I the past several weeks I have attempted photographing for my site some jewelry with a supposedly very good digital camera. However no matter what kind of lighting I am using the results are not very good. I must admit "what was I thinking"!

So my question is does anybody knows a professional digital photographyoutfit in LA that specialising in jewelry photography?

Thanks,
Gene

The phone book is a good resource. If you call any of the product photographers there they might be able to recomend a few.

Also visit your local photo-store. They usually know who's who.


As to your lack of success, what camera, and how are you setting up the light? Even though photographing jewelery can be complicated (thanks to reflections) it is possible to get the job done yourself.

You should be able to get results with care.

Basically you need a very large, soft light source above and slightly behind your subject, then place a few very small light sources such as domestic 'effect' lights where they will place reflections where they're needed to bring it to life. Also, you can place a few small black cards to add depth, the jewellery will pick up their reflections.

Whatever you do, don't use a light tent, all they do is give very flat and boring results.

Lighting man - are you sure I've been using lighting 'tents' for 25 years in my pro life - I hold the Tiffany contract at the moment (and have done for 7 years) and swear by the careful use of a lighting tent - people must be careful when giving advice that it actually is advice and not misguided. I wont give advice as I'm no expert but I do work with many of the best so know what I'm doing and saying sweeping comments like yours cn damage someones perceptions of how to do the job properly - please please don't comment unless you are 100% sure it is the ight thing to say.

Dawson

I agree with the former poster, as I use a sort of light tent when I shoot jewellery. It is basically a frame that gets wrapped in white paper, from a roll that I bought. I replace the paper when it gets dusty or torn.

Always shoot at f22 in an aperature preferred mode, camera fixed in a tripod, defeat your auto-focus and flash, and light the subject with at least two shaded (diffused) lamps. This will give you the best depth of field, so that the entire piece is fully in focus.
I used to use film, have switched to a digital SLR with a macro lens. I tried without this lens, and had unsatisfactory results.

I am currently researching an alternative to my present lighting (two GE Photo-Ect 500 W , diffused by white paper) and nearly bought a complete macro lighting system which is comprised of 4 separate flash devices, but held off because of the price. I am pretty sure that a stationary diffused light source of the highest quality will be give more consistent results, which is my goal.

So, good luck with your photography Picsa, and I hope that you have found a solution that works since your post.

Dawson,

If you have a different opinion that someone else please explain your way of doing things. All you did here was put someone down without offering a detailed, better way. And btw, are you in charge of when someone is allowed to voice their opinion, give their advice in response to a request for responses? I doubt it. If you are not an expert maybe you should go practice and stop worying about what others are saying.

Bob

I completely agree with Bob - Dawson is way out of line. People come to these forums to seek different opinions and different ways to try new things and grow their craft. Anyone should feel welcome to post their opinion. LightingMan was trying to help. Comments such as his are more than welcome, comments such as Dawsons - not so much. By the way, thanks for the lecture man, it takes me back - daddy is that you?

Melissa

Hi im new to this site, have been doing Jewellery Photography for about 4 years now and still always questioning how i can improve. Wow Dawson i always wondered who did the Tiffany photography, it has been an insparation to me. Helps that i also love the jewellery itself. If you do all the photography for them site then thats amazing, i thinks its beautifully done and have spent many times looking at the site and wondering how you have done it.
I work for fhinds and do their web photography using Nikon products. Personaly i think Jewellery looks very effective on a white back round so thats where Photoshop comes in.
Re: lighting man, your camara might be fine but you might not be using the best lens for the job. I know im not in the US but here in England we have a company called packshot factory, you might have something similar over there.
Nikon girl

Hi I am just starting to venture into photographing diamond jewellery. I am searching for the right camera. So far the advice that I have been given has shown that anything goes as long as the lighting is right and that I have a good macro lens.

I am thinking of buying the Canon 400D....if anybody has any suggestions I would really appreciate it

That depends of what kind jewellery you are trying to photograph.

Metal only and diamond commercial jewellery is relatively easy to photograph and you don't need a professional digital photographer for that, but you do need proper equipment, which is a light stand (never use light boxes for jewellery photography) and any decent SLR camera with at least 105mm macro lense will do the trick. Although for the bracelets and necklaces you will need a lense with tilt & shift.

Coloured gemstones jewellery and designer pieces are however a completely different story and I doubt you will find any photographer who will do it for the website (I mean 10-25 USD per shot). You either need to do it yourself, or you should be willing to invest a great deal of money in each shot + editing or do 3D reverse which ranges about 250-500$ per item. Do it yourself, means that you need an Imagedome (which is about 5000 USD), at least Nikon D200 and a range of micro and tilt & shift lenses, plus a lot of experimenting and testing.

Anyway, see < http://www.usjol.com/> - professional jewellery web imaging service in U.S. Photographers are mediocre quality, but cheap (10-20 USD per shot)

If you are interested in high-end pictures, you can order 3D reverse from your photos. I don't know any company, who does that, but you can chat with the folks from Fameo < http://www.fameo.co.uk >, since they use this technique and to tell you the truth, when I saw their jewellery posters at the Spring Fair, I was stunned.



Best regards
H. L

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(1) One technique that I used for years for small collectible objects that I sold within online auctions was to use a scanner that allows you to scan with the lid open so you can put 3d objects on the glass (you can protect the glass from scratches by putting a clear throw-away sheet of glass or plastic on top). I still even use a old 10 year old Umax scanner for this. I can get very detailed images - far greater than any camera I've used because the scanner is only limited by memory - I can crank it up higher and higher, but a camera is fixed.

(2) I recently tried out the Canon t1i at a Best Buy (I brought my own SD card with me so I could pop it into the camera and take the the images home for viewing in photoshop. I was not impressed with the camera's macro mode with the 18-55mm lens you get - they suck and are no better than a several years old 6.1MB Kodak I have. After reading the review for this $800+ camera here my finding were confirmed - you need to spend more money on a macro lens - yeah right.

So I'm probably going to get a $165-$199 Fuji S1500 which has a macro mode that allows shooting up .8 of an inch (2 cm). I've tried this camera also and it produces sharp images at low iso settings in clearly lit settings. Sure the Canon can do better in a lot of shooting conditions, but it can't touch the Fuji for macro unless you want to spend $800 + hundreds more for a good macro lens. There's a small user group on flickr with some sample images for the s1500 - search for "s1500".