Marilyn <marilyn@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > Again, I'm asking for advice. Have any of you done a lot of jewelry > photography? I have a student who is interested in photographing > her hand made jewelry. Are there any secrets that need to be known > concerning photogrpahing jewelry, or any special photography > equiment that will help her project be more successful? I've done quite a lot for a friend who makes jewelry. If it's anything like as small as much of what I've shot, you'll want a macro lens, and a focusing rail makes it a lot easier to get exactly the focus placement you want (much easier than making such small adjustments on the lens focusing ring). Of course you can get by with bellows or extension tubes and a good non-macro lens, or even auxiliary close-up lenses in front of a good non-macro lens. Lighting is the big trick. Usually pieces of jewelry have curved reflective surfaces, and often also curved and angled refractive bits; basically all possible lighting problems contained in a 1-inch package :-). A light tent, sometimes marketed as a "pillow puff" or funny names like that these days, can make some kinds of lighting much much easier to do. (How the reflective bits look depends on what they're reflecting, and you most often want them to look shiny white.) Positioning pieces is also sometimes interesting. These days you can do things with visible supports that get retouched out later a lot more easily than you used to be able to. A good clean sheet of glass can also be useful, to support the piece in the air. (Unfortunately right now my server is down so I can't point you to samples of the photos I've done.) -- David Dyer-Bennet Recovering from server meltdown! Email and web service on www.dd-b.net including all virtual domains (demesne.com, ellegon.com, dragaera.info, mnstf.org, and many others) is rudimentary and intermittent.
