Advice on improvement

[yobenny]

Trying to shoot this ring well, I shot this in full sun through a white diffusion umbrella and reflected light back at it from the other side with the same facing the ring.
18-55 - 3.5 - 100iso f11

Any advice appreciated.

[CP140]

OK... first of all, I'm not an expert, but here's what I see...

Nice even illumination... perhaps a few stray bright patches/reflections (nothing bad though) but some soft (out of) focus areas.

Couple questions for you... what shutter speed? Handheld or on a tripod?

You might be able to get more of the ring in focus by slowing the shutter speed (using a tripod if needed), bumping up the ISO a bit, using a smaller aperture and moving a bit further back from the ring.

You might even try stacking images to get everthing in focus (I haven't done it, but they say it works... )

Now for the artsy part... I wonder if a darker background might make the ring "pop" a bit more....

Regards

[Bobobird]

You want to shoot it well for fun, to learn, or do you have a specific purpose for the pics?

[yobenny]

They were handheld, I think 125 ss but whatever it was it worked with 100 iso and F11.

I thought about lowering the Fstop to 18 or more to open the DOF on it.

The ring was willed to the wife she wants to sell it so I am trying to get pics as good as I can thinking it will help with learning macro a bit. I thought about shooting it on black but looking on the web at jewelry most of it was on white that I saw in a quick surf.

[Green Mountain Girl]

The pictures are pretty good, but I agree with Martin, you ought to try a color for background. Here is my reasoning: it is difficult to tell if the ring band is white or yellow metal. Anyone interested in buying it will want to know. Consider red, purple, or black. You want the ring to pop - this needs more contrast than you are seeing here. Just place the ring on swatches of different colors to test. As it is now, the ring band looks like it has been cut off - you might find that you can take a decent picture with it laying on its side, angle the surface so it is partially upright, then get the same type of perspective as with the current images. It is a beautiful ring.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Benny!

I had this similar circumstance a year or so back with a ring someone inherited.

I have a glass top table I shot it on to get a reflection. I just set the ring on it.

I used a black fleece backdrop that I ran under the glass and I hit it with some flash. Really, there is no “backdrop”! It is all “underdrop” (if there is such a thing)! I’m also thinking a dark BG would make your piece “pop”, as Martin mentioned.

This is one version on black, and here is where I posted in the Forum for feedback on it if you are interested. I did another version on gray in the post.



The EXIF:
EF100mm f2.8 macro
Manual Exposure @ 1/250, f/32, ISO 100
Focus @ 43mm with a DoF of approx. 9mm
Shot on a tripod

Just thought maybe this would give you some ideas. I would say mount on a tripod, keep your ISO slow, stop down for good overall DoF, and let the tripod take care of the slower shutter you may experience if you are using natural light. You may have some background trouble using ambient light and long exposure and you may have to tweak the BG in post.

Aside from the razor thin DoF you have going on, if I were going to post one for sale purposes, I would probably choose your #3. Though they are all pretty good shots. I would suggest trying using a tight vignette to help isolate the ring.

You probably already know this because the ring looks good, but make sure you have all skin oil smudges, etc. cleaned and shined. I used some cotton gloves to handle my subject. If you follow my link, it was suggested in the thread that it is the sparkle that has to be there which means nice controlled spectrals.

The ring I shot had a pretty high appraisal and it is not the style of ring that just anyone would be interested in. I figured in these trying financial times in order to get it sold it needed to have a great shot!

The ring sold… eventually… in spite of my bungling shots of it!

Best of luck with it, Benny!

[Bobobird]

If you want to sell it, then you need it to stand out like Terry's. The more appetizing you make it the better.