Nikon D3200 and Jewelry Photography

Jojellybean

Hello everyone. I'm new to this website and I seem to be liking it already. I have a lot of jewelry which I want to be selling and I have taken good pictures throughout time but I need to do better. I understand ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture but am still learning and I'm very young.

From my photography class, my photography teacher has given me his macro lens from an old camera he had. It is a Nikon AF NIKKOR 35-70mm f/2.8 D lens. It's all manual and when I hold the button on the lens and turn right to go into macro mode on the lens, it says F=35 so I'm assuming that is it's maximum f-stop.

I also have borrowed an external flash. It says it is a Sigma EF-610 DG Super NA-iTTL. Great flash and I'm still learning about it. The D3200 is mine and I also have a tripod. What tips can you give for photographing silver jewelry/gold jewelry with gemstones such as zircon. Also, I have a free alternate photoshop program known as GIMP 2. Am I set?

bruto

I have read that this is a very good lens with decent macro capability and much more than decent freedom from distortion. Your teacher is a very nice person! What you are seeing in the display however, is not the F-stop, but the focal length. This lens goes into macro mode only at a focal length of 35 millimeters. Although focus is manual, it should still meter correctly with your D3200. Make sure that the aperture ring is locked at f/22, and that the little tab on the bottom of the aperture ring is pushing down the corresponding tab on the camera (at about 9 PM as you face the front). Sometimes the lens will lock into place without pushing that tab all the way down, and you will get an error message. Use a fingernail to make sure it's comfortably seated. Since 35mm gives normal perspective on a DX camera, it should make for good looking macro pictures.

As for the actual job of photographing jewelry, and especially jewelry with stones, I cannot be of help except to suggest that you try a lot of things. It's a digital camera and you can take and erase a million shots. My guess is that one thing you'll need to experiment a good deal with is diffusion of the flash (e.t.a. also possibly no flash at all - remember that you have considerable latitude for natural light with a fast digital camera, a fast lens, and selectable white balance).

Gimp works all right, and does a lot, but compared to Photoshop and some other programs, it can be a bit clumsy to learn. Of course it has the huge advantage of being free. For the most basic job of viewing files and saving them at different sizes, check out the free program Irfanview. It includes a plug-in that will read the D3200's native NEF files. You can't do much to modify files, but it is a very good program for bulk conversion and the like, and nice as a viewer.

Remember for basic adjustment of exposure and the like that you should shoot in RAW (NEF) mode for most versatility, and you can then make many adjustments using the Nikon View NX2 program, or the Capture NXD program they are now giving away as its replacement. Raw files can be altered in some ways without changing the underlying file, which means that mistakes can be instantly reversed without loss.

bruto

By the way, a few posts down, another person was asking about jewelry photography, and mentions getting a "mystudio" tabletop setup. Looks as if it would work well for display and lighting without flash. You might want to look at that, as I think your main challenge with jewelry will be lighting without unwanted reflections. Even if it is too expensive for you to consider, it's worth looking at.

ohyeahar

This is the other thread bruto mentioned that may be useful.
http://forums.cameratips.com/discussion/2219/d3200-for-taking-shots-of-jewelry

Jojellybean

Should I consider getting LED lighting? My teacher says he will order them for the school and let me use them. By the way, I'm only 17 so I'm very new to this.

bruto

I would suggest that if your teacher is proposing to buy something and let you use it, by all means take him up on the offer. If it's satisfactory, you gain some time and experience while someone else spends the money. If it's not, it's a mistake you do not have to pay for. Either way, it looks as if your teacher is really interested in seeing you succeed.

ohyeahar

Agree with bruto. With photography, always try to get your shot with the existing gear you have. If you’re unhappy with the shot due to gear limitations, find out exactly what you need to get to improve your shot.

Professional product photography can get expensive, but it can also be done on a budget. DigitalRevTV did a video on this a few years ago. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk5hHNsAcec
They do silly things in the video but I feel like they got the message across.