[Jewelry making - Article 00042] - Re: [Orchid] Photographing Jewelry 101

[Alberic]

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Hi Noel,

    This is actually Brian Meek, we met at SNAG Savannah. 

    I've done a lot of photography of titanium (because I do a lot of
    reactive metals) and I've found a trick to get something like what
    it really looks like. 

    Point A: you have two eyes. 

    Point B: your brain merges the images from both eyes to give you a
    synthetic view, which is what you think you see. 

    Point C: your camera only has one lens, and therefore cannot do
    this. 

    For most metals, this doesn't matter, but since the colors of the
    reactives are dependent on the reflection angle, and with your eyes
    you're getting two full sets of reflections, you cannot possibly get
    a single photo of a reactive (or a gemstone) that looks like what
    you see with two eyes. 

    As a test of this, look at the rainbow pattern on the back of a CD.
    Now close one eye. Then switch. Notice that the pattern gets smaller
    with one eye, and moves when you switch. You only get the full
    rainbow back when you use both eyes. Reactives work the same way. 

    So, there's no way to get an 'accurate' picture of a reactive (or a
    gemstone) *without* photoshopping it. 

    The trick is to use photoshop to simulate the merging that your
    visual cortex does naturally. (Yes, this is your brain on
    photoshop...) 

    Step 1: set the piece up, light as per usual. Piece must be rock
    steady, and camera *must* be on tripod. 

    Step 2: set exposure per usual. Set exposure and Fstop by hand. (Full
    manual). focus, and then either turn off or lock the autofocus so it
    can't move. 

    Step 3: take one photo. (USE A GREY CARD!) 

    Step 4: move the lights 'a bit' to one side or the other. The
    critical bit is that the lights all move roughly the same amount, in
    the same direction. (To simulate the offset of your other eye) How
    far they move depends on how far away from the piece they are. This
    will take some experimenting. Be prepared to take a day or two to
    play with the technique to get it dialed in. 

    The critical bit is that the camera not move, and that it not
    refocus or change exposure or Fstop. 

    Step 5: take another photo 

    Open both images in photoshop. Whatever raw conversions you do on
    one, you must do identically to the other. 

    Once both images are open in PS, zoom the windows down so that you
    can see at least a little of each of them at the same time. 'select
    all' in one image. (control/command+A) use the move tool ('v') (top
    right of the buttons, the one with the pointer arrow and the plus
    sign) grab the entire first image and drag it over onto the second
    image. Hold down the shift key as you do this. (thus forcing PS to
    center the image into the target image.) 

    The first image will appear as a new layer within the second image,
    on top of everything. If you toggle it on and off (by clicking the
    little eyeball to the left of the layer name. ) you should notice
    that the two images align perfectly, and the only difference between
    them is the reflections. 

    If you remember me talking about the layer compositing controls
    earlier in this thread, this is where they start to become fun. (the
    compositing control is the little pulldown box in the layer palette
    directly under the word 'layer'. Normally it says 'normal') It has
    many different modes. For blending the two reflections together, the
    most useful of them will probably be 'multiply'. There is also an
    opacity slider to the right of the compositing control that adjusts
    how opaque any given layer is. Make sure you're adjusting the top
    layer (should say 'layer 1'). Fiddle with both of these until you
    like what you see. For purists, multiply+ 50% opacity is closest to
    'pure brain' but since people have dominant eyes, and tend to
    discount the image from the non-dominant eye, you can set it up
    however looks good to you. Multiply is not always the answer.
    Sometimes 'lighten' or 'darken' work better, depending on the nature
    of the image. Play with them, find a setting you like. (There are
    various photoshop 'help' pages that explain what those composite
    modes do. It'd be worth looking them up.) 

    If your images *don't* line up for some reason, there is another
    compositing mode called 'difference' that's really handy for lining
    them back up. Set the top layer to difference, and then use the move
    control (hit 'v') plus the arrow keys to nudge the whole layer
    around, one pixel at a time. If you have a long way to go, hold the
    shift key down while hitting the arrows. That'll move you 10 pixels
    at a stroke. The whole screen will turn a uniform black once they're
    completely matched up. If one spot lines up and the rest doesn't,
    that means something moved between exposures. Reshoot. (Trying to
    adjust one image to match the other would be harder than simply
    reshooting until you get a pair of exposures that do match.) Once the
    images are lined up, just flip the top layer back to normal or
    multiply, or whatever, and go merrily on your way... 

    For those who are about to complain that this is a
    mis-representation of either the piece or the gemstone, stop and look
    at a diamond under good light. 

    Now close one eye. Switch. Notice that you see less fire with one
    eye? Notice that the facets that are showing reflection change when
    you switch eyes? You only get the full fire with both eyes. (this is
    probably easier to see under a scope.) 

    If you can come up with a way to get the same data generated by two
    physically offset sensors out of one sensor, in one exposure, please
    let me know how. 

Regards,
Brian Meek
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