close up jewelry photography

[tdube]

I am trying to take a close up picture of jewelry using a macro lens. Currently the subject is a bracelet and I'm having trouble getting the whole image to focus. If the front of the bracelet is in sharp focus, the back of the bracelet is not. I have the bracelet lying in a circular fashion. I'm using a Nikon D90 and AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm 1:2.8 G lens. I do have the aperture way up to get the most depth of field, but again I can't get the whole image in focus.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[qunamax]

You need to do a focus stacking, google it up.

 

[romfordbluenose]

Shoot from further away and then crop.

By way up I assume you mean f16.

 

[D500 001]

The image info states f/36

 

[Toaster79]

I am trying to take a close up picture of jewelry using a macro lens. Currently the subject is a bracelet and I'm having trouble getting the whole image to focus. If the front of the bracelet is in sharp focus, the back of the bracelet is not. I have the bracelet lying in a circular fashion. I'm using a Nikon D90 and AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm 1:2.8 G lens. I do have the aperture way up to get the most depth of field, but again I can't get the whole image in focus.

Any help would be appreciated.

You've got front of the bracelet out of focus and the rest in focus. Did you try to move focus a pinch closer to you? Or close your aperture some more? I'm assumingnon you shoot on a tripod, so if the exposure turns out to be a bit longer shouldn make a big difference. Or you could take ahalf a step bacwards like suggested and see what you get.

 

[romfordbluenose]

The image info states f/36

 

[Tom Ferguson]

A few thoughts:

1) When you only need a bit more DOF, focus half way from the front and back of the product. It looks like you focused on the front, which wastes all the DOF in front of the product.

2) When you need a lot of extra DOF, as other have said, you have two options:
a) Shoot from farther back and crop, which loses a lot of pixels/resolution
b) Do a focus stack (using a tripod) and recombine in Photoshop (or other software). It takes extra time, but works really well.

3) You need to take a look at your white balance, I strongly suspect it (and thus your colors) are way off.

4) Stopping down to the F/30 something will always cost you some sharpness (pinhole effect). Sometimes we have to go there, and if you aren't printing giant you can often get away with it.

Hope that helps.

 

[uncleskull]

I am trying to take a close up picture of jewelry using a macro lens. Currently the subject is a bracelet and I'm having trouble getting the whole image to focus. If the front of the bracelet is in sharp focus, the back of the bracelet is not. I have the bracelet lying in a circular fashion. I'm using a Nikon D90 and AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm 1:2.8 G lens. I do have the aperture way up to get the most depth of field, but again I can't get the whole image in focus.

Any help would be appreciated.

Depth of field is greater in the background than in the foreground. Try focusing a bit behind the front of the bracelet (about 1/3 of the way in).

Move back and crop,like others suggest.

Move up a bit so you are shooting at less of an angle.

Focus stack, if you're up for it.

Adjust white balance in final photo.

Good luck.

--
unc
~ The only things stopping us from reaching our goals are the limitations we place on ourselves ~

 

[KeiferH]

It's all about depth of field, so it's also all about light. To get a nice low ISO, a fastish shutter speed even if you use a tripod, and an aperture of about f11 or f16 which is what I would use for this the easiest way to do things is to add flash.

I do a lot of this type of photography and challenged myself to find the absolute easiest, low budget, simplest equipment, error free way to do it, and came up with this method. I now use it for pretty much everything even though I have a bunch of other lighting options. It requires manual settings but I explain it all in the video. Works with pretty much any dslr and lens. No need for anything special.

Sample image:







K

--
http://www.blur.bz

 

[uncleskull]

Extend your background higher to brighten the tops of the links. Vary the lighting on the background to make the links appear "shiny" instead just a uniform white.