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The Dark Room -- Photo Editing and Picture Taking. Advice, tutorials, questions on all things photoshop, photo editing, and taking pictures of beads or glass.

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  #1  
Old 2010-11-11, 10:15am
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wow, this is hard!!! I have seen a sparkle dazzler light, what sucks, is I use to have it and the photo tent, cant find either one (who the hell looses something like that, lol)ok, I have seen little star sparkles in peoples photos, I am assuming this is done by a photo editor. What are your tricks or advice on creating the sparkle in glass/crystal. My pics are all flat looking, and totally takes away from the pic........any help would be greatly appreciated. I will try to download some pics on here today to give you examples of my flat looking pics. Please excuse that they are not my lampwork beads, as of right now, Im totally out of my own stuff.
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  #2  
Old 2010-11-13, 10:55am
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Depending on the type of camera you have, DSLR for example, you can get star filters that add the effect right to the image before the camera captures it. There are other ways to get a similar effect in camera, most require that you use a small aperture setting, larger F number like F16 or F22, this also gets you a larger depth of focus.
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  #3  
Old 2010-11-13, 11:00am
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I actually prefer not to add "sparkles" to my photos. Just a personal preference, mind you. Some people really over-do them and it looks dreadful. I even remember seeing a jewelry photo once where someone had added a sparkle to Turquoise. ???

Sometimes you can angle your lights to get a sparkle off one of the pieces of metal.

if you really want them, you can add them in photo-editing software or you can get a (very inexpensive) screw on lens filter.
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Old 2010-11-13, 11:01am
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Oh, totally agree with Roy about the depth of field. I think changing that is way better to create "unflat" photos.
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  #5  
Old 2010-11-13, 11:08am
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Whatever you do,don't add them in a photo program. I think it looks so very tacky and would never buy anything where someone had added sparkles to the photo in an obvious way.

What does your current photo setup look like? Are you using enough light? What colour background are you taking your pictures against?
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  #6  
Old 2010-11-13, 12:10pm
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I would really avoid the "star sparkle" effect. It looks really unprofessional. Go through 1000 Glass Beads and look at the pictures; you will not find a single "star sparkle" in that or any other professional publication.
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Old 2010-11-13, 8:53pm
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Maybe not sparkle, but in a 1000 glass bead photos you will find odd colored and contrasty backgrounds, props that compete with the bead for the attention of the viewer, poor crops, uneven lighting, narrow depth of field and too many bright highlights (which could be mistaken for sparkles because of the short depth of field). But then, as talented as some of those people are at making beads, who cares if they can take pictures.

But I do agree, sparkle is a waste of time if you are trying to sell jewlery. The whole idea is to show what you are selling without a bunch of fancy gimicks... unless you are one of those photographers that can use gimicks so well, that they do enhance the jewlery.

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  #8  
Old 2010-11-13, 9:14pm
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My camera does not let me change the aperature. It is designed to be pretty much automated with tons of automated settings. It does have a manual mode, but does not let me adjust the aperature. I use alot of crystal in my glass, and it just looks flat, same with my glass beads. I have daylight lights for photography, but cannot get a decent pic at all in the house cuz the rest of my house is so dark...I have been taking them outside in indirect light. My camera is a fuji film finepix s2100 hd, and the manual is about worthless. It tells you where the controls are but doesnt tell you how to use them. I tried adjusting the aperature, just like kevan said in her tutorial, but it will not let me, and mine is a real low number gives me options continuous af, single af or mf, and it i try to set the aperature shutter speed, (its showing at f7) the only thing it does is show me a smaller box, a bigger box, and a larger box, no clue what that means, and when the boxes change, the number f7 doesnt change.
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  #9  
Old 2010-11-13, 9:18pm
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I am either using a white piece of paper, or beige. some pics are laid down flat and I stand above and take them, some are standing straight up against a white or beige background. I know they say to take the photos displayed artistically, but it seems so hard to get a clear good pic when you have to focus on more than just the jewelry piece. I have tons of displays, but the displays are so big, I have to stand back in order to get the whole picture in, which kind of defeats the purpose of the macro mode.

