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Old 2013-09-26, 2:55pm
Doug Baldwin Doug Baldwin is offline
Pixel Dude
 
Join Date: Apr 26, 2013
Posts: 49
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First, let's talk about exposure. The silver wire earrings with aqua beads are overexposed or too light. For consistent exposures, your camera should be set to manual exposure. Next, set the aperture or f-stop to f8 for items where you're flat on to them or where you don't need much depth-of-field. Then pick a shutter speed, let's say 1/30 and take a shot. Look at the preview and decide if it's too light, too dark or just right. If it's too light, increase the shutter speed (higher fractional number) to give a shorter exposure or letting less light enter the camera. Whatever shutter speed you're at right now for the earrings, I would say move the shutter speed 2 clicks higher or faster than 1/30 to darken the whole photo. With my Canon T2i that would now be 1/50 for the new exposure. Shoot again and judge exposure. Readjust shutter speed to get correct exposure.

I've attached a composite picture showing 5 different exposures of the same bead to illustrate over and under exposure. The middle photo is about the right exposure. To the left of center is underexposure and to the right is overexposure.



If you're using your camera on auto exposure, shutter priority or aperture priority, those 3 methods of exposure control are all automated, leaving the camera to decide the exposure. This is not a sound method of exposure control in the long run.

Second, in addition to the light sources, you should have fill cards around the set to fill in the lighting where the lightsources are not placed. This is referenced in the marble and lightbox photos I posted earlier. I use white card stock for my fill cards. You can use darker fill cards to subtract light or add darker reflections.

Third, you might consider placing the earrings against a darker background to get the aqua bead and bright silver wires to pop out better. Even with darkening the exposure, the silver wires will tend to disappear against the white background. Here's an example of a set of silver earrings against a gradient black to middle gray background. Notice how clearly the earrings stand out from the background.

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