equally useful. C&C greatly appreciated, and don't spare my feelings! Much harder to learn without good feedback, right?
Never done product photography before, and didn't even have time to look through ads and stuff to get educated on customary composition and look for this kind of thing. I ended up with 74 reasonable "keepers" out of a two-hour shoot, and of course I found that I learned as I went along, so the last ones are better than the first ones. Some clear lessons for me:
1. Get lots and lots of light, then use the falloff to create darker backgrounds. Black velvet is not black enough.
2. Skin is good, but jewelry requires that you get in close. Attention to makeup, hair control (even the fine hairs on the face and hands), eyelashes, and such, is far more important because you have to get much closer.
3. The "lots of light" in #1 also allows larger apertures. f/8 seems to be the minimum for shooting stuff that's on a person from 2 feet away or so... my first captures at f/5.6 were DOF-challeged.
I'll post some shots directly on this thread to make C&C easier, but the whole series is here if you want to look through it:
Gear is a Nikon D300 with 105 f/2.8 VR micro lens. Pop-up flash on the camera used for fill and to drive an SB-800 positioned camera left at 45-degrees to subject. SB-800 fired backwards into a silver umbrella to diffuse the light source.
First few shots show my attempts to get a face (or more skin) and a set of jewelry into the picture. Larger apertures (f/5.6 or so) and slower shutter speeds are not ideal...
Then, I start getting in closer to the products, doing less context and more detail, or at least being more careful to include only context that is pretty relevant (like a neckline to show the size of a pendant). I also start adding more light, and and up with with 1/200 f/8 iso200 as a comfortable exposure (SB-800 at 1/4 power, onboard flash at -1 EV):
Oh yeah... Lesson #4 was to have someone meticulously clean and polish every item before shooting it. The photos bring out details (and marks, and scratches, and grease, and fingerprints...) that are hard to see or notice with the naked eye. Witness the thread stuck to this last ring as an example. Arrrgh.
I'm sure there are a thousand things I still need to improve to get really great shots of this kind of product. Any hints, tips, critiques, and opinions welcome.
Professional product photography is very demanding. A few general suggestions:
1. Get closer. If you want a ring and an earring in the same shot, have your model touch her ear, or near it.
2. Use a small aperture to keep the items as sharp as possible. Shallow depth of field is your enemy. (A lens that allows tilt is sometimes very useful to control the plane of sharpest focus.)
3. Subject prep is important, but lighting control is 90%. You need to control the quality as well as the quality and direction of the light.
4. Clean-up the images in PS as necessary. Remove all blemishes.
Short answer: purpose is commercial, but in the short term I can afford to say that the purpose of these particular shots is to learn how to do product photography better.
Longer answer:
My wife has a small jewelry business, where she sells either single/unusual items she selected at major shows, or pieces she designed herself. Her customers are buying based on her recommendations and their confidence in her good taste. Her inventory ranges from $200 pieces to $12,000 pieces. So far she's done it all by word-of-mouth references/marketing and face-to-face showing of the pieces, but she's starting to get requests from friends in other countries to see some of the new stuff she buys or makes.
So, she's asked me to be her product photographer; and since I know my way around a camera but I don't know product photography, this was my first shoot for her as a client. The primary reason why I only whittled down the shoot from 105 exposures to 74 selections is that I'm aware that I have a lot to learn in this niche, but people will have a hard time helping me if I don't show them where I am today.
If you only need to satisfy your wife, her opinion is what matters.
If you want to use the images for something like ebay sales, they may be good enough. I only did enough jewelry product photography long ago to discover I had much to learn about how to properly light jewelry. With a full studio flash set-up and a view camera, I made technically good sharp images using the full range of camera rise, swing and tilt, etc., but lighting to make jewels sparkle was a trick I never properly mastered. When diamonds look no better than glass, it's not good enough. If, for example, you wish to reach a good professional standard for advertising or catalog jewelry photography, I believe you must do better. Like many fields of specialization, it takes effort and practice to achieve a mastery.
OK, so the impression that I'm getting is that they're a good first attempt. That's fine, and that's how I see it as well. I don't mind having to improve a lot... hell, figuring it out, reading about it, trying it, and eventually getting it right is what makes the final result worthwhile, right?
Now I just have to figure out how. But I have some ideas on how to make my next set better already, and we'll just go from there.
To be honest, I don't think having the jewelry on a person is very flattering to either the person or the jewelry for the macro shots. You start seeing fine hairs and skin creases that detract away from the subject.
It might be cliche, but you may want to just photograph on solid colors (white/black box, tablecloth, etc) and use strong directional lighting to bring out the fire in the jewelry.
I love the third shot on the hand though. It's very classic.
