 Bob Chance |
How to illuminate jewelry What is the best way to illuminate diamond jewelry for a photo shoot. I need the specular highlights to stand out, but at the same time, I don't want the gems to be nothing more than a bright blob from the reflected light. Would putting it a light box work?
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- Carolyn M. Fletcher  Contact Carolyn M. Fletcher Carolyn M. Fletcher's Gallery |
There was a thread about this very subject a week or so ago, but I can't remember what it was called. Maybe somebody will let you know.
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Mark Feldstein |
So Robert, how much time do you have? The way I've done this for catalogs and product sheets is time consuming but pretty easy. First, you need a translucent light funnel made for shooting small products and that should go on a light table assuming you need a white background. Place your jewelery inside the funnel on the table top. Then take your camera on an extension arm off your tripod or a boom and place it over the opening at the top of the funnel. You may need to invest in either some extension tubes or a macro lens. A view camera works best for this, a 4x5 view camera with a 350mm lens is what I use with a polaroid back initially to check lighting and positioning. Since you need to be working at small f stops, f11 should do it, to get adequate depth of field, you need a fair amount of light. I prefer using 2000w/s strobes in 5" bullet reflectors backed up from the funnel, placed evenly around the circle so that the illumination is balanced and there are no hot spots. You can measure that with a flash meter in the incident mode. You probably also want a strobe head under the table to illuminate it from the bottom to give the shot some depth. It should be set to a ratio consistent with your other lighting at a level you determine when you set up. A light box is helpful if it's color balanced for daylight. Anything else is going to color shift, particularly flourescent tubes in slide viewing boxes. Both those and incandescent can cause unwanted color casts reflected in the stones that are a nightmare to correct later on. If you need to get more highlights and the sparkle you're talking about, you can adjust your lights accordingly, using fill cards or gobos to block light and reflectors to bounce a bit back into to the subject through the sides of your funnel. You can make your own funnel with drafting film but they're cumbersome and tend to fall over or collapse. Any tape you use to hold it together will cast a shadow from the seam when it's illuminated from the outside. So buy a light funnel for product photography. And when you start shooting, as I said, I use a Polaroid back to check lighting. Unless you have one, you may encounter fireballs in the products from improperly placed or rigged ligting that may require reshoots. Piece of cake, no?
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Bob Chance |
Thank you Mark for you answer. Unfortunately, most all of the equipment you mentioned is out of my league. About the best I could come up with personally would be to use an old, plain white pillow case with a small hole cut in the end opposite the opening and use it as a light tent. I'm still open for any other suggestions.
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