Taking Close up Photos of Sunglasses - Help!!!

[merlynhs]

Hi, I hope someone may be able to help. I have bought a digital SLR camera (Nikon 40DX) with the sole purpose of taking decent quality photographs of my shop stock for our website - basically sunglasses and glasses. I am having horrendous problems getting the correct settings. They either end up being way over exposed or under exposed or on the odd occassion I seem to get it right the black tinted lens comes out brown in the photo! I've now spent several hours trying to resolve this but I am just getting more and more frustrated and if anything further away from a solution. I suspect for you guys out there the answer is fairly simple but whether it is wrong camera settings, lighting or whatever I simply cannot get a decent shot.

I would hope to be (ultimately) able to get the picture quality used on a typical opticians website. I appreciate I need to walk before I can run, but not even getting to the crawl is....

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[MelsBels]

Hmm....I will just tell you how I would shoot...maybe it will help. Macro mode, and zoom in, from a few feet back. If it's too bright, adjust white balance. Try that! Oh! And of course, at an angle from the lenses. Someone else may be able to give you better advice.....hang on a a few minutes.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

Sunglassses and glasses can be a challenge to shoot and make them look right. What type of lighting are you using? What does the background look like and what color is it? There are many variables so we will probably need just a bit more info.

Maybe you can post one of the shots?

 

[merlynhs]

I have placed the glasses in a white cube and have small spotlights either side - although I have tried larger spotlights overhead without much luck.

 

[JimmyO]

When i took some pictures of a pair of shades for an email auctions i made sure they were one a nice white peace of paper and had good lighting. Ive found using a flash can be tricky becuase it can bounce right off the lens.

 

[Big Mike]

I have placed the glasses in a white cube and have small spotlights either side - although I have tried larger spotlights overhead without much luck.

If your background is mostly white, the camera thinks that it's a bight scene so it gives you settings to underexpose the image. Try adding positive 'Exposure Compensation) and see if that doesn't help. Also, getting the correct white balance will help, take a test shot, without any glasses (just white) and then use that image to set a custom white balance (see your manual).
Or better yet, shoot in RAW and adjust the white balance on the computer.