Photographing nail art?

[Overread]

Hmm I was going to suggest using the 35mm because of it most likley having greater optical quality than either of the other lenses that you own - however OIIIIIO raises an important point about the angle of view of the 35mm.

I agree a macro lens would be ideal for this kind of shot, though I would expect the kit lens atleast to be able to get a good shot with both hands framed like in your example.
Experiment with all three and see which gives you the abiltiy to frame the shot you want. Also keep an eye on the focal length that you end up working with as that will affect the depth of field, distance you shoot from and the background blur that given apertures will give you.

Lighting wise I agree with the previously made suggestions about keeping the light soft and using the flash with a softbox or other kind of diffusion

 

[Derrel]

I'd use the 18-55 at the long end of its range, rather than the 35mm prime lens. I'd agree with using a softbox or diffusion panel to create smooth highlights on the nails and to provide soft, fairly shadowless lighting on the hands and fingers.

 

[KmH]

Who owns the photo you posted?

What does it matter? the image is covered in watermarks and has a website attached.

http://copyright.gov/

It matters because it it is important to people who make a living by selling their intellectual property.

If you don't respect the intellectual property rights of others, you sure can't expect anyone to respect yours, unless you maintain a double standard.

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[mwcfarms]

ababysean, I have tried taking some photos of nail art for my friend who is an esthitician and with my 18mm to 105mm it still wasnt quite close enough to highlight then actual art in detail. I think you might want to rent a macro for this to really pull it off well. Good luck and look forward to seeing some shots.

 

[Idahophoto]

I don't think you did anything wrong myself. Some just love attention I guess lol. As for the photo, I would have to think about it. Never done that before but could be lots of fun. I agree one light and a diffuser should be enough if just doing the hands probably a macro lens like in the 100.mm range with a good backdrop perhaps wrapped around a wine glass depending on the color of the nail polish the models age and what not. No idea really just tossing up ideas. Good luck

 

[magkelly]

I actually took some quick shots for friend of mine's portfolio when she was trying to get into a high end nail studio several years back. For shots like this to look right you need to treat the hands like you would if they were wearing jewelry. Nail art is exactly that in a way, hand jewelry.

I found photographing it so it looks really nice works best if you put the hands in a cube and shoot them like you'd shoot a nice ring, using soft but bright lighting and macro. We did try some shots on a white table too and they came out okay, but I think the best ones were definitely done in the box where we could control the lighting a lot better.

It can get a bit tricky when you're using metallic or highly shiny nail polishes because they can actually act like chrome on a car and reflect things around you. Using a box and isolating them really helped. We had the models rest their hands on a couple of small white silk pillows for depth and to angle the hands just right and then we put flowers behind that in a bowl in some shots to make the hands look dainty and feminine. It worked pretty well.

 

[ababysean]

I was thinking of making a homemade box thingy. The DIY 10 dollar box