Shots
in a Snap: Getting Good Images on the Show Floor
by Tony Siedeman
Click on any photo below to view larger
images.
This humongous citrine from Rogue Gems demanded its portrait
be taken so folks back home could share my shock and awe. |
As a professional writer and public relations and marketing consultant, one
thing I've learned working with jewelry stores is that a picture is worth a lot
more than a thousand words.
Jewelry and the gems that go into it are immeasurably
visual. Sure, it is possible to use words to conjure the rich and enveloping blue
hues of a tanzanite and the fierce orange of some citrines, but these descriptions
simply don't capture the vitality and energy of the stones. That's why some people
spend hundreds of dollars or more per picture to have professionals take photographs
of their more important pieces.
Yet, sometimes all that's needed is an image that conveys the essence of a
piece without having to be an art portrait of it. That's especially true at trade
shows, where it's easy to spot a good gem, but hard to tell the folks at home
exactly what caught your eye. However, you can show them what stopped you
in your tracks. Indeed, in today's economy, the ability to take a good picture
on the show floor is more important than ever—not just to impress the folks
back home but the associates with whom you work who because of tight times are
not able to travel with you.
Despite a bit of glare, this 40 carat moonstone from Boston
Gems gives a fair indication of its impressive size when photographed in an open
hand. |
If you’re going to the upcoming Las Vegas Show, and want to share its gem
and jewelry highlights with staff and customers back home, all you need is a digital
camera that is advanced enough to take decent, high-resolution photographs of
even small gem stones without extensive use of expensive support equipment. Just
follow these basic steps and you’ll be able to take photographs of everything
you find of interest.
- Understand the concept of macro photography. “Macro” is
the phrase photographers use to describe the capability of taking ultra-close
up photographs of items of all kinds. Virtually every modern camera has some kind
of macro capability. There are a couple of ways of making sure of this. When you're
looking for a camera, check and see what its detailed description has to say about
macro capability. You can also take a look at the camera's control panel. A good
camera will have a little tulip symbol.
That tulip is the symbol of macro capability because photographing flowers is
a frequent use of macro photography.
- Choose a camera that has good macro capability. Good cameras are available
at reasonable prices these days. It’s possible to get a camera for under
$200 that has the capabilities of one that cost $400 or more a few years ago.
When choosing a camera, it’s best to go with a resolution of at least 10
megapixels. But for gemology and jewelry photography, macro capability is as important
as megapixels. Although my Fuji Finepix S1000 fd has some significant limitations,
it’s a very capable camera for under $200—and one of its most important
assets is that it has two levels of macro capability—normal and ultra. This
means it can easily shoot millimeter-sized gems without too much difficult.
- Read your instruction manual. Going through a 60 or 70 page document
is an inconvenience. But reading the instruction manual can give you the basic
knowledge you need to use your camera effectively. Of course, reading isn't enough.
With any piece of digital equipment, the only way to really learn is to do things,
and keep on doing them. So once you've read about how to use your macro setting,
get out some pieces of jewelry and start taking pictures. Your practice shots
will rapidly become your best teacher.
This ring shot is ruined by glare, a problem which could
have been avoided by shooting at an angle. |
- Experiment with your flash. When it comes to taking pictures of your
jewelry a flash can be your best friend and your worst enemy at the same time.
Since you will be taking pictures very close in, there will be a serious risk
of glare blasting off the pieces you're photographing and smearing away details.
Unfortunately, in many cases, since your camera probably won’t have an external
flash unit, the only way to get a good shot is to use your in-camera flash. There
are ways to avoid flash glare. One of the most important of these is to never
take a picture through glass if you can avoid it. If an item is in a case and
you can’t get the dealer to take it out, one way to avoid glare is to shoot
the photo at an angle rather than by pointing the camera straight down. That puts
the glare in the corner of the picture rather than in the middle. Another way
to reduce flash glare, or over-exposure, is too underexpose the image. Most cameras
have a feature that allows you to do this. Look up the words “exposure”
or “bracketing” in your manual, and you'll see how by giving your
camera a little less light than your sensor says, you can wind up with much richer
and more vibrant colors.
-
The moment I saw these Paraiba tourmaline earrings from
Nanci Knott I knew a special customer who had to see a picture of them. |
Shoot in available light were possible—but beware of white balance.
Since flashes can blast the detail out of a shot, it’s usually a good idea
to try and shoot using what light you have. That's especially true at trade shows,
because they're usually quite well lit. One problem with this approach is that
the light you see in your mind’s eye is not the one that your camera does.
