Just to know what some of us must work with, this is a really "down and dirty" primitive set-up for jewelry shots where I work. I make jewelry for a living.

When we need a record of the design or a shot for an appraisal form, it is me who does it. We have a light box but the lighting simply does not work. I use several set-ups to get the shots depending on the item.  This is the most primitive of the lot!

The infinity curve is a piece of old window sign, sanded and given a matte finish. It was then heated in an oven until I could bend the plastic to give a curve to the back of it.  (An infinity curve is a background with essentially no corners, giving the effect of the background being seamless.)

Lighting is a flourescent lamp, a work lamp I use at work.  Preset white balance, then hold steady or use tripod and shoot!  Often, a bit of tissue paper is placed below the flourescent fixure with tape to diffuse the lighting an help eliminate reflections. Coils and sheets of paper are placed around while viewing the jewelry item to help eliminate other reflections.

I call this down and dirty indoor macro.         TomDart.

Here is a recent attempt.  Sure, I take overall much better shots of jewelry and this is only a sample of the "down and dirty" method with little attention to reflections.  Still, for an appraisal form and rendered in balck/white, it does just fine.

For advertising or display purposes, the image would be painstakingly worked for the single shot.  There is just not enough time to do the overlays and layers of pro ad images at work...I am too busy with the jewlery work and the software is relatively simple with only a few "quick" options for image corrections besides layers.

If interested, this is a sapphire with crescent shaped side diamonds, all put together in palladium.

The "infinity curve" was used for my gallery image of the Cicada Killer Wasp posted a week or so ago but then I went outside with sunlight for the shot.

Take care, all.           TomDArt.

thanks......great info and a great looking ring....
i've been thinking about getting into rings as kind of a hobby...any suggestions on the best way to learn?

Attached Link: http://www.allexperts.com/browse.cgi?catLvl=3&catID=689

oldworld, this is not photography but a link is included that might help.       Tom. 

super....thanks  :)

excellent

Thanks for sharing your knowlege Tom goes to prove that practice is always key,  and necessity is the mother on invention

Danny O'Byrne  http://www.digitalartzone.co.uk/

"All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice" Eliott Erwitt

Danny, yes, practice is key!   I went into these particular shots with a fairly good idea of the results expected, learned by experience.     If we shoot a  photo then look to see "why" it isn't what it should be, the next can be better.  

It is too easy to get the "how can I correct the image on the computer" attitude, when in the first place the original should be the best you can do under the conditions.   Good shot in...better shot out.  : )        Tom.

working at an iSold It shop i have had to photo jewelry before.  Things i have picked up along the way:

1.  Sometimes a more topdown view comes out ok - and that takes away the need for an infinity curve - just have a plain white peice of paper.

2. Lots of lights all around the ring.

3. Put up black screens on one half of the shot and white on the other - especially when photoing silver.

4. A small peice of white-tack to hold up the ring goes a long way with tip #1

And other pointers i have yet to try due to lack of resources:

-Use point source lights and lots of them - it makes the gems sparkle more ;)

-Use a macro ring flash

"In every colour, there's the light.
In every stone sleeps a crystal.
Remember the Shaman, when he used to say:
Man is the dream of the Dolphin"

Rich Meadows Photography

inshaala, yes, these are points with which I am familiar. So much is in the details and the set-up to start with.  Thanks for the post.  Good tips!

I think the results speak for themselves - good reference shots Tom.

It is always of interest to see how people obtain their shots and how they have managed the situation to achieve the result.

Thanks for posting :) 

And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Edward Lear
http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/jumblies.html

You do what works and got quality results. As it is so often pointed out, it is not the quality of the tools so much as the person using them. :)

Kort Kramer - Kramer Kreations

Did you photoshop something away in the standing ring shot? Because there's obvious meddling going in just infront of the ring.

Cool to see how simple a setup can be :)

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. - Aristotle
-= Glass Eye Photography =- -= My Rendo Gallery =-

3DGuy, there was no meddling going on.  Threre is a slight recess tapered to the front cut into the plastic backdrop. I had the ring balanced in that cutout.  That was "pre shot" work, no photoshop touchup.    Thanks for asking.        Tom.