How do you get such good pictures of your rings?

[robianch]

I have a 5.1 MP digital camera and I have taken over 50 shots and can''t get any good ones....What is the trick here? I want to put my newly purchased 1.52 Princess Cut ER on here and I can''t get any good shots.

 

[Lorelei]

Welcome! I am far from a picture taking expert but the standard advice from those who can do it successfully seems to be this. Use macro mode on the camera which will enable a sharper focus ( the little flower icon on the back of the camera). Don''t use a flash and try to get your shots in sunlight. Also keep the camera as steady as you can and use a tripod if available. Hope this helps to get you started till better advice comes along, look forward to those pics!

 

[cutes814]

Lorelei has given you all the keys points to taking a good picture. I do exactly as she has listed to get my pics. Getting good pics of diamonds are hard! Just keep practicing and you will get it. I can''t wait to see pics of that princess!

 

[Lorelei]

Thanks Milly, yours came out great!!! Of course beautiful ring to photograph!

 

[sistagrl2004]

I had the same problem.. I finally shot some through a loop late night.

 

[cutes814]

Thanks Lorelei!

Ooooh, loupe. I haven''t done that yet with my ring. I will get on it ASAP. Oh and of course the infamous flower shot too.

 

[Mara]

I actually can''t get great shots in sunlight, it washes out the diamonds. The best lighting for me is bright indoors lighting near a window or outside in diffused lighting aka in the shade of a patio umbrella on a really sunny day or similar. That also seems to bring out the best arrows. Windowsill shots are great too because the light comes in and hits the diamond from behind and then you can get great shots of the arrows and the ring as well.

Use macro setting and don''t ''over zoom''...I have noticed it''s better to take farther away pictures of the ring but highest quality picture, so that when you download them to your computer and open them in Photoshop or your editing software, you can crop out the ring picture and it''s much more crisp doing it that way than trying to get the camera to zoom down on this tiny object. That works best for my camera anyway. So for example I may have my ring on the island in the kitchen but instead of filling the camera lens with the ring, I back up a bit and stand farther away and zoom a little bit. The camera still focuses on the ring (or I get it to by trying repeatedly) and then when I upload it to my computer and open it in Photoshop, I use the crop tool to just select the ring itself. If the pictures are big enough (aka 2mp or more), then that usually leaves me with a ring image that is still very large, aka 400 x 400 or similar, which is perfect for PS.

Oh and try not to size your images too large for PS or it will stretch the screen, I usually max out at 500 or 550 pixels for width.

Even after years of taking shots, it still takes me about 90 pictures to get about 5 good ones. So it''s very hit or miss even with the ''tips'' I know now. So just keep at it!! Even if you get one or two good shots, that''s a great start!

 

[robianch]

Thanks for all of your replies. I have 30 minutes to try this when I get home. I wouldn''t want my GF to walk into the room with me taking pictures of a ring that she doesn''t even know that I have!

 

[portia]

Great question, robianch. One I''ve been meaning to ask as I''m 2 months overdue for sharing my e-ring pics.

Thanks for the tips, Lorelei & Mara! With all the camera equipment my FI has, we can''t get one good pic... and we''ve taken about a hundred. He has a really good camera (Nikon D70), a bunch of different lenses (including a macro), special lighting and a tripod that can hold the camera at any angle. Even on the tripod he used the timer so the camera would be still when it shot the photo. Although, we haven''t tried it on sunny day so maybe that will do the trick!

 

[Kaleigh]

I wish Demelza would respond to this, she takes the most amazing pics. I wonder what her trick is. Of course she has an awesome subject to photograph.