Your brain is constantly at work processing the images your eye transmits to make
them more comfortable and comprehensible. One of the most subtle and important
things that it does is to balance out the colors of different types of light around
it. A tradeshow booth may have half a dozen different sources of light. You’ll
get sodium vapor from the overheads, halogens from the general booth lighting,
and LEDs inside the cases. Your brain will take this mix and balance it out. Your
camera will not; so you’ll wind up with a muddy, awkward picture. One way
to deal with this is to learn the white balance function. White balance is where
you point your camera at something and tell it “This is white.” Any
decent camera will have a good white balance function. Once again, read your manual
about how to set your white balance--but it's really not that difficult. All you
have to do is point your camera at a sheet of white paper and hit a button or
two. Unfortunately, this is something that you'll need to do at every booth you
visit, since the light will be different at every booth at a show.
- Give your auto focus time to settle in. Many mid- and low-priced digital
cameras don't allow you to do manual focus, but the auto focus is usually good
enough to allow you to get the shot you want. One of the challenges of macro photography
however, is that the combination of close range and small objects may make it
hard for your camera to find the right focus. So be patient. Press your shutter
halfway down and give your camera a chance to get in its groove. If it can't,
then zoom in or zoom out. You may need to move around a bit, but eventually, you
should be able to find the right combination that will give you a high-resolution
close-in shot.
- Rely on your screen, not your viewfinder. Unless you’re using
a Digital Single Lens Reflex, and this article presumes you aren’t, the
scene you see from your viewfinder won’t match the one in front of your
camera’s lens. That’s because the viewfinder is a couple of inches
to the side of the lens. This doesn’t matter a lot when you’re shooting
from a distance—but it can make it impossible to get a good image close
up. So turn on your screen and use that image to center your shot whenever you
take an ultra-close up picture.
-
These two gigantic tanzanite cabochons weighing around 100
carats each from InterColor had to be photographed to be believed. |
Watch out for low shutter speeds. A lot of times, even in a well-lit hall,
there simply won't be enough light for you to get a good shot. What happens is
that your camera has to use a shutter speed that’s so slow that you wind
up moving it, and so blurring the shot. Sometimes you can fix this by moving the
item so that it's under a brighter light. More often you have no choice but to
resort to the flash, in which case you'll just have to use the strategies that
can make flash shots look good. Another strategy when you’re in a low light
situation is to turn yourself into a tripod. Brace your arms against the counter,
rest your elbows on the surface and hold your breath when you press the shutter.
This won’t work as well as getting an actual tripod, but it sure helps.
You can also buy an ultra flexible mini tripod on eBay for about $10, and carry
it with you, but keeping bulk to a minimum is crucial at trade shows.
- Always take back up shots. If you're taking shots of people or items,
take more than one photograph. Even a fully automated camera won't get every shot
right every time, and you'll want to have multiples to make sure you get some
useable images.
- Check your images after you take them. One of the great things about
digital photography is that you can get instant gratification—or disappointment.
Doing this is especially important when you really want to get a shot right. What
many people don't realize, however, is that with a good camera you're not stuck
with just a postage stamp size image when it comes to looking at the picture you’ve
just taken. With most decent cameras, there's a great trick you can do. Put the
camera into picture view mode so the image you want to check is on the screen.
Then hit your zoom and wide angle button. Instead of zooming in and out of the
world, you'll zoom in and out of your picture. This way you'll be able to get
a reasonably up close look at whether or not your image is any good.
- Make sure you can get your images from your camera to your computer.
If it's especially important that the people at home see the things you're taking
while you’re at the show, lack of a card reader or cables can prove a big
problem. So, if your computer does not have slots for reading your flash card,
make sure you bring a card reader or cable with you. Sometimes it’s a good
idea to just bring along the cable so that you can connect your camera to your
computer and simply select the images that way.
- Don't e-mail your photos, post them. Rather than overwhelming people’s
mailboxes with images, it's a good idea to use online services such as Flickr,
which can allow you to put scores of pictures online. Then all you have to do
is send a
link of your Flickr account to your recipients to give them a chance to see
the pictures you shot.
Good luck and good shooting!
This was also sent out to our Colored Stone GemMail newsletter subscribers.
Want to receive the latest up-to-date information on the gemstone industry? Sign
up for our free Colored Stone GemMail newsletter.
|
|
