Photographing Rings the Easy Way

Our set simply consisted of a 48"x10" sheet of foam core held up by a couple of sawhorses, a single Photoflex Starlite Medium Digital Kit positioned to the back and an Olympus C-5050 Zoom digital camera mounted to a Manfrotto tripod. The entire set took up less than 25 square feet (5 feet by 5 feet) of floor space inside a relatively small room with 8-foot ceilings. As you can see, it's possible to create a set-up like this just about anywhere (figures 1 & 2).

Since the ring we were photographing was very small (about 3/4 of an inch in diameter), we needed to set the camera to Manual Focus in order to position our focus precisely on the ring. To do this, press and hold the Focusing button on the top of the camera and turn the Jog dial until MF appears (figures 3 & 4).

Once the focusing mode was set to MF, we used the arrow keys to shorten the focal distance to its shortest setting, which in the Manual Focus mode is about 20 cm, or 8 inches. We then placed the ring on the piece of foam core and brought the camera in until the lens was 8 inches away from the ring. For the Manual Exposure settings, we set the aperture to f/8 (its smallest aperture setting) to achieve maximum depth of field, set the shutter speed to 1/30th of a second to render a good exposure and took a shot (figures 5 & 6).

As you can see from the result, the ring is relatively small within the area of the frame. At this setting however, this is as close as you can get while still maintaining focus. Also notice that while the band is properly exposed, the diamond is dark and reflects no light. This is mostly due to the fact that the diamond is facing away from our light source, the Starlite Kit.

To try and brighten up the diamond, we spun the ring around so that the diamond faced the softbox and positioned the camera almost directly overhead, still 8 inches from the ring. Without any changes to the camera settings, we took another shot (figures 7 & 8).

Again, the result shot shows that the diamond is still too dark. Because the ring was laying flat against the foam core, there was no way for the light to pass through and refract off of the facets of the diamond. It became clear that we had to position the ring upright to better illuminate the diamond.

Ideally, we should have been photographing this ring on the moon, where we could have positioned the ring in mid-air and taken the shot gravity-free. But since our budget was somewhat limited with this lesson, we had to find an alternate way to position the ring upright.

Instead, we used a razor knife and a ruler to cut a slit in the foam core about 3/8th of an inch long, and then pressed the bottom of the ring into the slit until it was anchored into the foam core. For a wider-banded ring, you would simply make two small slits parallel to each other that are slightly narrower than width of the ring (figures 9 & 10).

We then positioned the camera slightly overhead (again, 8 inches away) and decided to experiment a little with the quality of light on the ring. With the face and baffle attached to the SilverDome softbox, the light on the ring was very soft and diffused. To add contrast to the ring, we removed the face and baffle from the softbox so that the light from the Starlite lamp and silver interior walls would hit the ring directly.

With the face and baffle removed, the light would be sharper and about a stop brighter, so we adjusted the shutter speed to 1/60th of a second to accommodate for exposure (figures 11, 12 & 13).

The result shows an improvement in the positioning of the ring and in the tone of the diamond. Also, notice the effects of the Starlite Kit with the face and baffle removed. The ring is rendered high in contrast and the shadows cast from the ring are sharply defined.

However, the ring is still somewhat small inside the frame and the details of the diamond are indiscernible. Fortunately, the C-5050 Zoom has Super Macro setting that allows you to position the lens to within an inch of your subject and maintain manual focus. (Note: if you aren't using a camera that has this Macro function, you may be able to purchase a Macro Attachment Lens for your camera. Check with your manufacturer.)

To set the C-5050 Zoom to Super Macro, press and hold the Focusing button on the top of the camera and turn the Jog dial until (Super Macro) MF appears. After we adjusted this setting, we positioned the camera to within an inch of the ring, set the focal distance to its shortest (3 cm) and took a shot (figures 14-17).

The result shows a big improvement. The ring is now rendered large enough to make out the details of the diamond and you can even make out the reflections on the setting of the diamond. However, the stone is still slightly dark in tone, as is our "white" background.

To brighten the stone and background, and give the overall shot a lighter feel, we simply slowed the shutter speed back down to 1/30th of a second to "over-expose" the shot slightly, and took another shot (figure 18).

Now the tone of the diamond maintains an equal balance between light and dark, and the background, while not 100% white, is much lighter than the previous shot.

Next, we wanted to add a little diffusion to the shot, so we attached the interior baffle to the Starlite Kit and took another shot (figures 19 & 20).

The baffle has made a difference in two distinct ways. First, the top section of the diamond is now lighter in tone because it reflects the white area of the internal baffle. Second, the level of diffusion in the overall shot has increased significantly, as the shadows cast from the ring are now much softer.

Next, we decided to add the face to the softbox to render the maximum diffused effect. Remember, with the face and baffle attached, the level of light is cut down by about a stop. To keep this same exposure, we slowed the shutter speed to 1/15th of a second and took a shot (figures 21 & 22).

Now notice how the entire top of the diamond reflects the overhead face of the softbox and that the shadow is nearly undetectable. Keep in mind that none of these results should be taken as the "correct one". These are simply examples of different types of lighting methods. Some may prefer the hard, defined results, while others may prefer the softer, more diffused results. It's all a matter of personal preference.

If you are looking to create a pure white background for layout or web purposes, you don't have to do a lot of digital editing once you are this close with the lighting.

If you are shooting with a digital camera, you can download the image to your computer, open it up into a photo-editing program like Adobe Photoshop, and use a soft-edged, white Paintbrush to paint over the light gray areas of the background.

It took me about 20 seconds to "paint" over the gray areas in the image to the right (figure 23).

Remember, too, that if you have more that one ring to photograph, all you need to do is substitute the rings and your next shot will be complete in a matter of seconds since your lighting is already in place (figures 24 & 25).