Jewelry Product Photo with pure white background

[JoolsW]

I wonder if it can 'do' more accurate ellipses. It's rather wonky as it is.

 

[JBPhotog]

Thank you again for the responses. I am already using a Lightbox for this shoot. I've been experimenting with the focus stacking and that seems to be the trick. I haven't tried flooding the entire box with light and creating shadows though. Seems like an interesting idea to make the entire background more ultra white right off the bat. It is a lot more work but I can get the entire ring to be in focus now with the focus stack. However I'm still having some issues in post to make the background ultra white without the ring looking out of place.

Using your desired sample as the reference you are trying to achieve, note the shadow under the ring, you won't get this if you use a light box. Returning to my previous post, stand the ring up on a white background, light it from above slightly biased towards the back, you'll see the shadow and the jewels will pop, angle of incidence is in play. Expose for the ring then in post use the select subject option and with a curves adjustment you can apply your mask and move the white point to your desired 255 level. Using a soft round brush at 10-20% brush back in the shadow. If this technique isn't familiar to you, you just may need to view some YT vids to understand the concept.

Your current method with the face of the ring towards the camera is leaving small black holes in every reflective surface of the ring which are clearly visible, standing the ring up will eliminate this. Additionally any tent black reflections can be handled in post.

 

[Evonam]

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I've been trying to also do this, but I can't seem to get the entire band of the ring to be perfect. It seems that the mask is always just a bit off and the ring doesn't have round edges and bumpy at spots. I will try to do it with the focus stack later and show you what I mean. Maybe I need some help with PS as well. Thanks again!

 

[Evonam]

Sounds like you're using a softbox - I suggest you try a light box instead. It need not be very big for youe small subjects. There are other brands, but I only have experience with Porta Trace:

porta Trace light boxes - Google Search

I actually have one of these lying around. I will also give this a shot and see what it looks like.

 

[Evonam]

Using your desired sample as the reference you are trying to achieve, note the shadow under the ring, you won't get this if you use a light box. Returning to my previous post, stand the ring up on a white background, light it from above slightly biased towards the back, you'll see the shadow and the jewels will pop, angle of incidence is in play. Expose for the ring then in post use the select subject option and with a curves adjustment you can apply your mask and move the white point to your desired 255 level. Using a soft round brush at 10-20% brush back in the shadow. If this technique isn't familiar to you, you just may need to view some YT vids to understand the concept.

Your current method with the face of the ring towards the camera is leaving small black holes in every reflective surface of the ring which are clearly visible, standing the ring up will eliminate this. Additionally any tent black reflections can be handled in post.

Thank you for this. I will give this a shot. Are you saying that the only light source you need is the one from the top? From what I understand, what you're saying is have the flash on top of the piece and angle it back towards the front to create that shadow?

 

[JBPhotog]

Thank you for this. I will give this a shot. Are you saying that the only light source you need is the one from the top? From what I understand, what you're saying is have the flash on top of the piece and angle it back towards the front to create that shadow?

It is a large diffused light source, think soft box or scrim rather than a strobe reflector, surrounded by white panels to create a tent of sorts. This puts ;right around the ring and illuminates the white reflective panels. Shiny objects ONLY reflect what they see and in the case of the sample you wish to duplicate, look closely at the entire rings surface and you can see the ring is surrounded by white, with the exception of the opening to place the camera. You can build a set of white panels or a translucent cone around the ring to illuminate its reflective surface.

The jewel is in a mount that has an opening on the bottom, all transparent gem stone rings are mounted this way in order for light to transmit through the gem stone. The facets of the gem are designed to reflect light back at various angles, an uncut stone has virtually no brilliance to it whatsoever ever. Thus you need to get light under the gems in your rings otherwise they look dead.

 

[davev]

I set a Kleenex on top of a flashlight and had a couple other lights on in the room.
I used a Sony a7cr in crop mode, with a Sigma 18-50 crop lens at 50mm. It's not a macro lens, but it does focus from 9 inches away.
It focuses closer at a wider mm, but at 50mm, it was about 9 inches away.
1/125, f11, iso 400.

If you use a light box under the ring, and use a 'tent' for lighting the outer part of the ring, you should be able to do this with any somewhat close focusing lens.

 

[RAZKY]

I actually have one of these lying around. I will also give this a shot and see what it looks like.

That's great. Set your subject on or directly in front of it, overexpose it a couple of stops and there's your plain white background - no need to fake anything in post. Others have covered subject lighting, I'll only add that I like small LED lights for similar work - most I have are daylight balanced, it's easy to place them where needed to avoid bright spots and shadows, and they're not so bright that they overpower the background. My favorite lens for 35mm is a 75 f/4.0 APO Rodagon D on a Novoflex bellows. It's optimized for 1:1 at f/5.6, but is very sharp even at f/22. For 6 x 7 (cm) I use a 140/f/4.5 Mamiya Macro, usually on extension tubes. I don't do digital for serious work. My film of choice is Velvia 50, sharper than Kodachrome and still available.

 

[Evonam]

These seem to be the best that I could muster. The easiest way for me was the Lightbox under the jewelry. I'm still trying to experiment with the one light source above and behind but I found that it's more difficult in post. I think that I need to get better with post or a better understanding of it. As for the focus stacking, I can't seem to get it to line up correctly between the 3 or 4 different shots. In post it seems to always be a little bit off. I am doing the auto option in PS for that and it's not coming out correctly. I've tried to do it manually but that seems to be off too.....I really hate the fact that I can't get the band to be in full focus. Any ideas?

 

[cgw]

Why persist with this look? It's just not working. Connect the merch with a human finger? Got one handy?

 

[davev]

Try these, it may help:

Ring tower

Light tent
For the light tent, this is the one that I have. It works fine, but there are hundreds of these for sale on Amazon.

 

[Woolsocks]

These seem to be the best that I could muster. The easiest way for me was the Lightbox under the jewelry. I'm still trying to experiment with the one light source above and behind but I found that it's more difficult in post. I think that I need to get better with post or a better understanding of it. As for the focus stacking, I can't seem to get it to line up correctly between the 3 or 4 different shots. In post it seems to always be a little bit off. I am doing the auto option in PS for that and it's not coming out correctly. I've tried to do it manually but that seems to be off too.....I really hate the fact that I can't get the band to be in full focus. Any ideas?View attachment 279036 View attachment 279037

Maybe your following a tutorial instead of experimenting for yourself eh?

When I used to focus stack I went into manual focus and took like at least 10 pictures if not more. 20. 30. A slight twist of the focus and take a shot then do it again. Like millimeters at a time.

There is some sort of white banding in the middle of the ring. Is this from the white reflectors or an error in your post processing? Have you tried using a gold reflector as well as the white cards focused on the ring. Gold reflector added to one photograph. Then gold reflector removed. Then come bine it in a mask in photoshop like how I showed you in a previous reply when whats his name asked me to show what I was talking about.

 

[Evonam]

Why persist with this look? It's just not working. Connect the merch with a human finger? Got one handy?

I have to do it like this because it is a requirement by the online store that is asking for the picture. The main picture has to have the mandatory 255 white background with the ring and nothing else in it.

 

[Evonam]

Try these, it may help:

Ring tower

Light tent
For the light tent, this is the one that I have. It works fine, but there are hundreds of these for sale on Amazon.

The requirement is plain ring no props with a 255 background.

 

[davev]

The requirement is plain ring no props with a 255 background.

In your first post, you said you need to "retake" your photos. What did you do for those photos? How did they turn out? Were you having the same issue with DOF of those, or is it something new because of a different lens choice?
Take a photo of your setup, maybe someone can point you in a different direction to improve your shot.