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Originally Posted by Oenone View Post
Whatever you do,don't add them in a photo program. I think it looks so very tacky and would never buy anything where someone had added sparkles to the photo in an obvious way.

What does your current photo setup look like? Are you using enough light? What colour background are you taking your pictures against?
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  #10  
Old 2010-11-13, 9:30pm
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Flat looking glass is due to light. If you don't have the light hitting it right, it's going to look flat (or dead looking). You can try increasing the contract in your editing program, which might help a little. If you are lighting from head on, that is why it looks dead. What would help would be to get some light hitting the glass from the side, or the rear or from underneath, any angle that isn't directly from the the camera angle.

The continuous AF stands for continuous auto focus. That means it's constantly focusing. Single AF means it only focues when you take the shot and MF means manual focus, you have to focus the picture because the camera won't. These have nothing to do with the shutter speed. One of your settings will put it in Manual for shutter speed and fstop. It will be on the dial or in the menu that has Programmed AE, Shutter Priority AE, Manual mode. Since it has a Manual mode, it must let you change the settings.

Mike
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Old 2010-11-13, 9:40pm
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I just looked through the specs on your camera. This camera is not designed for someone that needs the flexibility of changing settings. It's fstop only goes from F3.5 to F7. F7 is not going to give you a lot of depth of field. It evidently does all of it's auto exposure by adjusting the shutter speed and ISO. From what you are showing, the F7 you are seeing is as small of an appature as you are going to get.

It does look like a nice point and shoot camera and does have a lot of features, but it's designed for people that never have to take it off of automatic. Do you have someone you can borrow a digital camera from that is better deisgned to do manual shooting? Even the older 3 megapixle cameras worked very well for this kind of stuff since you are mainly after web images. My first digital camera, the Canon D30 was a 3 megapixel camera and it did great up to about 16x20 (as long as light, focus and exposure was all correct) and outstanding for web images. Other than that, what you have can do a good job, it's just going to be more challenging.

Mike
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Old 2010-11-13, 9:54pm
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And, once you figure out how to manually change your aperture, set aside some time, put the camera on a tripod and shoot the same scene with every available f-stop, in order.

Load them into your photo editing program and watch how the image changes. Add and take away lights and repeat.

If you really want to understand what's going on, buy Understanding Exposure. Fantastic book.

But it's fine if you do trial and error, find some settings that work with your particular gear, and then use those forever.
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  #13  
Old 2010-11-14, 6:19am
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thanks all. Yes, my camera rocks for regular pictures. When I bought it, I was not making jewelry....Actually, I forgot, I do have another camera, a nikon coolpix l5, 7.2 megapixel. I will check out the specs on it, and try some with that
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Old 2010-11-14, 6:26am
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yah, they said it was suppose to the closest to a proffessional camera in a point n click.

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I just looked through the specs on your camera. This camera is not designed for someone that needs the flexibility of changing settings. It's fstop only goes from F3.5 to F7. F7 is not going to give you a lot of depth of field. It evidently does all of it's auto exposure by adjusting the shutter speed and ISO. From what you are showing, the F7 you are seeing is as small of an appature as you are going to get.

It does look like a nice point and shoot camera and does have a lot of features, but it's designed for people that never have to take it off of automatic. Do you have someone you can borrow a digital camera from that is better deisgned to do manual shooting? Even the older 3 megapixle cameras worked very well for this kind of stuff since you are mainly after web images. My first digital camera, the Canon D30 was a 3 megapixel camera and it did great up to about 16x20 (as long as light, focus and exposure was all correct) and outstanding for web images. Other than that, what you have can do a good job, it's just going to be more challenging.

Mike
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  #15  
Old 2010-11-14, 6:37am
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shit. this one doesnt let me either.....my daughter has a kodak, but i doubt that will let me either....figures
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  #16  
Old 2010-11-14, 7:13am
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I could sell you a Nikon CoolPix 995... it's what I used to take the first 8 years worth of my jewelry photos with...







