taking pictures of pearl jewellery

[Alex]

this is a cool and necessary thread for PG devos !!

have to admit I've given up and dumped my old camera, and am now reseaching for a new one

Blaire has been helpful - she is the PG photo Queen, and knows all the tricks, so don't forget to ask her advice

[Amanda]

Like Mophius, I, your baseline amateur (6 months into shooting pearls, the very moment I made the bold step and joined PG in fact) find my cheap and trusty point-and-shoot good enough for my needs. My photojournalist turned pilot brother - Can I crow, can I... I'm very proud of him, he's a captain with Singapore Airlines and flies a 380, has had a couple of hard knocks and is now looking for a wife, any takers? Sorry for digressing - declared the Canon Ixus 870IS as sufficient for my needs as that's what the journo folk use (info is backdated to about three years ago, I hasten to add) apparently in lieu of their fancy equipment when forced to.

Well, I would - but I don't think Dearly Beloved would like it, much. He's a pilot, too, but only of the private tiny plane variety (-:

North, indirect, light is great for photographing all sorts of things, including jewellary, coins, other small artifacts.

I'm not quite sure what you all mean by the "white" issue?

[Caitlin]

Second on Blaire. She is very good with her excellent camera and a good teacher, to boot. Me, I point and shoot in indirect light, on macro, flash off, on a white paper towel which is less reflective- and I rarely get much of value. I do get ok pix, but just ok.

[Amanda]

You might need to think about metering light from a grey card? That would solve some of the white issue. Otherwise you might well get photos which are underexposed.

[lisa c]

Hi Adeline! Well my remark about Equatorial light was a bit tongue in cheek and a bit serious.

Take for instance CathyBear (Australia), whose lighting is of the under the shade roof kind, and Inger of RainbowIslandPearls (south Florida) who even in Winter on a sunny day has intense light. Sarah of Kojima had issues with lighting her pearls after she moved to more Northern climes.

The quality of light differs.

[Adeline Leigh]

Yes, I understand now, Lisa. My outdoor shots of Melbourne are always bathed in a diffused surreal yellow glow. The light in Singapore (1 degree north of the Equator) seems harsher but there's a certain stark clarity to it though.

Amanda, you must get splendid little "Honey, I'm home" gifts. The brother is useless for any pearl or gem shopping in foreign cities. What a waste. Believe me I've tried and all I got were nuggety potato pearls when I educated him him in baroque.

[New Zealand Natural Pearl]

Oh so good to see that so many of you are fighting with the same problem! I am using a Canon PowerShot G10 camera with a 28-140mm wide zoom 14.7 mega pixel (Adeline I am also lost when it get' too technical ) Using macro (little flower) and indirect light I took a few pictures.

First one: facing north, blank white paper underneath and white cardboard, daylight from the left (cloudy day), lights were on inside the studio. Macro setting, zooming out from full zoom.

Second picture: same as first.

Third picture: Facing east,daylight from behind) studio floor in the darkest corner I could find. Not using flash! pearls are on white paper

Last picture: Everything the same as third picture, just blocking out more light coming from behind with a sheet of paper.

[Cathybear]

I live in Darwin and the light is pretty harsh here. If I photograph outside the pearls have too much shine and you can't see the colour, inside with a window either side and I get a grey cast over the photos. I tried different places around my home and found the front porch, with attached carport, cuts the glare and brings out the colour. Things vary between wet season and dry season (angle of the sun) and density of cloud cover or no cloud at all. I took one batch outside up the back yard, very heavy cloud cover.. the photos were lovely but I had to be ready to grab everything and run when it started to rain. Sad thing about big dark grey clouds... they're usually about to pour.
I used to have a Fuji s9600, but I wore it out. Then I bought a Fuji HS20 about 6 months ago which I dropped and broke last week. SIGH. The hs20 photos were a bit paler than the 9600, but I need EASY... EXR mode. My head starts spinning when I try to learn how to do it all manually. I've ordered a Fuji XS-1 which has a bigger sensor, so we'll see how that goes and I vow to not leave it plugged into the computer (if you do and forget, pick up the camera and start to walk off with it, it flies out if your hand and smashes). I'm using a white damask supper cloth as a backdrop.
Cathy

[Katbran]

You have lovely photos! Must be good I've bought about 4 necklaces LOL !

[Cathybear]

Thank you Katbran. My aim is to try and get the photos as close to what my eyes see as I can.
No point in them looking better, cause then you'd be disappointed when you got them.

[lisa c]

Wow, NZNP, I'm blown away by the pics from the dark corner of your studio! Also when I enlarged your white pearls I saw a nice bit of iridescent color popping out. Is that actually there? I feel I have to explain I only have a cellphone, not a computer for a while now.

Ummmm, I guess you're using NZ light? I only remark about it because so many of the posters jet all over the map, and I don't want to make assumptions. You could have more than one studio... Anyway I was impressed with your photo of smeagol, and for someone who wasn't happy with them, your pearl pics are workin'!

It's going to be real interesting finding out how important/ not important the northern exposure element will be, because it seems like you got better results from the eastern. How do you feel about the results, which pics are truest to life?

This is amazing, guys!

Cathy, you and Lucas- impressive!

[lisa c]

Ok, you guys are going to laugh, but digital cameras are amazing. On my old camera (nikkormat) I had to use screw on filters to adjust for light sources, and change big heavy lenses to get close-ups, and all that gear is heavy.

[Adeline Leigh]

Lisa, not laughing, not one bit Remember the photojournalist-pilot brother swears the journos carry both the digital SLRs and the minimalist point-and-shoots.

When he gets back, will ask him for this year's update on the latest compact digital camera the pros are recommending for small-er budgets and light-er hands.

Belinda, love the various 'experimental' shots you've taken so far. Pics 2 and 3 speak to me as a consumer.

Keep it going, guys.

[lisa c]

Hi Adeline! Your contributions have been a real treat and important. I'm thinking for instance of your pictures at home and in Austria, aside from your creativity, and how new cameras accommodate ambient light. Maybe we'll find that northern exposure is important in non-tropical regions, but not important in tropical regions. Good stuff, I think; I'm learning a lot.

Now, it's interesting that NZNP's background appears gray instead of white; this must be where establishing color standards matters. White vs gray.

Amanda, can you tell us about the white vs gray? No pressure (just WOW us), only if you have time. Or the early posters can chime in, if you feel like it?

I have a Casio exilim ex-12 (which I have yet to print out the guide for, thank you for the link Alex) but I'll hate to part w the Nikkormat however obsolete, just feeling insecure.

Blaire's is a Nikon; I don't know how much she has to fiddle with it to get such great results, but she's got it down!

Hi Cathybear, I'm glad you chimed in, your photos would bankrupt me if I had a credit card, they're so luscious.


Well, I'm just so delighted with the contributions I had to say it. You all are great! There are many more folks to get a thanks out to, and some old posts to cover and showcase (? Right term?)

[lisa c]

A light box - under Show Us Your Pearls, Photo Tips by JMarcus...