Forum: Photography


Subject: "Down and Dirty" indoor macro setup..primitive!

TomDart opened this issue on Aug 30, 2006 · 14 posts


TomDart posted Wed, 30 August 2006 at 9:24 PM

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.