How to take close up shots

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deb0and

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Hello everyone this is my first post.

Let me explain what I am trying to do.

My wife makes jewellery. I want to catalog the beads that make up the jewellery but here are my problems that I am struggling with

1) How do I ensure the geometry and photography of the beads - they will all need to be 100% same scale as each other, and accurate in terms of scale

2) take close up shots on a digital camera without blur? I am using the Macro setting at the moment which is working quite well just wanted to know if there is a better way.

3) How do I get the image of a bead on to a perfectly white background? I have tried photoshop for this but it leaves the image poor quality and the edges are really poor when the background is removed, I have tried several techniques for this, the magic want, pen tool and the extract option to no avail.

Well I think that's it for now :)

Thanks
 
deb0and said:
Hello everyone this is my first post.

Let me explain what I am trying to do.

My wife makes jewellery. I want to catalog the beads that make up the jewellery but here are my problems that I am struggling with

1) How do I ensure the geometry and photography of the beads - they will all need to be 100% same scale as each other, and accurate in terms of scale

If you shoot them all at the same settings, distance and focal length particularly, they will be to the same scale. Whether of not that is 'accurate' depends on the size their are outputted/viewed. You can always include a ruler in each shot.

2) take close up shots on a digital camera without blur? I am using the Macro setting at the moment which is working quite well just wanted to know if there is a better way.

Are you using a compact? They can often go quite close but usually at a shot focal length, which means you are very close and perspective gets exagerated. You need a bit of distance, particularly in view of 1. You will probably need some kind of artificial light to keep the the exposure level up, usually a separate flash gun.

3) How do I get the image of a bead on to a perfectly white background? I have tried photoshop for this but it leaves the image poor quality and the edges are really poor when the background is removed, I have tried several techniques for this, the magic want, pen tool and the extract option to no avail.

To get a perfectly white background straight out of the camera, you need a transluscent surface lit from below, ie a proper light table. You can probably do okay by using a normal white background, lighting it carefully and exposing carefully, then cleaning up the light grey bits in post processing.

Have you tried a light tent? Plenty on ebay, Maplins etc

Well I think that's it for now :)

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
I think Richard has covered it pretty well, the only thing I will add is the use of a tripod will enable you to leave the camera in a fixed position so focal length won't alter (unless you zoom the lens). This will assist you in scaling the images.
 
for lighting i used a piece of white card and put in in my conservatory, the background came out white enough however i made sure the edges were the same colour etc in photoshop.

have a look at my flickr and you'll see the recent product shots i've done.
 
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