My Jewelry

Macrosmith

Hello All, After lurking for a long, long time, I have decided to post a couple of my images in order to get any advice you all have to offer. I'm thinking of this thread as a Whipping Post thread for macro photography.

I am a metalsmith by profession, not a photographer. Most of my time must be dedicated to design, production, sales, service etc.. Marketing is also important but my inability to take quick, consistent, professional quality images of my work has caused me to miss out on many opportunities.

Since I am trying to show off my jewelry, I am more concerned about technique than composition. Lighting in particular has been my nemesis.

Shot with a D70 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED

enjoy

TonyCooper

The only problem that I see is that I see you in the pearls. This is a common problem with reflective objects shot in a soft box...you close off everything except the opening where you poke the camera in, and you get a reflection of the opening and the photographer or the lens.

I ran into the same problem photographing antique sterling silver flatware. You can either work with a soft box with a very small opening or take a piece of white foamboard and cut a lens-sized hole in it and cover the open end with it. You will still get a "black dot" reflection of the lens. I had to Photoshop that out.

If there's a problem with your lighting, I'm not sharp enough to see it. The composition of the top two could be improved, but the third image is superb. The brace for the ring is a bit awkward, but I have no suggestion to get around that.

The gradient effect in all is excellent. Is that smoked glass? Looks like some dust spots on it. At first I thought sensor dust, but the spots are in a different arrangement. If you have Photoshop or Elements, those can be taken out with the Healing Brush.

Lord Vetinari

I know nothing about this type of photography but the shots look very good to me -=esp like #3. Only critique as noted above- the dust spots on the background and the hot spots on the pearls.
You could reduce the intensity of the hot spots either by shooting against a lighter background or putting a bit more diffuser material between the light source and the subject (paper kitchen towel is pretty good for this). The only slightly similar shots I do, are done just with my normal diffused single flash with the subject on a curved paper background.
Brian V.