Not capturing the "pretty"

Melanie · #1 2007-07-10, 8:58am

I love these earrings in person, but no matter what i do, flash- no flash- different settings, etc... they are never really as good in the photo... i am going to post several different pics and maybe someone can tell me which is best, what i could do to make them better... i always have trouble capturing the real look of beads that are swirly inside... they either look too dark, too light, etc... and EARRINGS! they make all kinds of shadows! HELP! thanks

Melanie

cghipp · #2 2007-07-10, 9:31am

I think the biggest problem is that you need more light. Ideally, you would have enough light to take the photo without flash, with the macro setting on.

Melanie · #3 2007-07-10, 9:49am

thanks... i have a hard time getting the lighting right... i've either got too much or not enough. these were taken outside on an overcast day. i need to set up an indoor photo area so that i don't have to depend on Mother Nature i guess!

melanie

squid · #4 2007-07-10, 10:23am

try taking them off the cards they're on and hanging them from something open. Part of the problem appears to be that you're not getting any light to the back and the card catches shadows from the front.

IF-Designs · #5 2007-07-10, 10:50am

Have you tried to take a pic of them on black or charcoal grey flat colored (as in no gloss) paper? You might be surprised....I have the best luck photographing boro on that type of background I get mine at scrapbook stores 12x12 sheets of it

Melanie · #6 2007-07-10, 10:56am

great suggestions! thanks... i am heading down now to get an earring display that i can hang them from and i'll try the grey background too! appreciate the help!

melanie

glass addict · #7 2007-07-10, 9:38pm

It looks like your camera is setting the exposure based on the background, which is wonderfully exposed. Unfortunately, this leaves your beads dark. I agreee, change the background paper or try fussing with a manual exposure and either slow down the shutter speed or make the aperature wider.

Mary

wanabeader · #8 2007-07-22, 5:04am

Here are some pictures of glass that I took for my wifes site.

The one thing I learned is that glass is not something that is very easy to take pictures of. It took me several weeks of playing with the settings on the camera, hundreds of pictures and trying things before I came up with pictures that I thought were acceptable for the site such as the ones above.

Lighting, White Balance and use of shadows is the key that I use when taking pictures of glass.

If I could only make a round bead.

Wanabeader
http://www.firenfusion.com

Moth · #9 2007-08-20, 9:47am

Hi Melanie,

Not sure if what I did will help YOU, but I made some frog earrings and wanted to get a good picture. It wouldn't turn out no matter what I did and I was using the same settings and backgrounds as for all my beads which I'm usually very happy with those images. It just wasn't working for the earrings.

I didn't get a decent picture til I took them off the background that was right up against them, took them out in natural light and let the light bounce off them from all the way around, no background at all. I'm still not 100% happy, but it was a MAJOR improvement. You should try it.

Here is a link to the listing for the earrings. If you look at the picture with the white background, that was the best shot of all the crappy ones and it still looks flat and lifeless to me. The other pictures though, were taken outdoors with no background right up against the backs of the earrings. The background is way off and not even in focus. It lets the light wrap around the earrings and adds more dimension, in my opinion. Lets more light pass through the transparent bits as well...much more sparklier. (And yes that's a word.)

Give it a try and see what you come up with. I took the two good pictures on a sunny day, but I was in the shade with the camera.

~~Mary