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  #17  
Old 2010-11-14, 9:24am
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Yea, the Nikon doesn't do as well as your Fujifilm camera. It only does f/2.9–f/5.0. It's better in low light with the 2.9 but at f5 it doesn't close down as well as the f7 of the Fujifilm.

You have another option with the Fujifilm... shoot from further away. The closer you are, the shorter your depth of field. When you move back and use the zoom, you can increase your depth of field when you need it. With most of your flat pendents you will probably have enough depth of field to get it all in focus. It's when you shoot jewlery like Laura above (nice shots Laura) that you are going to need more depth of field so that it's in focus front to back. You can get around this by hanging it vertical or going horizontal rather than drapping it away from the camera like Laura has. Your camera will do a good job, it just becomes more challenging. But it can be done.

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Old 2010-11-14, 9:37am
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Great info, Mike!

I haven't really done too much with depth of field until I got my latest camera (Canon Powershot)... and I'm still not really doing that much futzing with depth of field... maybe I should.
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Old 2010-11-14, 10:12am
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Laura, depth of field is probably as mis-understood as lighting. It doesn't come into play for most people because when you shoot at normal distances of 15 to 30 or more feet, your depth of field is in feet. When you start shooting in the close up to micro distances, the depth of field can drop down to a few inches to less than an inch and on down to a mm or less. It can be very hard to focus with normal camera lenses, let alone those with point and shoot cameras.

I would say that for most beads and pendents and marbles and jewlery like this, at least 2 or more inches of area in focus will work. 5 inches or more would be better. For bracelets like the ones you show above, you need about 6 inches or more when they are laid out the way you have them if you want everything in focus. You don't always have to have everything in focus though. Some times going from focus to out of focus works to highlight the important part of the object as our eyes tend to focus on what is sharp and clear.

You almost never want it to go from out of focus to focused though. Our eyes don't like seeing this and people tend to concentrate on the out of focused part in front, trying to make it come clear. Another thing to keep in mind, if you are going to put the background out of focus, put it out of focus. In other words, don't have it just a tiny bit out of focus, set your depth of field so it throws everything behind what is important way out of focus. For instance, your 2nd picture above is better than the 3rd or 4th picture because the back of the bracelet of the 2nd picture is more out of focus than the 3rd or 4th picture. It all has to do with how the human eyes work and how we deal with things in focus and out of focus. Our brains can ignore something that is really out of focus, but if it's just a little bit out of focus our brains try to fix it.

Just to give you an idea, here is a link to a site that will calculate depth of field. It's kind of interesting to see how it changes with the different focal lengths of lens and distance to subject.

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Mike
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Old 2010-11-14, 10:15am
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Wow... more awesome info. Thanks!

For jewelry shots, there seem to be two schools of thought:

Those who like the back end to be out of focus...

And those who want the entire thing in sharp focus...

As implied by some, do you think it's true that having the back end of a small object out of focus makes it feel more three-dimensional... less flat?
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Old 2010-11-14, 10:26am
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Oh, definetly, shadows and focus can fool our eyes into seeing depth in a 2 diminsional image. Both schools are correct too... but it comes down to what are you trying to accomplish and who are going to be viewing your images.

You can play with focus and lighting and background and props, etc., if you are going for something artsy. If you are trying to sell something, you want the object to be presented as accurately as possible and you want the person viewing to focus on what it is you are selling. That doesn't mean you can't be artsy as well as functional, but it takes a person that has this talent to be able to do that. I'm not that type of person, so I've always leaned more towards simple and plain so that what it was I was photographing was the key element. Sometimes I wish I could be more artsy though.

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Old 2010-11-14, 11:00am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Jordan View Post
Oh, definetly, shadows and focus can fool our eyes into seeing depth in a 2 diminsional image. Both schools are correct too... but it comes down to what are you trying to accomplish and who are going to be viewing your images.

