A friend asked about the light diffuser booth I use to photograph jewelry and cabochons, and I thought I should post a thread here with the design.
Hi Tammy! hatsoff14
It's simple, completely adaptable to whatever size you need, and easy to build with minimal materials. Here we go:
Start with a simple board, this one is about 24 by 24 inches, particle board. 18 by 18 might be a more suitable size, as this one is far larger than needed for most jewelry photography. Pretty much any kind of sheet goods will work: plywood, masonite, even sheetrock, though the hoies might need some reinforcing in sheetrock.
Ultimately, you're going to drill six holes in the board, three along each edge. The size doesn't matter except that it needs to be at least slightly larger than whatever wire you use for your hoops, as the end of the wire needs to fit inside the hole. So choose your drill bit when you already have chosen your wire. All this will make more sense when you see the pics, so . . .
Here's the board with the six holes:
Next, cut three wires, long enough that you can bend them into a rough semi-circle and create a hoop that rises above the board, with the ends of the wires inserted into the holes you drilled, like this:
Next, you need some kind of white or light-colored cloth, thin enough that light readily shines through it. A simple white sheet is about perfect, but there are lots of thin white fabrics that would be suitable too. Cut the cloth into a rectangle, as long as your wires are long, and as wide as the board, from front to back, plus a couple inches. Now fold over each edge and sew a pocket along the front and back edges, wide enough so the wires will slide into the pocket. Sew a third pocket, using a long scrap of the cloth, right down the middle, so you have three pockets running the length of the fabric rectangle, roughly equally spaced so they line up with the holes you drilled in the board. Like this:
Now simply insert your wires into the pockets, and insert each end of the wire into the holes you drilled, so you form a simple "hoop house" like so:
Now you're ready to start experimenting with photographs. Find a work surface at a height you like, either sitting or standing, depending on how you prefer to work. The jewelry or other subject of your photographs usually sits near the front edge of the board. You can hold most cameras by hand, but a tripod is nice for those of us who have trouble holding still. I set the tripod in front of the edge, looking into the "studio" area like so:
You can use all kinds of backgrounds for your photographs, leather, cloth, felt, paper, glass or a mirror. Arrange rocks of small boxes under leather or cloth to prop the jewelry in the position you like.
The most important things from this point are the light and your camera settings. For light, I like natural sunlight, shielded by the cloth in the tent. Natural sunlight, shileded by the diffuser cloth results in photos that are a lot like you would get just sitting on a table on a cloudy but bright day: diffuse light with no relections.
If I'm working at night, I use the same sort of goose-neck lamps that I use around my grinders and on my jewelry bench. You can experiment with all kinds of light bulbs to create the light "color" that best shows off you jewelry. I find that modern digital cameras are able to make good photos with nearly any color bulb, as long as you choose the correct camera settings so that the camera corrects for the light color.
Some cameras have settings under the heading "White balance" and some cameras give you a choice of several light sources, including incandescent and fluourescent, as well as sunlight. Most cameras also do a pretty good job choosing a setting for themselves when they are set on "automatic". Try moving the light around, as it will make a photograph look different when the light comes in from different angles, even though the light is filtered through the diffusing cloth. The reason the cloth is there is mostly to prevent glaring relfections off the polished surfaces. It will still make a difference what angle it comes from. Here, I've moved the lamp to shine in from a different part of the tent. If that is all you change, with the jewelry and camera in the exact same positions, you can get a very different picture, so do some experiments and see what works best. Digital photos are cheap!
You
(more photos coming shortly!)