Shooting Silver

C

Chudster

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I'm using the Olympus e520 DSLR camera with standard 14-42mm kit lens.

Any tips?
 
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The kit you have should be fine.

You need to read up a bit on metering. Basically the camera meter is trying to average the scene out to 18% grey, which is fine for most shots but if you have a large expanse of white in the frame then it will tend to make it grey = underexpose.

Set the camera to manual, and use spot metering off the grey card. Or spot meter off the white background and add 11/2 - 2 stops extra exposure (or just use the "highlight" option for metering, which I think your camera has).

This should get your exposure fairly close, and then you can bracket exposures until it comes out to your liking - choose the aperture for the depth of field you want (smaller aperture/higher number allows more of the subject to be in focus) then adjust the shutter speed to give different exposures.

Good luck, and welcome to the forum! :wave:
 
Very hard to photograph silver like this but I've had good results using subtractive lighting within the light tent (possibly be lit from below as well) which is achieved by introducing areas of black cloth possibly quite large. this helps define the form of the item.

Good luck.

John
 
Shoot in a perspex sheet or something similar. Paper or cloth will show its texture and eat too much light.

Measure for the jewelry and try to overexpose the background. It's really difficult to get it completely right on camera so a bit of postprocessing (levels,masking) will be necessary.
 
Try converting it to B+W, the colour is distracting and not nescessary, that will also reduce the file size, making you site load quicker:thumbs:
 
That looks quite promising. I think it still needs a bit more exposure - I would apply levels and/or a curve to this to raise the background without blowing out the highlights of the silver, but you say you don't want to do PP. Play around with the different picture controls.

I think you also need to position the item(s) a little differently if you can. I can't actually make out what it is meant to be - a motor bike in front of a lorry, stuck on to a lorry, is it one piece or two? Taken at a slight angle might help.

Google "photograph jewellry" for more tips.
 
a light box or other diffused light source
metal isnt the best of subjects to shoot...
 
Chudster said:
Thanks for your help so far guys :)
Could you maybe give me an idea of what 'picture controls' I should be changing?
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Sorry - that is a Nikon term ;). I don't know your camera so don't know what different settings it has.

But play around with the Picture Mode, contrast and gradation settings. For instance, it might be easier with something other than VIVID.

Personally I always shoot RAW which handles difficult subjects like this much better. Once you get the best processing for one image you can batch process the rest. RawTherapee is free, fast and very good (make sure you use their recommended Oly converter). However I can understand that you might feel you already have enough to think about.
 
Or pay somebody who knows what they are doing......................:shrug:
 
Chudster said:
What?
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Pay a photographer who knows how to shoot the product that you wish to sell,showing it well to your customers, so that they will buy the product.
 
Chudster said:
Am I right in thinking that most of the shots of plain silver items on the following page are simply Black & White?

http://www.linksoflondon.com/online-shop/men/cufflinks
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No, they're not and judging by the products on that page which do contain colour the photographer was able to consistently shoot without resorting to black and white.

It might work if you have all silver products, though.

I can't see your sample image. So, can't really comment on your results.
 
Chudster said:
I actually saved one of those images to my comp and then went into photoshop and converted it to black and white and it literally looked exactly the same to me, weird. This probably doesn't mean anything though, I'm not sure.
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Whilst you're in Photoshop with one of their images, crank up the saturation. If it's pure black and white then there shouldn't be any colour when you do.

Chudster said:
All of the products on that page are silver. All of my products are silver so this is something I'm interested in looking into. I have had a quick go and it certainly makes controlling reflections easier.
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If converting to black and white gets you closer to achieving what you're after then you may as well.
 
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