# Product photography



## frank64057 (Jun 23, 2012)

We are trying to figure out how can we make our images looks professional catalogue quality

Attached file 4717.jpg is an example of image we have taken

We would like our images to look like
Princess Cut Diamond Engagement Ring and Wedding Band Set 1 Carat (ctw) in 14K White Gold - My Jewelry Box

is this all photoshop work? any one can give us a clue as to how to do this?

thanks in advance for any suggestions or comments.


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## fjrabon (Jun 23, 2012)

First, you gotta absolutely crank the light for that type of photography, because you need both macro shots, which tend to have a small depth of field, but you also need a large depth of field so that the entire ring is in focus.  On top of that you need a relatively low ISO, so there is very little noise  The only way to really accomplish  all of this is a low f-stop, but with near _blinding_ light.  Like guys I know who do this type of work will go through cameras every couple years, just because they burn their sensors out eventually from the brightness of the light they're working with.  

Then, when you do all of that, yeah, it's a lot of photoshop.

So, you're going to need to drop a lot of money on a lighting rig, you're going to need a good macro lens, you're going to need a camera with a sensor known to not be prone to burning out quickly under bright lights, and you'll need photoshop (lightroom probably won't be enough for the type of edits you'll need to make)

If you run a jewelry company and really need pro type results, it's actually just way cheaper to hire somebody to do it for you, and it will look 10000 times better (assuming you hire a real pro).


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## Bitter Jeweler (Jun 23, 2012)

Uhhhh....you don't need bright lights. Long shutter speeds will do just fine.

----> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/general-gallery/260145-recent-products.html <----

Get the book "Light, Science,Magic" it's all about light, and geared heavily towards product photography.

Looking at the site linked to, some of those images look like renders. If you look close at some of the center stones, they are not even set, and the prongs don't hit the stone. Also, you can see on some of the clusters and sides stones, the same stone is repeated several times in the same orientation. I will do this to, if a stone has a flaw, or a blown reflection. Simply copy a selection from a nearby stone and paste it over the flaw.


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## Ysarex (Jun 24, 2012)

I know exactly how to do this: Hire a professional photographer. Small product photography of highly reflective objects is a specialized discipline that requires specialized skills. Stop screwing around and hire someone with those skills.

Joe


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## Sw1tchFX (Jun 24, 2012)

You need 4 things:

1. A camera with manual exposure control
2. A bunch of foamcore you can cut down
3. go-bo's. 
4 a tripod.

No photoshop required, no fancy lights or flashes. Not even kidding. That's how they did sh*t on film, and that's how they still do it today. I've got 4x5 chromes of watches I shot in college. We had to turn in the transparency out of the camera so the teacher could make sure we weren't cheating.


The white highlights on the flat parts in the example you posted are nothing but white foamcore...It's not rocket science.


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## Bitter Jeweler (Jun 24, 2012)

If you knew how jewelery is made, and stones are set, you would see the large amount of fakery going on in the images on that site.


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## fjrabon (Jun 24, 2012)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> Uhhhh....you don't need bright lights. Long shutter speeds will do just fine.
> 
> ----> http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/general-gallery/260145-recent-products.html <----
> 
> ...



yeah, i guess it's true in a theoretical sense, though I know a few people who do that for their job and they say that long shutter speeds tend to give them noisier images?  Maybe that's just them and their preferences, but everybody I have seen do this type of photography at the level the OP is aspiring to has a pretty intense lighting rig.

edit: and while I like the style of the photography you linked, for jewelry photography it's pretty drastically different in style from what the OP linked as wanting.  Your lighting is WAY less intense than what OP linked to.  My original post was more geared at how to produce the type of image the OP linked to than how to take product, or even jewelry, photos in general.


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## pixmedic (Jun 24, 2012)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> If you knew how jewelery is made, and stones are set, you would see the large amount of fakery going on in the images on that site.



I am now actually more interested in what is "fake" in the web sites images of the jewelery than I am in how the pic was taken...go on Bitter Jeweler...please continue.

:mrgreen:


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