I keep wondering about the pros/cons of jewelry being worn versus jewelry being displayed. I'd bought some black velvet to use, but my wife said women prefer to see the pieces being worn, so that's what we did for the first try. I will also try putting them onto the velvet next time, to see whether I can make them look better that way.
My reaction is that the background you have is very distracting in 1,2,4 4 is best of 3 but brown chair is not good.. You have lots of shadows. You need better lighting.
I think there should not be competition between the model and the jewerly. The jewerly should dominate the picture. Too much hair showing on model which is distracting. If you were doing this professionally you would likely get a model with plucked hairs (ouch a hand models life is not easy).
I suggest getting a lightbox and for the close up on hands - all black background is good. Some of pictures close up looks overexposed without much detail in the jewerly. Soft light (light through screen with a reflector would help).
Hi Rodolfo
My feedback is both from a jeweler and an amateur eye. The shots should be more close up.
And one thing which is very important in jewelry shots is the complexion of the model and the metal color. Seems like the darker the complexion the more the jewelry pops. Just my two sense.
Raffi
@ Scott: Yes, the shadows were annoying me no end. Unfortunately, one of my flashes had died and I was limited to one light plus the onboard flash for fill. My new SB-900 will be here on Monday or Tuesday, and I'll take another swipe at some sets of jewelry. This second session will be on cloth not skin and we'll see what I can come up with.
@ Integrades: I'll try darker skin this the next time I have a chance, and in my next attempt I'll get closer as well.
I'll toss in my 2 ¢ s as a naive observer: I much prefer the close-ups and think you did a great job on the focus...of the set, I prefer the first 2 shots: hand-ring. This set makes me appreciate how difficult the subject matter can be. Great job, looking forward to the next set.
This is a simple setup. Most using 2 speedilites and softboxes for main/fill and one speedlite snooted (sometimes gelled with 1/4 cto), some with a light tent and cheapo EBay monobloc. Latest shots using a starlight filter. I'm over that period now .... http://www.flickr.com/photos/29956235@N03/sets/72157607133564366/
Black perspex riser on top of black velvet BG and a couple on white.
These are all auction images, I only have about a minute to put together about 10 images and on to the next item. It's a very dusty enviroment so I keep the DOF tight. Still that was all I could keep banging away with quickly with the small strobes (usually around f8 - f10 depending on batteries).
I've just got a set of Elin' Dlite200 so I'm looking forward to f16-24. I could do with a bit more fill/light across the top/back of the items but I'm trying to hide dust and scratched perspex.
Not the greatest jewellery shots out there but quick + simple with a lot of room for improvement ...
Thanks, Gaz. I appreciate the comments, and I'd like to see that setup shot if you have it even though I think I understand your descriptions pretty clearly. Don't know how I missed your post, sorry about the delay in responding.
I conveniently assume without knowing, that when the lights are positioned well away from the plane of the lens, the result draws more attention to texture if it's present. I also assume that having a healthy amount of black for reflected environment is both elegant and complementary to the refracting and reflecting effects of jewelry.
I know that food photography often does well with back or side lighting. I also know that shooting felt/flannel fabric and getting any kind of texture requires side lighting that pulls the texture out.
Where there's black to refract and reflect against the jewels and metal, they seem to have more depth. The lights produce the white.
This thread has just given me something to waste time experimenting with.
Yes, because I started thinking in portrait mode (person wearing jewelry), I was using the main and fill lights at about 45 degrees. Next time, I'll try more side lighting and closer macro, and also a little bit of snooted backlight to put some sparkle into the diamonds. I also need to find some better backgrounds for the individual jewelry pieces.
I also use the speed straps (no sticky crap left on your flash and you can move/remove to suit), the speed gobos, the 5" snoot and the roscoe gel kits. The unmodified, 'snooted' strobe is quite a bit cooler (bluer) than the other boxed/tented strobes so I like the look of a 1/4 CTO over the flash. I leave a bit of an air pocket over the fresnel as there is no ventilation with a snoot attached, it get's a bit hot here in Stralya (Australia) over summer so no cooked strobes for me.
If I wasn't trying to hide dust/crap/etc and using a light tent. I would add a bit of rim/backlight to 'find' the edges, I'd probbaly use a couple of mirrors otherwise it's side lighting, lights opposite one another. Fill higher and pointing down. I flag the edges of the softboxes nearest the BG on the outside of the tent, I hide behind black material if I'm reflected in the item.
I fire the snooted strobe into the jewell at just below the main light's power, fairly straight on for bling. Up high to show hallmarks all with an eye on where the snooted strobe is reflecting in any surfaces, I try to keep those nice black areas in the ring/bangle band clear of any 'spot lights'. Then the rest is all about fiddling .....
I hope my solution helps, set up pics soon.
If I I was using a model, then I'd go for more backlight/side lighting rather than traditional portrait lighting for starters.
But I have some ideas on how to make my next set better already, and we'll just go from there.