Am I getting close?

bgarland

Product shooting. I have been asked to shoot some jewelry so I built this light tent and experimented a bit with some of my household glass art pieces.

Am I getting close to the correct approach? I'm looking for serious advise and critique here so don't hold back. :scratch

I already want to add another strobe from the top.









Thanks.

Chris Geiger

I think the results look great! One thing I would watch is the different colors of light coming from the flash and the hot lights. It would be better to use matching lights in all positions. You may want to experiment with adding gels to the strobe(s) to match the hot lights.

bgarland

Thanks Chris, I appreciate the input. I tried to get the light color close. The hot lights are florescent "day light" type bulbs that are rated at 6500 Kelvin.

I was just guessing though. I need to get more education on what the temp is on my strobes.

Brad

pathfinder

How about using a color balance tool in your workflow - whether an Expodisk or a neutral reflector for a jpg for a custom white balance?

Google color balance tools and pathfinder and my thread on color balance toolls for shooting, or editing should pop up.

bgarland

pathfinder wrote: »

How about using a color balance tool in your workflow - whether an Expodisk or a neutral reflector for a jpg for a custom white balance? Google color balance tools and pathfinder and my thread on color balance tools for shooting, or editing should pop up.

Will do. Thanks for the tip.

Don Kondra

Alzo Digital sells 5500k CF lights, that will more closely match your flash.

Or eliminate the flash altogether and use all the same type bulbs...

Another option would be to use a globe...

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=197698

Cheers, Don

Sam

OK here are my thoughts in random order.

I like your light tent.

I really recommend you use lights with the same temp. Critical with jewelry, art glass etc.

Light tents produce a soft light which tends to soften detail. You may want to think about adding some small direct light to give the jewelry / glass detail and sparkle. I want to see the facets in the gem and other small detail.

High end jewelry photographers can take hours to set up one shot. Carefully observing highlights / shadows and then setting up small reflectors and flags as needed.

Sam

bgarland

Don Kondra wrote: »

Alzo Digital sells 5500k CF lights, that will more closely match your flash.

Or eliminate the flash altogether and use all the same type bulbs...

Another option would be to use a globe...

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=197698

Cheers, Don

Thanks Don, I appreciate your suggestions.

bgarland

Sam wrote: »

OK here are my thoughts in random order.

I like your light tent.

I really recommend you use lights with the same temp. Critical with jewelry, art glass etc.

Light tents produce a soft light which tends to soften detail. You may want to think about adding some small direct light to give the jewelry / glass detail and sparkle. I want to see the facets in the gem and other small detail.

High end jewelry photographers can take hours to set up one shot. Carefully observing highlights / shadows and then setting up small reflectors and flags as needed.

Sam

Gracias Sam, I agree, I expect I will be trying several different lighting options to get the right effects once I get the pieces I will be working with.

I appreciate your comments.

bgarland

OK, I had the opportunity to test out my light tent on a Jewelry product shoot. The client loved them but I wanted some feedback from the real pros here.

Any suggestions for improvement?


1.


2.


3.



4.

Icebear

They all look good to me as representations of the pieces. I particularly like the black BGs. Those shots are much more artistic than the first two. One thing we cannot judge though is how faithfully you captured the color. I'm assuming you're satisfied with that.

bgarland

Icebear wrote: »

They all look good to me as representations of the pieces. I particularly like the black BGs. Those shots are much more artistic than the first two. One thing we cannot judge though is how faithfully you captured the color. I'm assuming you're satisfied with that.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes I believe it worked out well. I did have to play with the WB a bit but I did that while holding the piece in my hand and comparing until I had a good match to reality. They reflect fairly accurately the colors of each piece.

The client wanted the art paper background on the other backgrounds. For the black I tried shooting on quality black velvet but even with a good cleaning dust was still visible. I decided to mask off the piece and layer in the pure black background. No dust going that route.

Sam

On my monitor they all look a little underexposed and could use some additional processing.

Here is an example.

Sam

bgarland

Sam wrote: »

On my monitor they all look a little underexposed and could use some additional processing.

Here is an example.

Sam

Thank you Sam.

To me on my monitor the silver almost looks blown out but the stone looks a whole lot better. Much more sharp and intense.

What tweaks did you apply?

I based my original capture and PP on staying just below any blinkies of the blown out areas. How did you approach the PP?

I really do like your improvement and I would like to understand your approach.

Sam

Brad,

Basically RAW has a little more overhead than a jpg so DEPENDING on the scene and / or subject I will routinely adjust the capture exposure untill there are some blinkies on the camera LCD.

The image you posted appeared to be underexposed and flat so I used curves to adjust the brightest and darkest points in the image. Increased mid tone darkness. Increased contrast and added some sharpening.

As to the silver, this could be proceeded selectively if you wanted to go through the effort.

Also this was a quick fix to a small jpg.

Sam

bgarland

Thanks Sam I appreciate you sharing your approach.

I'll spend some time getting more experience with the curves adjustments. There's no question your rendering has more clarity and punch. Thanks for poking the student in the right direction.