Jewelry shoot, 105mm? Softbox? dealing with reflections?

amalec

I want to shoot my sister's artwork. She is a silversmith and creates jewelry and pieces from rings to teapots. I have been reading this great forum and anything else I can find, but wanted to ask a few direct questions.

1) I need to purchase a macro lens for my D200. The leading candidate in the nikkor 105mm micro (older non-VR to save $, plus I'll be on a tripod). I want to be able to control my lighting from showing up in the shot so I'm afraid to go less that 105mm (like the 60mm) and I want to be able to stand back at about 6 feet so I don't show up in the reflected object. That's my theory, anyway. Is that true? The further back I am, the less l will appear in the refection of the shinny silver?

2) Before I buy the lens, can I see what this setup would look like in my 18-200mm set at ~105mm? Is it the same , just out of focus since it's not macro? This would be just to show me what distances, lights, and set-up I can expect.

3) I was going to use 1 large soft box a few feet directly above the art pointing down. Then use several white card reflectors to fill in the shadows. Along with various backdrops, Is there anything wrong with this approach? Can I get away with one large softbox and 5x7" reflector cards? I want more than the eBay light tent, since I want full control of everything, for better or worse. This is fine art, after all!

4) this is always an open ended question, but would I be better off with a different setup? My budget is <$1000 for lens and lighting. Right now I'm looking at the older Non-VR nikkor 105mm micro, 1 Alien bees AB-800, large softbox, and that graduated tripod slide (name?) to do focus stacking.

Thanks!
Andy

courierman

hi ya I did some jewelry shots with my Sigma 150 mm 2.8 and i was out the door in the street on some things over 5 inchse and had to use the kit lens

I used 3 75 w lamp and large plastic box (kids toy box) to sofen the light

I had the Lens so it was only £10 for the box

amalec

[Originator]
5) would a studio strobe (AB800 w/ softbox) be better than continuous light?

Thanks again,
Andy

Icebear

I have some questions here, as much for my own education as commentary on your plan. Why would you need a macro lens for this work? Couldn't a normal lens do just as well, given the sizes you mentioned? For the smaller pieces, given the 10MP image, you have a lot of cropping available.

I did an assignment for a jewelry designer a couple months ago, and did indeed use the Nikkor 105 VR macro lens for the earrings, but found it easier to use the 18-70 for bracelets and necklaces. In retrospect, I didn't need the (rented) 105 macro.

Of course, if you're looking for an excuse to buy the 105, go fer it!!

amalec

You bring up a good point about the larger pieces, but some of them are the size of a quarter. I wouldn't need more than 1:2 but I might.
I have a 18-200 VR and have this need to feel like a real photographer with a bag full of lenses. The problem is, the 18-200 VR is a jack-of-all trades, master of none. So on a tight budget, it's hard to justify lens purchases. But I can't get some of them to fill the fram before it blurs and gets into the macro area my lens doesn’t have. My 50mm normal won't cut it either.
I guess my concern is my 18-200 zoom won't be as sharp as the fixed focal 105mm micro. These photos are intended for magazines and to replace her slides. With this kind of art, the photo will be all most people see of the work, especially if it gets purchased….so the pressure is on! All her work before this has been shot on 35mm slide and some medium format studio work. So cropping a 10MP image doesn’t seam like a good idea when comparing it to a slide, I think I've hear slides have 40MP equivalent to digital.
So until I can afford the Hasselblad with the digital back, I wanted to keep the investment small and still get it thru my purchasing department (my wife). IF, big if, I get any good, I would like to specialize in this niche in a few years.
(mostly, I want the lens.)

Icebear

amalec wrote:

(mostly, I want the lens.)

You're busted:D
I was able to rent the VR 105 for $35.00 US for a weekend.

Dee

Although this site is trying to sell you their products, you can make a home made light tent rather easily. The rest of the information should prove useful to you.

http://www.tabletopstudio.com/documents/jewelry_photography.htm

I use white ripstop nylon bought at a local fabric store, and I drape the fabric over the legs of a card table, placed on it's side on my dining room table. The lights go on either side of the table. The underside of the card table gets a seamless sweep of paper or plastic taped to it. The entire set up folds down to nothing! The lights also collapse. If you have studio lights, so much the better.

Hope this information gives you some ideas!