# Need Help Setting Up Canon MARK III 5D For Macro Jewelry.



## Roomka

Hello, Just received my new canon and i have no idea how to set it up coming from a nikon d5100. I figured nikon and canon have similar settings but this thing has to many buttons lol.


----------



## MLeeK

So, you went from a tricycle to a Hayabusa and have no clue how to use the camera in anything but auto?


----------



## macpro88

Did you RTFM?



























aka: Read The Flocking Manual?


----------



## Robin Usagani

It is all about the light.  If you truly bought the camera only for jewelry macro.. yikes!  It is a nice camera but I hope you use it for more than that.  Your D5100+macro lens+good lighting+good background will yield really nice jewelry shots!


----------



## Roomka

well for now its mostly jewelry but im also going to do more than that with this cam.


----------



## MLeeK

Start here and get a little education... Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials


----------



## Roomka

which lighting setup do you think i should go with, i have a regular light-box wit a fluorescent bulb.


----------



## Roomka

yeah will def read that when i get home, dont get me wrong its not like i only know how to switch it to auto and take photos, i never use auto. on the nikon d5100 i used only manual with a fixed manual lens. I dont want to get ahead of myself so i guess i should first start with my lightbox.

View attachment 16888 <- gives off a yellow tone such bs


----------



## TCampbell

The basics of exposure don't care what brand name is on the camera.  Put the camera on a tripod.  Set the ISO to 100.  Set the aperture to something in the middle (e.g. f/8).  Set the shutter speed to whatever it takes to create a balanced exposure.

As for the yellow... this is a white balance problem caused by your lighting.  

When you do product photography (especially when representing products that come in colors) you MUST MUST MUST use a proper color-managed workflow.   This "starts" with the camera, but includes your computer and, if you get printing done (it's not just for on-screen catalogs) then the printers have to be calibrated.  Even if you send out to a printing service, the printers STILL need to be calibrated (better printing services provide this information -- even Costco (of all places) will send you the color calibration profile of the specific printers located in the labs in each store.)

You can use the white balance settings in the camera IF you are shooting JPEGs.  If you shoot RAWs the white balance is ignored (you always fix white balance in post processing when you shoot in RAW.)  

To get accurate white balance (and for product photography you really NEED accurate white balance) you need to buy a true neutral "gray" card.  I use a collapsable gray card for shoots, but if I were doing product photography I might pick up a DataColor SpyderCube (it's a self-standing gray card you can set inside your light box.)  One of the interesting things about this "cube" device is that instead of just calibrating the neutral gray at the midtones, it also lets you set the white point and black point.  It has a black spot on the underside in the shadows and white highlights on the top where it'll pick up highlights.  This gives you a little more control over your image processing then you'd get with just a straight gray card.

If you shoot in JPEG, take a close-up photo of the gray card so that it mostly fills the frame (it doesn't need to fill the entire frame, but it needs to dominate the center.)  Then pick "custom white balance" as the white balance setting on the camera.  It'll ask you to select a reference photo from the card.  Pick the shot of the gray card.  Now... everything you shoot in that box using those same light bulbs will get the white balance corrected perfectly.

If you shoot in RAW, just take a photo of the gray card (doesn't even need to be close nor centered).  Then shoot your products (don't worry about wonky colors at this point.)  When you import the photos into the computer, you'll "white balance" the shot of the gray card.  But most decent post processing apps (Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, etc.) will let you "copy" the white balance adjustment required for one frame and apply it to any other shots you took.  That will result in all those photos having perfect color.

ALSO... be careful about trusting your monitor or printer.  Unless you've bought a calibration tool and calibrated your monitor and printer, then the colors you see are probably not accurate.  If you adjust things so they "look" normal to you, then everyone else will get wonky colors on their monitors.  I color-calibrated my monitors and my printers using an X-Rite ColorMunki.  

Brands don't matter so much here (well... actually since a monitor calibration tool includes software, people will declare that they prefer one over another because they like the software and ease-of-use features, but for gray cards... it's just a neutral gray surface and there's normally no software involved.)


----------



## Roomka

yeah its funny you say that, i bought a new dell ips monitor and the colors looks very good, when i got home and looked at it with my laptop it was very very bad. is this what you are talking about 

Amazon.com: Xrite CMUNDIS ColorMunki Display: Camera & Photo?


----------



## MLeeK

Roomka said:


> yeah will def read that when i get home, dont get me wrong its not like i only know how to switch it to auto and take photos, i never use auto. on the nikon d5100 i used only manual with a fixed manual lens. I dont want to get ahead of myself so i guess i should first start with my lightbox.
> 
> View attachment 16888View attachment 16889View attachment 16890 <- gives off a yellow tone such bs



That yellow tone has nothing to do with the camera, but your poor lighting and the color of the light. Set a custom white balance. 
Take a photograph of a completely neutral gray card in your light tent and use that to set your white balance. 
I'd get about a dozen daylight balanced bulbs to put all of the way around your light tent so you can get ample lighting and proper exposure. 
If you are using an assisted mode you will probably want about a +2 exposure compensation. 
If you are using manual you'll want your meter to read +2. Not zero.


----------



## LShooter

I have the exact camera and lens and it takes amazing macro photos. You need to go buy yourself an aftermarket manual.  There are many out there now.  Start there.  It's a very easy to use camera, but can be complicated if you''re not use to Canon's system.  I wouldn't even know where to begin in explaining things.  I only shoot in Manual and use all the advaced features.


----------



## Roomka

so something like this is what you mean?   but with more lights?


