Proper exposure for macro jewelry on G1

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this problem?

Here is my setup:

2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time. My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

WIthout seeing the pictures it would be difficult to comment. Did you use the spot meter to lock in the exposure on the jewelry? I'll bet that if you used CWA, it underexposed b/c of the white background (See the discussion on the rationale of using Manual mode). Depending on the size of the jewelry, I'll bet you will need a set of close up lenses. Out of curiousity did you use AWB or manual white balance? Also, how was the color rendering under the tungsten?

Rick B. said:

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had
originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this
problem?

Here is my setup:
2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of
the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece
of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find
the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm
wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the
shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come
out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time.
My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the
subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

Click to expand...

Cant you use PhotoShop?
Mark

Rick B. said:

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had
originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this
problem?

Here is my setup:
2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of
the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece
of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find
the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm
wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the
shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come
out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time.
My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the
subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

Click to expand...

Yes I do.. I used curves and did adjust the photos accordingly, but I would still like to get better exposure, as using curves for several dozen photos can be quite a pain.

Mark Mullai said:

Rick B. said:

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had
originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this
problem?

Here is my setup:
2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of
the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece
of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find
the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm
wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the
shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come
out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time.
My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the
subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Adam,

I'm at work right now and don't have access to the photos, but I will post them as soon as I get the chance when I get home.

Anyway, I used CWA and not spot-metering, and since I was using a white background, this could through off the exposure like you say. Spot-metering would be the better way to go.

As for white balance, I used AWB. I shot in RAW, so I changed it to Tungsten or used the white dropper upon conversion.

I changed the curves in photoshop for the photos, but it would be nice to have a more proper exposure off the bat so this would save time.

Adam said:

Rick B. said:

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had
originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this
problem?

Here is my setup:
2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of
the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece
of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find
the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm
wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the
shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come
out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time.
My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the
subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Rick B. said:

Adam,
I'm at work right now and don't have access to the photos, but I
will post them as soon as I get the chance when I get home.

Anyway, I used CWA and not spot-metering, and since I was using a
white background, this could through off the exposure like you say.
Spot-metering would be the better way to go.

Click to expand...

I'll bet you will see a significant improvement with the spot. If this doesn't help, I think you should switch to M after metering at Av 8 and drop the speed down. I appreciate the need for DOF, but an alternative is to see whether reducing an f stop would yield accetable results. The real need is for a faster lens (sorry Canon). Another thought is to increase your ISO to 100 and see if the noise is still acceptable.

Member said:

As for white balance, I used AWB. I shot in RAW, so I changed it to
Tungsten or used the white dropper upon conversion.

Click to expand...

Just curious. I have found that the G1 works pretty well when you have an overwhelming predominance of one type of light or another. Its AWB seems to falter more when there is a mixture of numerous light sources.

Member said:

I changed the curves in photoshop for the photos, but it would be
nice to have a more proper exposure off the bat so this would save
time.

Click to expand...

I don't blame you. Is there any reason you chose a white background?

Member said:

Adam said:

Rick B. said:

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had
originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this
problem?

Here is my setup:
2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of
the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece
of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find
the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm
wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the
shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come
out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time.
My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the
subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Heres my suggestions:

1. Av on F8 is fine. You will need as much dof as possible for rings and larger pieces.

2. focus: use manual focus, this is ok. To fine focus use the digital zoom trick: since you are in RAW, switch to JPEG through the menu, then hit SET and zoom lever together. Go to 4x digital zoom then move the tripod (or the pieces, I hope you are using a tripod) to fine adjust the focus. This is much more subtle than the manual focus adjustments. Use SET and zoom again to get rid of digital zoom and menu to go back to RAW.

3. Exposure. Try -1/3. spot metering is ok, but dont change your focus! Use exposure bracketing at + - 1/3 or 2/3. The beauty of digital is that the shots are free! Even if the light is not strong, the tripod will help with the longish shutter speeds.

4. processing: I usually pick the best of the 3 shots from bracketing just by using the LCD, but as an experiment you can downlaod all of them and then use the Levels histogram to see which has the best overall exposure for further work.
Regards, Mike K

Rick B. said:

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had
originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this
problem?

Here is my setup:
2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of
the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece
of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find
the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm
wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the
shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come
out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time.
My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the
subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

Click to expand...

I will have to try spot metering off the piece itself to see if this improves the results.

As for shutter speed, if I keep it at f8, do you have any general ideas what speed I should choose? I would think slower than 1/30 at least to get better exposures. I am using a tripod of course, so the camera shake isn't an issue.

As for the white background: I saw several examples on the web where the phototgrapher used the white background when shooting jewelry. At the shoot, the jewler didn't have any props, so I brought a white piece of paper as the background.

The only light source in the room was the tungsten lights I was using as well.

Adam said:

Rick B. said:

Adam,
I'm at work right now and don't have access to the photos, but I
will post them as soon as I get the chance when I get home.

