Photographing Jewelry

[Bioman62]

I hand make Sterling Silver Jewelry and want to take photos for sales efforts. Not sure where to even start. My camera is a Nikon D3300 with two lenses; 55-200mm - 1:4 - 5.6G ED VR II and 18-55mm 1:3.5 - 5.6G VR II. So here are my questions:
1. Do I even have the correct lense(s) for taking close in pictures.
2. Should I get purpose made lighting, if so what?
3. I see usage of hoods, reflectors...what would be a good entry level approach.
Willing to spend some money but trying to keep cost somewhat down if possible.
When I use my Digital SLR I use it on auto as I am clueless about photography.
Any help would be very appreciated.

 

[ac12]

One suggestion.

• Get a small/medium size light tent. Basically a translucent box that will diffuse the light.
• Get a couple of desk lamps. It is easier for you to see the shadows and reflections with lamps than with strobes.
  
  • The lights will be pointed at the light tent, and moved around to give you the shadow/reflection you want.
• Get a "closeup lens/filter" set. This is the cheapest way to go close up. A macro lens is $$$.
  
  • The closeup lens will screw onto the front of one of your lenses. I would start with the 55-200 lens, to give you more working distance from the subject.
    
  • You select which of the 3 lenses to use, depending on how far the subject is from the camera.
• Get a steady tripod. At closeup distances, you cannot hold the camera steady enough.
  
• Get a book on close up/macro photography.
• PRACTICE

 

[dennybeall]

I was not happy with my close-up lens set so went on ebay and found an inexpensive 90mm macro lens and it worked better.
You want a lot of light so you have to stop down the lens to get better depth of field.
They make light bulbs that accentuate jewelry. Go in a local jewelry store and look at their displays - everything sparkles!!!!

 

[TCampbell]

A traditional "close-up lens" (really a single-element diopter) basically works a bit like a magnifying glass. But the problem with this is that the middle gets magnified without much distortion, but if you check the edges you'll notice they aren't quite as good. Depending on your subject, however, you might not actually care about the corners & edges ... so it's no big deal.

Canon makes an achromatic "doublet" close-up diopter which does a much better job in the corners (but it's more expensive than most close-up diopters... still not nearly as expensive as a lens). There used to be another company that made them -- but no longer does (it's been long enough that I no longer remember the brand.)

So today your choices are:

1) close-up diopters (these are cheap)

2) extension tubes (simple hollow barrel that goes between lens & camera body - it has no lenses in it. It's sole job is to hold the camera lens farther away from the camera body, which naturally shifts the whole focus range closer and also somewhat magnifies the view. They do have electronic contacts to pass the communication through between camera & lens.) But they tend to be inexpensive.

3) reversing mount - this lets you mount a camera lens "backwards" so you can use a normal lens as a close-up lens. But for most of these, you lose control of the aperture.

4) get a "true" macro lens that can shoot 1:1 scale. This tends to be the most expensive option, but offers the most versatility, control, and usually also the best image quality.

Focus-rail:

You may actually want to pick up a "focus rail" for a tripod depending on how you shoot. If you use a shallow depth of field, then it wont be possible to get the entire object in focus at the same time. One technique is to use "focus stacking" where you take lots of images... but nudge the focus very fractionally so that different parts of the object are in focus. Software is used to combine the image and you get a final shot with everything in tack-sharp focus.

But there's a problem... most lenses "breathe" when you adjust focus. This means the angle of view at close focus distance is NOT the same as the angle of view at maximum focus distance. That shift in angle of view means the images don't stack the way they should.

The idea behind the "focus rail" is that this is a rail that attaches to the tripod and you mount the camera on the rail... and rail allows the entire camera to slide forward or backward along the rail WITHOUT changing the focus on the lens itself. So you're moving the whole camera to focus instead of adjusting the lens. Because you do this, the angle of view isn't actually changing.

This is really only an issue when using a shallow depth of field. But when you have very close focusing distance, depth of field generally is shallow. So you may want to shoot your jewelry at say... f/16 or above... just to deal with the depth of field issues.

 

[ac12]

The focus rail also helps so you do not have to move the tripod a tiny bit ( 1 inch or so) to make fine adjustments.
You just move the rail the 1 inch.
I got a 4 way (L/R, F/B) for my wife to use, and it is more convenient.

Denny made a point. There may/will be times when you want the sparkle of a direct light, vs the soft even light of a light tent. So you may end up with 2 different setups.

 

[Derrel]

Some on-line lessons/videos about close-up photography could be most helpful to you. A tripod is helpful. Getting close to the product would be most helpful. The MFD or Minimum Focusing Distance on the 18-55 lens is not very close. A KENKO AF extension tube, an approximately 12mm or a 20mm tube (from a set of three, 12mm or 13mm, 20mm, 36mm) would allow the lens to focus closer by extending its distance from the sensor plane. You WANT to have an extension tube, in order to get the lens into close-up focus capability.

Lights? Sure...

White reflector boards. Light tent. Etc.etc..

 

[Bioman62]

Thanks so much for all of the options. Great advice from a nice group of people.

 

[Sportrunner]

I would look at getting a photo shooting tent. There are some cheap kits on amazon or B&H that have everything to get started. Also must have a tripod. Lens wise, extension tubes would be a great way to get started with what you have.