----------



## MLeeK

Continuous light is very weak over flash. 
A 100W continuous bulb delivers 100W of light over one second. Your shutter has to remain open for one whole second to get all 100W
A 100WPS flash delivers 100watts of power in one burst-all at once. MUCH more light is delivered in that burst. Your shutter can fire as fast as 1/250 and capture all of that light
With continuous lighting you need MANY MANY More lights than with flash. 
The box you show will work, though I'd prefer a light tent because the sides are translucent and you can shine your lights through it. It softens the light to prevent harsh glare and you can light all of the way around the subject.


----------



## Roomka

100WPS flash is that a bulb or like a speedlight?


----------



## sovietdoc

In studio photography there is never such a thing as "too much light"


----------



## MLeeK

Roomka said:


> 100WPS flash is that a bulb or like a speedlight?


Flash


----------



## Roomka

i tried using flash with the camera before and it didnt turn out to well, since watches have crystals and some even have anti-glare crystals the flash makes a bright spot on the crystal


----------



## MLeeK

Flash from the camera is always not going to turn out so well. HOwever flash placed outside a light tent and set up properly is going to work better every time over using a hundred 100W bulbs.


----------



## Roomka

so something like this but with the tent ofcourse. these things are pretty expensive do they last long?


----------



## MLeeK

They really aren't very expensive. Where are you looking at them? 
You'd need two flashes, one on either side and a trigger/receiver or long cord for at least one of the flashes. 
Can be done for about $150 give or take. Last? As long as you take care of it? Longer than the camera will.

That light tent you showed looks like a DIY setup that would work pretty well. I'd prefer one that isn't made of cardboard, but if your cardboard fell apart you could DIY another one. $5 for a yard of nylon and a cardboard box. Works!


----------



## Roomka

i was looking on B&H, but there are so many variations it makes it a little more difficult.


----------



## MLeeK

Of flash or of the light tent?
You are in NYC. Why not go in to B&H and actually look at what they have?


----------



## Roomka

yeah i will go to the store before i buy but i just want to get idea of exactly which one i need.

Bower SFD35S Digital Flash SFD35S B&H Photo Video would this be it?

and i also dont understand one thing, is this flash going to be on like a regular light, or it just turns on for that second that ur taking the pic?


----------



## MLeeK

I am not keen on anything made by bower. Pretty cheap and usually not exactly durable. 
For the actual speedlites take a look at the Yongnuo line. Cheaper and better units. Which you will have to order off Amazon: Amazon.com: Yongnuo YN-560 Speedlight Flash for Canon and Nikon: Camera & Photo


----------



## Roomka

sweet, Last question. Is there an option to keep these speedlights/ flash on constant, or they only work as a flash? because from the picture it looks like they can be set to constant light


----------



## davisphotos

5D MarkIII just for jewelry photography is like hunting squirrels with an AK-47.


----------



## Roomka

lol thats the beautiful part about the Mark III, you can hunt fish or whales


----------



## 2WheelPhoto

Roomka said:


> lol thats the beautiful part about the Mark III, you can hunt fish or whales




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


----------



## 2WheelPhoto

Sweet cam but lighting is just as important, don't skimp there


----------



## Roomka

yeah thats what im trying to learn right now, before i relied on photoshop with the lighting but its time consuming. Now i want to create like an assembly line with my photos. have everything correctly setup so there is hardly any future upgrades or things needed to be changed


----------



## MLeeK

Roomka said:


> sweet, Last question. Is there an option to keep these speedlights/ flash on constant, or they only work as a flash? because from the picture it looks like they can be set to constant light


You really aren't understanding flash here. 
Flash puts out every possible watt of it's power in one burst that is somewhere from about 1/2000th of a second to about 1/35000th of a second. It is equal to roughly somewhere between 25 to 100 bulbs at 100W all on at one time. So, no. They do not put that much light out and just stay on. You'd have a fire in no time flat. 

Put 25each 100W regular bulbs on ONE side of your light tent and that would be equal to placing ONE speedlite flash firing at roughly 1/128 power. That's less than 1% of the light it is capable of. 
Put 200 of those bulbs in that exact same place and that would be roughly one speedlite firing at full power.


----------



## Roomka

do these flashes connect to the camera or something because how do they know when to go on for that split second when my shutter blades are open?


----------



## MLeeK

I am pretty sure back on the first page I said you would need a trigger/receiver set or a decent length cord for them.


----------



## Roomka

yeah you did but i dont understand how im going to push 3 remotes at the same time. 2 remotes for the speedlight and 1 remote for the shutter on the cam. to press all 3 at the same time is not easy and most of all a pain in the ass. is there such a thing that has 1 button for all 3 tasks?


----------



## MLeeK

The trigger goes on the hot shoe of the camera. The receiver goes on the speedlite. The camera fires, the flashes fire simultaneously. 
The cord plugs in to the synch port of the camera and to the flash... fires the flash simultaneously. 

You can't be that obtuse.


----------



## Roomka

thanks. understood.


----------



## Roomka

What else would i need for this setup to work. i understand i need also a receiver for the lights and the lights itself but is there anything else?

something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSSyfrM6Qt4


----------



## MTVision

Roomka said:
			
		

> What else would i need for this setup to work. i understand i need also a receiver for the lights and the lights itself but is there anything else?
> 
> something like this
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSSyfrM6Qt4



MLeek told you what you needed to get the setup to work.


----------



## Dao

This link has some good info.

Jewelry photography tips - how to take pictures of jewelry


----------



## MLeeK

Here... let me spell this out in ONE post and pretty plain English.

2 Speedlite FLASHES
Light tent
Radio Trigger
Radio receiver


----------



## sovietdoc

davisphotos said:


> 5D MarkIII just for jewelry photography is like hunting squirrels with an AK-47.



Well, if it pays the bills why not?  Although it is a bit weird, studio isn't one of the strongest points of the 5D III, D800 on the other hand...


----------

