So in my “extra time” (whatever that means), I did an experiment with my rings. Please disregard how they haven’t been cleaned in about a year and the table I placed them on is scratched up & dusty! Who has time to dust?!!
My experiment consisted of shooting my rings in terrible light and seeing what kind of difference a little flashlight could make. No fancy professional lighting equipment. No reflectors, no strobes, no tripod, nothing. Just me, my camera, my rings…and a flashlight.
In addition to no extra equipment and icky light, I wanted to see what I could produce in a short amount of time. That is what’s realistic anyway! Whether for wedding photography or product photography, I don’t always have time to walk around to find the best location for shooting one image, like rings at a wedding. So I intentionally shot my rings on an old table.
The results were drastic!
IMAGE 1: LOW LIGHT = NICE, BUT BORING
To shoot in extreme lighting conditions, I used a lens suited for this. A lens that goes down to f/1.8 or 1.4 is perfect. But since I was shooting tiny rings, I chose my macro lens, which goes to f/2.8. That works great too, plus I can get super close to the rings.
So even though it was indoors at 7pm, I was able to produce a nice shot with my macro lens.
However, the soft, even lighting is a tad BO-RING for me. My bling-bling has no zing!
IMAGE 2: USE A $5 FLASHLIGHT = ZING ON MY BLING!
This time, it was the same dusty old table, the same uncleaned rings, the same lens, the same time of day…
But I added the light from a small flashlight that you can find in any house or car.
The result is staggering! WOW!
Here is another set of images, so you can see the difference side-by-side. Again, the only difference is that I held a simple flashlight with my left hand while I shot Image 2 (below right).
IMAGE 1 vs IMAGE 2
With the use of a simple flashlight and no extra ‘product fluffing time’ or special equipment, the rings look more expensive! Even the table looks better. A nice bonus!
Just do me a favor and pretend you don’t see the lint and dust on the rings! <:)
JEWELRY IN COLOR vs BxW
I also did a comparison between a color image vs. a BxW image of jewelry. I never see BxW photos of jewelry, especially diamond jewelry.
I know it is because the color images show off the beauty of diamonds, but I wanted to test this out.
In the color image, I couldn’t get the table to look as reddish-brown like the images above, but I did get a rainbow sparkly reflection from angling the flashlight just right.
Here is the same image in BxW…
I actually like the BxW version of the rings! I think a jewelry booklet with mostly color images and a few BxW would look pretty sleek.
But that’s just me. I love the timeless feel of BxW. What do you think?