Getting Started

When I was little, I remember my folks wanted a new kitchen floor. With money being tight (what else is new?) my Dad decided to install the tiles. My Mother thought that black would be a good color since it would not show the dirt. He did a nice job except for using too much glue. But that is a story for another day!

Very quickly, she found out that black shows more "dirt" than any other color.

I was reminded of that fact when I started to take a picture of a new Chain Maille piece. I pulled out a piece of black velvet for the background. One of my most successful pictures has a black background. (Wish I remembered what I used!)




Well, as you might have figured out, the piece of black velvet was full of white specks of dust/dirt/lint. As my Mother found out, white is the color of most dirt that finds it way to the black tiles in a kitchen or as I found out a black piece of velvet.

The clear packing tape dispenser is what I used to remove the little buggers. It used to be popular to use Scotch tape wrapped around your fingers to remove lint from your clothes but clearly, narrow Scotch tape would not cut it. So, I broke out the 3 inch wide packing tape.

Even with that, it took 3-5 wraps of tape to clear a large enough space to place the bracelet so I could take the picture.

All of this just to get started! Taking photos of jewelry is hard enough with out this. Yikes! (The results was the Orbital bracelet from yesterday's post)

B

Picture of taking a Picture

Many years ago, I wondered, if your vacuum cleaner gets dirty and dusty, "How do you clean it?

Well, fortunately, at the time I had a second vacuum cleaner and I could vacuum the first one and get all the little parts clean. (I don't worry about things like that so much any more)

I was presented with a similar dilemma today when I wanted to show how I took a picture of Lexie's bracelet that I've been working on so much lately. You remember, trying to get a pure white background and still being able to have a good picture of the bracelet. I must have taken 100's of pictures. Most are too dark, not good color and so on and on...

One by one, I've been zeroing in on what works and what does not work. I tried different light, different adjustments on the camera and my photo adjusting software. I finally think I've got it!

Today I'm going to show you (as much as can be shown) the set up I devised.

For lighting, I used my Ott light that gives natural light. (My other halogen lights are a yellow-white light) I purchased some foam core board to make a "light box". But I was still getting glare on the pearls. So, from the kitchen drawer, I used a translucent white plastic bowl to diffuse the light. That, at this point, it is hand held. If this works well, I may get a more stable set up. (The wind blew in the window and down it all went!)

We have some old green insulators that I used to prop up the foam board. I do have a real tripod, thanks to my husband. My camera has a self timer and many adjustments that I'm learning about. So, here is the picture of my picture taking set up. Cool isn't it?

I really have to thank Jim Juris, who has written an eBook on taking pictures of jewelry. That was the other thing I bought. Great book, downloadable. His first suggestion was to get to know your camera (read the manual, duh!) and play with it. Well, I've played with my camera now and I must admit, at least with my camera, I know lots more that I used to. (I love the point and shoot part of the camera still!) Jim has a web site www.inexpensivejewelryphotography.com/

Check him out! There were other tips too. Thanks Jim.

Tomorrow, I'll post one of my good pictures. Till then

B