Take pictures of Glass Jewelry...HELP!??

FusingGirl · August 27, 2010

:scratchI make glass jewelry and want to take pictures to post to my website. I keep getting flash glare on my glass pieces. I've taken them inside and outside with a reflector screen. When I use the reflector screen outside I still see the screen in the pieces too. In the winter I will not be taking pictures outside, so I need to figure out how to keep the flash from reflecting on my glass pieces. CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH SOME IDEAS? I have a Canon Rebel.

onesickpuppy · August 28, 2010

FusingGirl wrote: »

I make glass jewelry and want to take pictures to post to my website. I keep getting flash glare on my glass pieces. I've taken them inside and outside with a reflector screen. When I use the reflector screen outside I still see the screen in the pieces too. In the winter I will not be taking pictures outside, so I need to figure out how to keep the flash from reflecting on my glass pieces. CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH SOME IDEAS? I have a Canon Rebel.

well.....I'm sure that there are more qualified persons than myself....but I would set up white board around item.....bounce flash off board.....

or use colored gels to add effects to the jewelry

SteveF · August 28, 2010

Hi,

You would likely benefit greatly from a "light tent" or "light box". If you go to eBay and put "light box" in the search bar you'll see some sample photos.

Basically you have a translucent box around the item and shine your lights at the outside of the box. There is thus no direct light on the item you are photographing.

Lots of these for sale at big photo stores, but they are also easy to make. Just google "how to make a light box" or something like that.

Sam · August 28, 2010

Glass, jewelry, chrome, etc are some of the hardest subjects to photograph well.

I don't know of any quick fix for this, but here are a few ideas.

Buy "Light Science & Magic" An introduction to photographic lighting.

Don't use a pop up flash on your camera. Put the camera on a tripod, and use constant lighting. Move reflectors, flags lights, etc. until you get a clean image with and or without reflections as desired.

Hie a local photographer who has experience with this type of photography, and outsource this part of your business.

Hire a photographer to help you get the gear you need and train you how to use it.

Sam

time2smile · August 29, 2010

try this site out
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/documents/jewelry_photography.htm

good luck

triggermike · August 30, 2010

Use a light tent and inexpensive clamp-on type reflectors with 100w equivalent fluorescent bulbs. The light tents can be found rather inexpensively on fleabay. The reflectors are available in the electrical department of your local home depot or loews. Make sure all your bulbs purchased have the same daylight color temp and set your cameras white balance to that number. Clamp the lights/reflectors to chairs, broomsticks, step-ladders, or whatever's available and shine them thru the light tent from outside. You'lle need at least three lamps - 2 per side and one on top. The distance you'll have to experiment with, but the lamps should be fairly close to the tent. Shoot in RAW so you can tweak exposure and/or white balance. Depending on the item, sometimes it works to overexpose a bit to blow-out white backgrounds - this is another thing you can experiment with.
Another prop to use for this application is a glass or plexiglas platform. Clear, white and black are the most popular. You can get by with clear with white or black material under it - but colored plexi works best. This gives a nice product reflection in the foreground.
Good luck! Mike.

triggermike · August 30, 2010

Also, you need to use a tripod as mentioned above. Try taking your shots with as wide an aperature as you can to blur the foreground and background (making sure your product is all in focus).

MF

Icebear · August 30, 2010

Can you post some photos of your products and current results? You might get some more specific advice. I have done some photography for jewelry makers, and it is indeed a challenge. Can be done though. Different materials and surface textures require different techniques. The hint about getting a copy of Hunter, Biver & Fuqua's book is the best advice you've received so far.

RamstetterPhoto · September 17, 2010

Without seeing examples, my best advice would be to try a light box to evenly distribute light without getting glare on the glass.

Don Kondra · September 18, 2010

Not jewelry but relevant

Glass sculpture, ~ 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 1 1/4".

28" light tent from Alzo Digital (~$50 with four paper sweeps)
- gray paper sweep
- natural light from camera right (cloudy afternoon)
- white foamcore inside the tent on the left
- 26w CF 5500 degree bulb in clamp on reflector outside the top right of tent. Alzo sells the bulbs also....
- ALL OTHER ROOM LIGHTS OFF

Olympus E-510 in aperture mode, f14, 2s, 12-60mm @ 60mm, iso 100, tripod and two second timed shutter release.

Note - Can't remember why I ended up at f14, f8ish should do it

Cheers, Don

Take pictures of Glass Jewelry...HELP!??

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