Wedding Ring (Product-type photography)

In my opinion (I don't really know what I'm talking about) I think you need more light on the right to make the stone more brilliant, and I also think the backdrop for the ring needs to be a solid black or a solid white. I am only suggesting that because I happen to have a bridal magazine right here and flipping through it looks like all the rings shown are on white backgrounds except a few men's rings on black.

Travis-

When you are photographing highly reflective and polished products you are NOR really photographing the object (per se) you are photographing the reflection of the light source.  The reason your image of the ring looks black and the diamond has black spots is because you have "DARK FIELD LIGHTING"  where you need "LIGHT FIELD LIGHTING"  You establish the light field by using a large soft box close and  over the product- slightly from the back of the item and fill in with white reflector cards made of bits of white seamless paper or white Foam-Cor(tm. Start off with a white seamless background of white background paper.  If the entire item turns white and blends too much, you can hang some strategically placed  black ribbon to create outlines here and there.  You are basically working in a tent but it is easy with small pieces of jewelry,  Use seamless paper for a "sweep" background and use more of the paper for the "walls"- the fill card will take care of the rest.

Don't lay the ring on it's side.  Prop it up with a tiny piece of that stick on stuff- the used to call it NUTTY-PUTTY- you can now find it in hardware stores- it is used to hang light weight pictures on walls without nails- it may be caked STICK-UM,  I forgot the brand name. You need to feature the stone.  Black spots in diamonds indicate diamonds of lesser value- so you don't want to blacken the stone with bad lighting.  Jewelers describe good diamonds as having "fire"- you need brilliant reflections in the stone but no blow-outs because you need to show the facets- that shows off the "cut".

If you want a black back background you can place the ring on a sheet of clean window glass and light it as I have described- still using light field lighting.  Keep the glass a about 16 inches from a piece of black velvet and use small white fill cards to light up parts of the ring that look black- a little black to give it shape is OK. You my need a polarizer to kill reflections in the glass- this depends on the exact angle of incidence.

Good luck!

Try a shot and post it for me.  I hope this helps.   Ed

Ed,


...then should I just use Photoshop to take the stick on stuff out of the image?  Or is there a strategic method to placing everything so it looks natural and doesn't become a distraction?  I think I know what product you are talking about, but a bit more description on how to use it would be helpful, if you don't mind.

As for the lighting, now that you mention it, I should have known this.  I remember reading about this technique of using a large softbox and reflectors just as you suggest.  I actually toured a commercial studio several years ago and he had a couple setups for jobs he was doing just like what you describe.  I will try it again and post my results for sure.  Thanks for the advice.

Susie,

I have done some photographs of metal components with some of my other work on the reflective surface like you suggest.  I like it, just didn't think of using it here.  Once I get the lighting figured out, I'll try some more creative techniques as well.  Thanks for the ideas.

Travis

You make it sound like I can't use, or refuse to use, natural light LOL!  Outdoors is great with soft and diffused light, when it's available, I will try that as well.  These particular images were done at 9:00pm, so no real choice at that time.  But you are right, sunlight is as good a light as any, and you are very good at using it.

Thanks!

Travis-

When you are photographing highly reflective and polished products you are NOR really photographing the object (per se) you are photographing the reflection of the light source.  The reason your image of the ring looks black and the diamond has black spots is because you have "DARK FIELD LIGHTING"  where you need "LIGHT FIELD LIGHTING"  You establish the light field by using a large soft box close and  over the product- slightly from the back of the item and fill in with white reflector cards made of bits of white seamless paper or white Foam-Cor(tm. Start off with a white seamless background of white background paper.  If the entire item turns white and blends too much, you can hang some strategically placed  black ribbon to create outlines here and there.  You are basically working in a tent but it is easy with small pieces of jewelry,  Use seamless paper for a "sweep" background and use more of the paper for the "walls"- the fill card will take care of the rest.

Don't lay the ring on it's side.  Prop it up with a tiny piece of that stick on stuff- the used to call it NUTTY-PUTTY- you can now find it in hardware stores- it is used to hang light weight pictures on walls without nails- it may be caked STICK-UM,  I forgot the brand name. You need to feature the stone.  Black spots in diamonds indicate diamonds of lesser value- so you don't want to blacken the stone with bad lighting.  Jewelers describe good diamonds as having "fire"- you need brilliant reflections in the stone but no blow-outs because you need to show the facets- that shows off the "cut".

If you want a black back background you can place the ring on a sheet of clean window glass and light it as I have described- still using light field lighting.  Keep the glass a about 16 inches from a piece of black velvet and use small white fill cards to light up parts of the ring that look black- a little black to give it shape is OK. You my need a polarizer to kill reflections in the glass- this depends on the exact angle of incidence.

Good luck!

Try a shot and post it for me.  I hope this helps.   Ed
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When you use that stick-um stuff, you can hide it so that retouching is not needed.  If it shows a bit- it will be easy to get rid of in in PS. Here is a shot on black Plexiglas.