Anyway, I used CWA and not spot-metering, and since I was using a
white background, this could through off the exposure like you say.
Spot-metering would be the better way to go.

Click to expand...

I'll bet you will see a significant improvement with the spot. If
this doesn't help, I think you should switch to M after metering at
Av 8 and drop the speed down. I appreciate the need for DOF, but
an alternative is to see whether reducing an f stop would yield
accetable results. The real need is for a faster lens (sorry
Canon). Another thought is to increase your ISO to 100 and see if
the noise is still acceptable.

Member said:

As for white balance, I used AWB. I shot in RAW, so I changed it to
Tungsten or used the white dropper upon conversion.

Click to expand...

Just curious. I have found that the G1 works pretty well when you
have an overwhelming predominance of one type of light or another.
Its AWB seems to falter more when there is a mixture of numerous
light sources.

Member said:

I changed the curves in photoshop for the photos, but it would be
nice to have a more proper exposure off the bat so this would save
time.

Click to expand...

I don't blame you. Is there any reason you chose a white background?

Member said:

Adam said:

Rick B. said:

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had
originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this
problem?

Here is my setup:
2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of
the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece
of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find
the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm
wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the
shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come
out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time.
My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the
subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Rick B. said:

I will have to try spot metering off the piece itself to see if
this improves the results.

As for shutter speed, if I keep it at f8, do you have any general
ideas what speed I should choose? I would think slower than 1/30 at
least to get better exposures. I am using a tripod of course, so
the camera shake isn't an issue.

Click to expand...

In this circumstance, if I didn't have my lightmeter, I would use the spotmeter in the camera as a guide. So, for example, I would place the camera in Av mode, f/8. The meter indicates an exposure of 1/60th. I would then switch to manual and shoot at 1/60th, 1/30th, and 1/15th. Alternatively you could set up the AEB when using the Av mode (though the AEB exposes in both directions.

The other issue regarding shutter speed, is that as your speed slows, you are more likely to have higher noise, color shifts (although the graph on the G1 is pretty solid), and the potential of motion artifact. One way to preserve a higher shutter speed (apart from increasing your light or having a faster lens; non options here) is to set your ISO to a higher speed (100 for example). I really haven't done comparisons of the noise difference between shooting for example, ISO 50, Av 8, 1/15th vs. ISO 100, Av 8, 1/30th. It would be interesting to see side by side shots and determine which has a higher noise level and which you find more pleasing.

Member said:

As for the white background: I saw several examples on the web
where the phototgrapher used the white background when shooting
jewelry. At the shoot, the jewler didn't have any props, so I
brought a white piece of paper as the background.

Click to expand...

The only reason I asked this was whether this was for a webpage, booklet, etc. You might want to experiment with different backgrounds to see the various effects with the types of jewelry (stone colors, gold, platinum, silver etc.) I am sure that it makes a difference and these effects have been well studied. Unfortunately, I don't shoot much jewelry so I can't direct you to specific resources, but I know they are out there.

Member said:

The only light source in the room was the tungsten lights I was
using as well.

Adam said:

Rick B. said:

Adam,
I'm at work right now and don't have access to the photos, but I
will post them as soon as I get the chance when I get home.

Anyway, I used CWA and not spot-metering, and since I was using a
white background, this could through off the exposure like you say.
Spot-metering would be the better way to go.

Click to expand...

I'll bet you will see a significant improvement with the spot. If
this doesn't help, I think you should switch to M after metering at
Av 8 and drop the speed down. I appreciate the need for DOF, but
an alternative is to see whether reducing an f stop would yield
accetable results. The real need is for a faster lens (sorry
Canon). Another thought is to increase your ISO to 100 and see if
the noise is still acceptable.

Member said:

As for white balance, I used AWB. I shot in RAW, so I changed it to
Tungsten or used the white dropper upon conversion.

Click to expand...

Just curious. I have found that the G1 works pretty well when you
have an overwhelming predominance of one type of light or another.
Its AWB seems to falter more when there is a mixture of numerous
light sources.

Member said:

I changed the curves in photoshop for the photos, but it would be
nice to have a more proper exposure off the bat so this would save
time.

Click to expand...

I don't blame you. Is there any reason you chose a white background?

Member said:

Adam said:

Rick B. said:

Hello all,
Recently I had a macro shoot of jewelry.

All of the photos came out slightily more darker than I had
originally expected. Is there a viable solution to solve this
problem?

Here is my setup:
2 500 watt Tungsten lights with umbrellas placed on either side of
the jewelry. The jewelry was placed on a table with a white piece
of paper as the background.

I set the aperature to f8 and used aperature priority mode. I find
the camera selected 1/30-1/60 as the shutter speed and I'm
wondering if I should have used full manual mode to make the
shutter speed slower?

I didn't use the macro lens kit and some of the photos did not come
out properly focused, but I can play with manual focus next time.
My bigger concern right now is the under-exposure.

THe lights are fairly power ful and were pretty close to the
subjects, so I imagine its the shutter speed that was not correct?

Thanks,
Rick

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