Getting better! putting tips & suggestions to use/using a Light Box

[rosycreatestuff]

Hi All!

I really wanted to share my progress after receiving your tips and suggestions. I’m sure there’s more to come.

I bought (what seems to me) a really nice lightbox (off Amazon!).

I used the kit lens (18-45) with my Canon R50 (in AP Mode). I played with the Aperture, the White Balance, and Exposure Comp. I tried some with flash and different flash exposure comps; way too washed out. So, I used Exp Comp on the camera.

Please keep in mind, I did this all after dark, in my room. I really wanted to try out the LB and use your suggestions. AND Amazon didn't deliver until after dark.

I will try more Sunday, when there’s light and I can use the tripod for less ISO and no shaking.

Now, I need to think a bit about hanging the earrings...

This is a JPG SOOC. I just cropped it.


I think my watch needs cleaning!

 

[Zeee]

You may get more responses in the Studio and Lighting Technique forums.

 

[R2D2]

Hi All!

I really wanted to share my progress after receiving your tips and suggestions. I’m sure there’s more to come.

I bought (what seems to me) a really nice lightbox (off Amazon!).

I used the kit lens (18-45) with my Canon R50 (in AP Mode). I played with the Aperture, the White Balance, and Exposure Comp. I tried some with flash and different flash exposure comps; way too washed out. So, I used Exp Comp on the camera.

Please keep in mind, I did this all after dark, in my room. I really wanted to try out the LB and use your suggestions. AND Amazon didn't deliver until after dark.

I will try more Sunday, when there’s light and I can use the tripod for less ISO and no shaking.

Now, I need to think a bit about hanging the earrings...

This is a JPG SOOC. I just cropped it.


I think my watch needs cleaning!

Much better!

If you're using flash I would highly recommend shooting in full Manual Mode. In any of the auto exposure modes the camera will automatically try to balance flash with the ambient lighting, messing up your exposure.

When shooting still-lifes (like jewelry) I like using a continuous light source (like a strong lamp). It makes it a lot easier to visualize the effect of the lighting on the subject.

Happy shooting!

R2

 

[Mark B.]

Hi All!

I really wanted to share my progress after receiving your tips and suggestions. I’m sure there’s more to come.

I bought (what seems to me) a really nice lightbox (off Amazon!).

I used the kit lens (18-45) with my Canon R50 (in AP Mode). I played with the Aperture, the White Balance, and Exposure Comp. I tried some with flash and different flash exposure comps; way too washed out. So, I used Exp Comp on the camera.

Please keep in mind, I did this all after dark, in my room. I really wanted to try out the LB and use your suggestions. AND Amazon didn't deliver until after dark.

I will try more Sunday, when there’s light and I can use the tripod for less ISO and no shaking.

Now, I need to think a bit about hanging the earrings...

This is a JPG SOOC. I just cropped it.


I think my watch needs cleaning!

Are you using a tripod? If so is there a reason you're shooting at ISO 1000? And if you're not using a tripod so you can use the lowest ISO, I would recommend it.

 

[MKenna]

Hi All!

I really wanted to share my progress after receiving your tips and suggestions. I’m sure there’s more to come.

I bought (what seems to me) a really nice lightbox (off Amazon!).

I used the kit lens (18-45) with my Canon R50 (in AP Mode). I played with the Aperture, the White Balance, and Exposure Comp. I tried some with flash and different flash exposure comps; way too washed out. So, I used Exp Comp on the camera.

Please keep in mind, I did this all after dark, in my room. I really wanted to try out the LB and use your suggestions. AND Amazon didn't deliver until after dark.

I will try more Sunday, when there’s light and I can use the tripod for less ISO and no shaking.

Now, I need to think a bit about hanging the earrings...

This is a JPG SOOC. I just cropped it.

Try manual mode, check the histogram for blown highlights, or too dark shadows.

If you shoot RAW it's easy to set white balance after the shot is taken.

In this case the photo has a slight blue tint, so white balance is not spot on. Use a gray card/patch as a reference when setting the white balance.

Lower ISO is better, if you have enough (flash) light.

 

[David Franklin]

Rosy, I hope you read my post explaining lighting in your last similar thread. As I mentioned, a larger lit surface, closer to your subject creates broader, more even highlights and smaller lighter shadows; your lightbox has done just that in your current example. Unfortunately, there is more to do to create a better image. First, just two other mentions - your image is too blue and, apparently from the lack of contrast, somewhat underexposed with little highlight or black values, meaning that the lighting, specifically for a subject like jewelry which should usually have some "sparkle," is actually too diffused. So what to do? First, adjust your color temperature to be more "warm" to achieve a more neutral color balance, expose the shot more to the right to "lighten" the image somewhat and add add either a little clarity and dehaze in LR or highlight and shadow values in PS, or a combination of all or any of these to experiment, and learn how to read resulting histograms as you make changes. Second, although this may be beyond your means or capabilities right now, if you can obtain some appropriate continuous light sources, rather than using flash, learning this kind of thing will be much easier and go faster. There are dirt cheap used professional grade small tungsten open faced and tungsten fresnel spotlights to be had on Ebay, and a few of these, especially the very small spots, would be ideal and cheap learning tools for shooting jewelry. If you obtain these, first create a close broad light source created by a lightbox, or more likely lighting a relatively large area of clean white foamcore, held at a particular distance and angle to your subject, to make attractive large but soft highlights on the jewelry and then, very carefully try to just barely skim the surface of the jewelry only with one of the spots set at its tightest beam angle, and play with different light ratios and angles until you see a good result. There are many more ways to do this, and each different jewelry piece with different surfaces, materials and construction would be best lit with different combinations of just broad of just narrow lighting or different combinations of both. You've got to experiment or just settle on a kind of very diffused '"light tent" only look for everything. That would be easy and fast, but not make some or all of the products look their best.