You can play with focus and lighting and background and props, etc., if you are going for something artsy. If you are trying to sell something, you want the object to be presented as accurately as possible and you want the person viewing to focus on what it is you are selling. That doesn't mean you can't be artsy as well as functional, but it takes a person that has this talent to be able to do that. I'm not that type of person, so I've always leaned more towards simple and plain so that what it was I was photographing was the key element. Sometimes I wish I could be more artsy though.

Mike
Heh... well, as much as I love artsy, when it comes to selling my jewelry I'm MUCH more comfortable with the "less is more" school of thought.

I want factual representations of my work. I don't want the photo to look better than the piece of jewelry.

I hate busy backgrounds and rarely, if ever, use props.

But I do wonder if I should try hard to get the very back of my angled items into focus.

Shrug. Probably can't please everyone anyway, so maybe I'll just plod along as I've been doing.
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  #23  
Old 2010-11-14, 5:40pm
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so are you saying I should step back and use my zoom to get better pics?
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Old 2010-11-14, 5:40pm
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Omg, those are amazing pictures...


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i could sell you a nikon coolpix 995... It's what i used to take the first 8 years worth of my jewelry photos with...







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Old 2010-11-14, 5:47pm
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The other camera I have is a nixon coolpix L5.

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I could sell you a Nikon CoolPix 995... it's what I used to take the first 8 years worth of my jewelry photos with...







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Old 2010-11-14, 6:44pm
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Thanks for the kind words.

Why aren't you using the Nikon?!

Personally, I can't see that stepping back and zooming in could be any better than just a close-up macro shot... but then again, I'm looking more for fine detail than depth of field. I'm so narrow-minded when it comes to photography... 99.9% of what I shoot is a couple inches from the lens. ha ha ha!

Did you know that Nikon CoolPix are known to have awesome macro lenses? Have you taken bead/jewelry pix with your Nikon or was it just for family stuff?
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Old 2010-11-14, 9:28pm
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The stepping back changes the focal length of the lens and increases the depth of field and reduce distortion. In portrait work, it's done all the time and many have found that 200 mm gives a better perspective than 35mm or 50mm does. There have been times I even put a macro tube on my 100-400 lens so I could focus it closer and use it for a tight face shot. To get as close with a wide angle could create distortion (like the pictures of a dog or cow in a lens makes it seem like it's all nose and no face). If you can fill your view finder with what you want to take a picture of regardless of how far you are away from the subject, being further away is usually going to be better for a number of reasons and my main reason for suggesting it to Kelly was to gain a deeper depth of field. But, it probably adds another bit of complexity to the situation that she doesn't need.

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Old 2010-11-14, 10:26pm
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Ah... good to know. I have found that when I want extreme detail in a very small object, the closest I can get the lens (physically) to the object, the better. Part of this may be because I use pretty ordinary cameras... and because I never gave much thought to depth of field for these photos.

I had no idea backing up could produce a better picture. Goes to show how much I *don't* know.

And when I said, "I can't see that stepping back and zooming in could be any better than just a close-up macro shot... " I probably phrased that wrong and should have said, "In my experience, I haven't had any luck when I tried backing up and zooming in."

I can tell you I use the bare minimum of equpment, technique AND knowledge. I'd love to improve (and lament about it often) so I'm taking all this in and will try to put some of it into practice.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge!
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Old 2010-11-15, 4:41pm
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You are welcome, Laura. I knew what you mean with your statement. At least your eyes hadn't glazed over and rolled back yet.

Mike
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Old 2010-11-16, 3:27pm
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Laura B Laura B is offline
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Join Date: Nov 15, 2005
Location: Penryn, California
Posts: 6,758
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Heh... honestly, sometimes I feel like I can't take a photo to save my life.

Yeah... compared with some of the listings I've seen, I know I at least have some of the basics down, but I rarely if ever feel I've achieved what I truly want in a photo.
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