ringtime for j4

[j4]

I has a ring! Got home from Oxfam to find that Owen had got the smaller-sized version back from the ring-people. He even went down on one knee again, until I told him to stop being daft. :-)

Photography-type-people, how would you go about taking a good photo of a ring on someone's finger? Bear in mind that I don't have the glassware to do seriously-close-up stuff... Also our house has very dim lighting, hence the orangey effect (I think I will have to try again in daylight).

Comments

[emperor]

Natural light and/or flash will get rid of the tungsten tinge (or a filter, but you probably don't want to go there). I think the key thing is getting the focussing right (and you seem to be pretty close there, actually).

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Daylight'll be a lot easier. Um, long lens to get a relatively-close-up and then crop it? I don't think I've ever actually tried taking a picture (or having one taken) of rings on my fingers... (off, yes; on, no)

[taimatsu]

Happy bouncing! :)

[(Anonymous)]

Without fancy lenses, just shoot in daylight so you get good white balance and a sharp image (fast shutter, medium aperture). Go as close as you can while still being in focus, and then blow up the interesting bit digitally.

[martling.livejournal.com]

Um, that was me.

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Plenty of light, macro mode if your camera has it. Alternatively, find volunteers with macro-capable cameras. ;-)

[brrm.livejournal.com]

Oh, and zoom all the way *out* if you're getting in close.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Light is the real bugger here. All our lightbulbs are either a) energy-saving (ie you might as well just switch it off and save all the energy), b) 60W, or c) so grubby (lightbulb and lightshade) that no light actually gets out of the bulb and into the room. And the problem is now that it's winter it's always too dark to clean lightbulbs/lightshades unless, er, you switch the light on...

I do have macro mode & was using it but it's not very macro.

Volunteers -- nah, I was more interested in "trying to learn to take this sort of photo" than "trying to get a good photo of the ring for posterity". I mean, I'm hoping to still have a) the ring and b) my hand, for a good long while yet. :-)

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Arrange that there's a bit of white paper somewhere in the frame - it can be outside the region that you're cropping so it doesn't show up in the final photo, but it ought to be lit about the same way as the ring, and if you can arrange it it would be good to have a shadow cast on it so you have a sample of dark-grey as well as of white - and then use the gimp/photoshop 'curves' tool to adjust the red/green/blue curves so that the white paper has red=green=blue at at least two points.

This doesn't work perfectly if your light is so dimly orange that there's no blue recorded at all, but it generally works quite well for me.

[d-floorlandmine.livejournal.com]

Depending on the digital camera, some also have a "White Balance: Manual" option, where you can use a piece of white paper to set what the camera defines as white under the relevant lighting conditions. I know my old Canon Powershot S10 had it, so anything since could well do ...

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

If you bought my Canon T70, the kit includes macro tubes and stuff for firing multiple flashes...

Really, you just get as close as you can focus, in good light for depth of field, natural light for colour balance, and crop it and blow it up somehow later. Getting the way the hand lies to look right, if much of it is shown, will be the tough part.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Are you selling your T70...?

Yeah, getting my hand to look not-actually-deformed was a PITA. I settled for one where my fingers looked broken and one where they looked amputated. :-}

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

http://oldbloke.livejournal.com/335788.html

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Silver is difficult to photograph well: use daylight, or save the image in monochrome.

[arron-shutt.livejournal.com]

Take the hand off, take it down your local photographic studio where you can shoot it against a nice backdrop, mood lighting and amongst collection of low-key objects to add some class, and then surgically re-attach it afterwards ;)

Anyway, congratwelluations on getting a ring that fits. I found that it took four goes in my case!

[half-of-monty.livejournal.com]

Seconding the daylight suggestion - also would recommend trying in both the sun and the shade. You might get lovely sparkle in the sun, or the contrasts might be too harsh for the camera to pick up.

I should have done a close up photo of the rings as the wedding I was doing the pictures for. I didn't occur to me. Damn.

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

a) it's beautiful.

b) the narky thing about photographing your ring - to my eyes - is the reflection factor. Your ring has enough planarity to reflect almost-distinct background forms and lighting, and those reflections offset and almost overbalance the ring-on-finger image, as well as the embrace of the diamond by the arms of gold (? platinum?).

I would (she said, trying it out) hold up your hand, palm outwards, and slightly above your own eyeline, with your back towards a north-facing window in daylight (the ones in your flat overlooking the road would do nicely, I imagine). Tilt your hand until the light picks up the depth of the diamond, and take your picture from that angle.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I will try that!

And you have just given me an Idea, actually. (Will post the photos if it works.) And reminded me of another Idea I had the other day! (Ditto re photos.) Maybe this day won't turn out to be a why-did-I-get-out-of-bed day after all. :-}

gold (? platinum ?)

9ct white gold. And finest cubic zirconia. :-) I think it's an absolutely lovely ring. & Owen chose it all by himself!