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KJW Seraph

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This site looks like a good place to learn how to get the best out of my Canon EOS 70D:

I need some help on taking indoor macro pictures of the agates, crystals, and gems with crystal clear clarity; I love sharing my photos (When I take good ones). In about 6 months from now I want to get a small jewelry business going I want my customers to see exactly what they are buying. One of my pet peeves about a site that I shop on is something I'm interested in has blurry photos when I try to get a close up view of the item.

Here is a picture of a Lake Superior agate that I took the other day in the afternoon sun with a Canon zoom lens EF-70-300mm 1:4-5.6 IS USM. I am looking forward to hear what you all have to say about what I need to improve upon

:1219:
 

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Hello and welcome to the forum! I could be completely wrong because I have seen long range lenses for portrait, but how about trying a 35mm or 50 mm prime so that you do not have to take the photo from waaay over there? Just a thought. Awesome photo =]

Edit* What Soocom1 said below... explained well.
 
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When I was ordering a camera from Canon the customer service representative said that this lens " would be great for close-up shots and me not knowing much about cameras thought that I could follow his advice....wrong. Oh well I live just up the street from the Mississippi and there are some eagles that nest very close to this place where I go agate hunting. I was thinking of having my friend who fishes there come down with and feed the eagles what he catches. It would be wonderful to get a multiple shots of the eagle as he comes in to get the fish :cool-48:
 
HOLD THE PHONE!!!


Telephotos and macros have similar mechanics.
The 70-300 you have is an entry level lens and is in fact quite capable (I have one myself) of doing exactly what they said.
But you have to alter your thinking on it.
Ergo: you can shoot near-like macro from a distance which gives some advantages and disadvantages.

Secondly, if your mounted to a tripod, turn off the IS. If hand held, get a tripod.

Third, the image is quite sharp for product, but you need lighting.

The advice of using a straight 35mm or 100 in the macro range is only part of the story.
Many small product photographers will use a telephoto because of the narrow angle of view. (The area that surrounds the object.) A 35mm will open that up to a very wide area, whereas a 100mm Macro will put you to a narrow point.

Another way of saying this is that with the 35mm you gets lots of background, where the 100mm ill give you lots of product. Or, with a 35mm you get the whole car, where the 100mm you get the door handle and a bit of window frame.

For the 70D your working with an APS sensor so getting the 35mm Macro with the ring light or the 60mm Macro will do you loads of good. I Have a 70D myself and use it regularly.

If you get a 90 or 100 mm macro it will narrow the angle of view down considerably if you shooting jewelry.
Your just going to have the camera a bit further back rather than so close that you nearly touch it.

But all that is negated unless you have superior lighting and understand the harsh-soft aspect of light, the effects of a ring light, and reflective/refractive light.
 
Hi welcome
Ring light or bunny ear lights
The latter are better IMO as they can be moved around
Think about a light tent and extension tubes
When you do your shoot of crystals think mug shot eg left right centre
If you can light the crystal so light reflects and colours and sparklesThink about back grounds
tilt The object or shoot from over head to avoid that joint line from flat to vertical
Maybe hang from fine fishing line so the object/crystal is floating in space
I looked at the pic, I collected or did collect crystals stones etc
The pic has to scream buy me/you want me whatever the cost
Hope this helps
 
A tri pic, not good images but will give you an idea of how to show
 

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Now I wanted to chime in one more time to show you what is capable.

This is a quick fast cheap and dirty shot not meant to win awards. Only to open discussion.

With this setup:

JUMfMDb.jpg



i took this:

QUkqwCZ.jpg
 
Hi welcome
Ring light or bunny ear lights
The latter are better IMO as they can be moved around
Think about a light tent and extension tubes
When you do your shoot of crystals think mug shot eg left right centre
If you can light the crystal so light reflects and colours and sparklesThink about back grounds
tilt The object or shoot from over head to avoid that joint line from flat to vertical
Maybe hang from fine fishing line so the object/crystal is floating in space
I looked at the pic, I collected or did collect crystals stones etc
The pic has to scream buy me/you want me whatever the cost
Hope this helps


Thank you, Original Katomi :cheerful:
Your information and your pictures gave me a couple of ideas as to how I'm going to take my next photos! I will try and have them posted by late morning :boogie:
 
Thank you Soocom1 :cool-48: for all your insight look for my new pictures tomorrow
 
One of my pet peeves about a site that I shop on is something I'm interested in has blurry photos when I try to get a close up view of the item.
Macro photography requires a different approach. Knowing that getting close to your subject means dealing with a very shallow depth of field, you might need to learn about "focus stacking". I don't do that myself, but some others on here might be able to help you. I've done a search on that keyword for you:

Search Results for Query: focus stacking | ThePhotoForum: Film & Digital Photography Forum

Also here:

Beginner's Guide to Focus Stacking for Macro Photography

Also, of course, study up on how other photographers pose and light their jewelry and gems.
 

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