photographing problem help please !!!?

Question

hello
im in the process of taking pictures of my jewellery for a website and im having a very frustrating problem.
basically im using a huge piece of white card and three 40w daylight bulbs two either side of the card and one above and i seem to be constantly having this pinkish tint to my digital pictures iv played around with my camera using lots of differnt settings.im not a pro with my camera as i usually only use it for regular pictures. the pink tint only seems to be towards the top of the picture and the bottom and im looking for a completely white background to make the pictures look as professional as possibly

any help would realllllyyy be great.

vicky

Answer 1

Bounce the flash on the ceiling.



Adjust the coloring in Photoshop or use the clipping tool to just get the jewelry and then put it on a white or transparent background in Photoshop. Photoshop is your answer, you can do anything in that program.

Answer 2

By 40w daylight bulbs I'm assuming that you mean conventional incandescent light bulbs and that's where the color is coming from. Unless you want to get blue photo lamps from a photo supply store forget about using artificial light ... or get a better digital camera that has a very good white balance function.



Jewelry, silverware, glass and anything else shiny is better off being photographed inside a light tent. They're easy to make (especially for something as small and jewelry). Take it outside on sunny days for your photos.



Buy a nice bright white sheet. Using hanger wire, or whatever you have at hand, make a cube frame. Suspend the sheet on the inside of the frame so that the frame doesn't show. Cut a slit in the sheet, on one side of the cube, that's large enough for the camera lens (you will probably end up making multiple slits or one long one using Velcro that you can close around the lens. Pull the sheet section that is on the opposite side of the slit forward in a gentle curve and make it the "floor" of your tent. Voila! No harsh shadows, no reflections of you or the camera and, in the sun, no color problems.



Here's one made with PVC pipe:

http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent



Or you can buy a commercial one like this

http://www.ezcube.com/

which I've used but don't like because the corners show too easily in the photo.

Answer 3

If you want to do something really cool, buy a light box from a photo shop or an art supply store. As you read my article here, you will see some links to photos made on a light box.



This is NOT a really professional approach, but it might be suitable for web postings, which is what you are dealing with. Just don't try to put any of your photos in catalogs...



Jewelry Pictures



For objects photographed from a distance of 3-4 feet, absolutely any digital camera and any "digital photographer" can get a suitable image. Don't forget that the largest picture eBay will display (unless you are hosting your own images) is 800 x 800 pixels or less than 1 megapixel. For jewelry or other small items, you have to learn macro technique. You can also do this with almost any digital camera, but here's an article that I wrote about jewelry in specific. I am sure that you will find it helpful.



The best way to take photos of jewelry for a web site is with a digital SLR and a macro lens. If you are not going to go with a DSLR, almost any point and shoot with a macro mode will serve you well. The thing is, I feel that you need to use the flash to force the aperture to close while still having enough light for an exposure. Many here will tell you different, but follow this advice and see what you think.



Use your macro setting and experiment. Let's say you have a point and shoot camera with macro and a flash on the camera. You might have to go to a manual mode to do this, but...



Put your item on a nice background surface. I like to just put it in a ring box or on some velour. Zoom out at least half-way so that you will be working about a foot away from the ring. Be sure that you get focus confirmation. Shoot a picture USING flash. Check the LCD for the result. If you have overexposed the item, use the EV adjustment to reduce the exposure. For small items, I often find that I need to reduce the exposure by about 1.0 EV. (That's -1.0 EV.) It is better to have the item properly exposed and the background underexposed, so just worry about the jewelry for now. Using a deliberate underexposure will cure the "too shiny" appearance of the stones and metal.



If you know how, you can use either full manual exposure or just Aperture Priority and choose a smaller aperture (larger number) to make the ring show up in better focus.



If you have a DSLR, post your question again stating the kind of camera that you have and the lens that you are using and we will give more details.



If you are doing any image processing at all, such with Photoshop or it's cousins, you can crop the image to 800 pixels by 800 pixels and use Supersize images on eBay. I always use the Picture Pack when I am selling anything of any value.



Check out http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/heartring.jpg which I did a while ago using a Nikon Coolpix 5400 exactly as described above. I do NOT think this is acceptable, but we decided not to sell the ring anyhow, so I didn't bother to do a better job. It's still better than some I've seen. I don't keep old photos of sold items around, so I don't have much to show you, but at least you know that it's possible to get an acceptable result even without spending huge dollars on your equipment.



The key things to remember are:

-Macro setting

-Zoom out to get about a foot away from your subject

-Use flash

-Try different EV settings and expect that you will end up with a negative EV setting, such as -1.0 EV.



I happen to have some photos from old auctions on an FTP site. I think that these were all taken with a 3 MP Nikon Coolpix 885.



http://members.aol.com/swf08302/carvina.jpg

http://members.aol.com/swf08302/skullfront.jpg

http://members.aol.com/swf08302/konkontu.jpg

(The patch is about 4 inches long.)



Here are a couple of coin photos done exactly as described, but using a D200:



http://www1.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=57759389/PictureID=2801041875/a=75953750_75953750/t_=75953750

http://www1.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=57759389/PictureID=2801041874/a=75953750_75953750/t_=75953750



I did these with my Nikon Coolpix 4600, just to show you what a really inexpensive camera can do. It's a 4 MP camera that I paid about $150 for a couple of years ago.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/577501964/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/577501976/



Here are a couple more auction photos done as described, using a 60 mm macro lens on a DSLR:



800 x 800 http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/yorkie01.jpg

800 x 800 http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/montblanc05.jpg

800 x 800 http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189769@N04/412244168/ (light box)

800 x 800 http://www.flickr.com/photos/7189769@N04/412244164/



I finally posted that auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:11&item=200126973404



If you are interested in a full description of an SLR set-up, post a new question and ask specifically for that information. I'm gathering from the nature of your question that you might be in the point and shoot market.

Answer 4

here is the answer but it might be to high tech for some - trying to make it easy for you



build a light box, links above



read your camera manual do a white balance with a white piece of paper as per the instructions, to remove the pink cast



use a tripod, fire the camera using the timer, for sharp images



if you know or can use manual exposure and focus do so



you can also try bouncing a difussed flash off the ceiling of your light box



not easy I know but this field of photography is specialist and im not, best i got



a

Answer 5

Instead of spending all that extra time with photoshop, try getting rid of littel rinky dink daylight bulbs, and use real light from:a) the sun, or b) better lighting.



Generally, it sounds like a bit of white balance / exposure problem caused by inaequate light.



Options: 1) Use stronger lighting, and light the jewelry indirectly, by bouncing light off of a light/white surface. Butcher paper, foamboard, ceilings, walls, etc... 2) Adjust your white balance, using your cameras manual as a guide.



Trick. If you have a cooler/ice chest, that is clean and white on the inside, you can place your jewelry in there, light the interior from above, and the walls will act as reflectors, taking away shadowing, etc, and give you the best white background you can get.



If this is a long term project, see here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/347667-REG/Cloud_Dome_CDIB18W_Infinity_Board_Matte_White.html and http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=sort&A=search&Q=&sortDrop=Price%3A+Low+to+High&bl=&atl=Price_+40+%3C%3D++%3C%3D+59.99&pn=1&st=categoryNavigation&mnp=0.0&mxp=0.0&sv=1410&shs=&ac=&fi=all&pn=1&ci=1410&cmpsrch=&cltp=&clsgr=