Jewelry Photography With My First DSLR

[AngryMetalsmith]

Over the course of my career I have dealt with many professional photographers who swore they could shoot jewelry. Most of them couldn't. The only one who blew my doors of was Robert Diamante, one of the top jewelry photographers in the country. But he's expensive and you have to book time with him and ship your work off. I only had four shots done by him and three of them were publised in either books or magazines, so money well spent.

This shot was by a local guy:




A Robert Diamante shot of my wedding rings:




Still needing to be able to document my work I tried to learn to shoot it myself with an old Canon AE-1 with a macro lens and light kit. However with the cost of tungsten balanced film and developing I just didn't get very far.

Shot with the Canon:




A few years ago, after belatedly entering the digital age, I picked up an Olympus point and shoot that had a macro feature, white balance, and RAW capabilities. It has served me well for shooting pics for the web. But it is limited and sucks at shooting anything other than what I bought it for.

Shot with the Olympus:







Kind of inconsistant but still better than the previous method.


About a week and half ago I picked up a Nikon D7000 and a used 60mm Macro lens and have been wearing the thing out. Since I hadn't done any serious photography in a couple of years I was a bit rusty. Pulled out the light set up and tripod and went to work. Shooting with a DSLR makes learning so much more accelerated. With all the meta data right there to look at I can make little adjustments to achieve the desired results. In just 8 days I went from turning the thing on to getting practice shots like this.




Also trying out different backgrounds for my oxidized silver work.

First one is on white unryu paper:




Second is with glass over the same paper.







With the D7000 and the same lights I have gotten way better results than all those other pro photographers. With digital the learning curve has been exponentially shortened.

The D7000 delivers, is easy to learn and down right addictive to shoot with.

[Mo(n)arch]

First off:
Congrats to your camera.

Second:
Your jewelry is some amazing piece of work.

[HardtailHack]

Did a Monkey give you that sweet pearl necklace?

I don't really understand jewellery but your pics look pretty good.

[AngryMetalsmith]

Thanks

I'm really enjoying the camera. January tends to be slow and this has gotten me fired up. I see lots of potential for growth in the technical studio shots as well as inspiration for new designs. Also planing on doing some shooting of other subject matter for fun. I've always wanted to take a decent shot of the moon.



If any photo monkeys want to throw in their two cents that would be cool.

[binary visions]

Nice jewelry, nice shots.

I think, for my taste (and my calibrated monitor so it could look different on your screen), you're underexposing just a tad. I copied that first gold ring you took with the D7000 into photoshop and pulled it up about a third to a half stop, and to my eyes it was much more pleasing.

Same with the earrings. Pulling those up 2/3 of a stop made them really pop.

+2/3


+1/3


Just MHO, of course!

[StiHacka]

What BV said. Does Diamante shoot with some soft focus filter or is it all PP?

[highrevs]

Were you making rings similar to these 12-13 years ago?

If so, I think you may have made the wedding rings my wife and I wear. The ones I have are are sterling silver with gold inlays and are pretty similar to those you posted. We bought them through a shop in Greensboro, who had them made by a local artist. My wife and I have talked about wanting to find the original artist to have new ones made... I'm going to trip out if you are the guy.



edit: I'll post a photo of our rings later this evening...

[vinny4130]

you have great work! i hope you find comfort that you are not the only one with that same problem! my parents hired many to photograph their jewelry and my mother reached the same conclusion. f-it do it yourself. your pics also look good!

[AngryMetalsmith]

Nice jewelry, nice shots.

I think, for my taste (and my calibrated monitor so it could look different on your screen), you're underexposing just a tad. I copied that first gold ring you took with the D7000 into photoshop and pulled it up about a third to a half stop, and to my eyes it was much more pleasing.

Same with the earrings. Pulling those up 2/3 of a stop made them really pop.

+2/3


+1/3


Just MHO, of course!

Thanks BV, you're right they do look better. What do you use for post production ? I'm diggin Lightroom and tethered shooting and have also tried Aperture. The "spot light" on the ring was done in Lightroom. I want some variation in the background, but my current light set up makes it tricky. A local pro told me about a focusing tungsten spot made by Lowell. I plan on upgrading my light set up when I can afford it. Looking at getting two soft boxes and a spot.

[AngryMetalsmith]

Were you making rings similar to these 12-13 years ago?

If so, I think you may have made the wedding rings my wife and I wear. The ones I have are are sterling silver with gold inlays and are pretty similar to those you posted. We bought them through a shop in Greensboro, who had them made by a local artist. My wife and I have talked about wanting to find the original artist to have new ones made... I'm going to trip out if you are the guy.



edit: I'll post a photo of our rings later this evening...

Small world. I used to sell to a gallery in GSO called Morning Star. Look forward to seeing if the rings are mine.

[highrevs]

Small world. I used to sell to a gallery in GSO called Morning Star. Look forward to seeing if the rings are mine.

Yep, that was the place.




They have some miles on them.

[bean]

Thanks BV, you're right they do look better. What do you use for post production ? I'm diggin Lightroom and tethered shooting and have also tried Aperture. The "spot light" on the ring was done in Lightroom. I want some variation in the background, but my current light set up makes it tricky. A local pro told me about a focusing tungsten spot made by Lowell. I plan on upgrading my light set up when I can afford it. Looking at getting two soft boxes and a spot.

I use Lightroom pretty much exclusively. I suppose it's possible to do more in photoshop, but Lightroom is so streamlined photoshop doesn't seem like it's worth extra effort.

I can't believe that local guy left so much dust in his photo. You're easily surpassing his work.

[binary visions]

Thanks BV, you're right they do look better. What do you use for post production ? I'm diggin Lightroom and tethered shooting and have also tried Aperture. The "spot light" on the ring was done in Lightroom. I want some variation in the background, but my current light set up makes it tricky. A local pro told me about a focusing tungsten spot made by Lowell. I plan on upgrading my light set up when I can afford it. Looking at getting two soft boxes and a spot.

I use Photoshop. It's what I've used for years and I'm just comfortable with the workflow out of it. I've given Lightroom a try once or twice but didn't end up using it long enough to get comfortable and I don't want to buy it unless I'm happy with the workflow out of it.

Also, you're going the right route. If you can get the lighting right prior to exposure, it saves a lot of time and messing with lighting/exposure in post never gives you the best results.

Yep, that was the place.

They have some miles on them.

This right here... this is nuts. What are the odds?

[highrevs]

This right here... this is nuts. What are the odds?

Man, I know. My wife tripped out when I told her I may have found the person that made our rings.

[AngryMetalsmith]

Yep, that was the place.




They have some miles on them.

Yup, those are mine.

Send me PM if you want my contact info.