Phase one 645DF Jewelry Photography

[Professional]

Another Jewelry photographer here. Hey I didn't know there were so many of us
First off gotta say thank you to Vladim for his blogs and tutorials. They've been a lot of help.
Antonio, have you tried any of the Nikon T&S lenses? I have the 85mm myself and it works pretty good. I know your view camera can get you a lot more shift that the 8° or so that the tilt and shift lenses can get you. Do you have a preference from one to another? I find that going to f18 or so and adjusting with my T&S lens works decently well.
I'm using two strobes, Paul Buff Einsteins but I'd love to see FacetFlash's or others' lighting setup. Care to share a photo?

In fact i care more about lighting han which gear to use, i may go with T&S and movements for those kind of shots, but if i don't know how to use lighting for those then any movements will be useless as the shots will not be good enough to work with, so i will keep watching about the ideal lighting setup to be done on products/jewels/watches photography, and the part in lighting that i focus on will be the modifiers, i have 6-7 lights to be used, but then i need specific modifiers to use those lights on products at best when i will shoot something.

 

[ondebanks]

Actually there is still AA filtering going on, unless you got special edition back or ripped out glass yourself.. just waaaay smaller than on dSLR..

Interesting, Sergei! I always thought that the IR-cut filters on DBs were just wavelength passband selectors, and had no AA properties...can you point me to this info please?

Thanks,
Ray

 

[dougpeterson]

Interesting, Sergei! I always thought that the IR-cut filters on DBs were just wavelength passband selectors, and had no AA properties...can you point me to this info please?

The IR glass used with Phase One and Leaf Digital backs have no meaningful AA properties. It simply cuts out IR light to insure proper ("visible only") color rendition.

To my knowledge the same is true of every Hassy and Sinar back.

 

[Antonio Chagin]

Well modesty I'm never been judge in order to know if I'm a great photographer but my clients are very happy.
I used 4x5 in the old times so I'm more comfortable with this king of equipment. I have a Canon equipment to with all TS lenses.
I usually work with 2 lights, one giving me the key through a screen and the second helping with some sparkle usually a soft box sometime I add a third with honeycomb. For fill I use a bunch of different things ranging from what we called compress foam, white cards, silver cards.
Here is an Iphone photo of part of the set up. Sorry is nothing great..

 

[vchiline]

Fore jewelry or watch photography, there isn't much in things you can buy to take the perfect photo out of the box as I know. Our studio has a bunch of handmade/custom made things to hang, support, light, bounce, etc. When we shoot watches, we sometimes use multiple shots with various exposures and combine them in post. I mean look at many of today's car ads... The car is rarely in the actual scene, the background is a HDR images comprised of many shots... The car might be a real photo, but sometimes also done in multiple shots (but many times it's now CGI)....

I advertising we can't deny that post-processing is an important step. For jewelry, which is my area of expertise, unless the jewelry is near perfect quality, we normally have no choice but to retouch the heck out of it. Even the nice stuff, must get cleaned up. I mean a ring is tiny, so when you view it on a screen at 600px, that highly magnified from reality.... In-store displays you have even larger views, so even more retouching the imperfections.... You can have the best gear, but you cannot hide the fact that post processing is a must in certain industries since we are all accustomed to "perfection" or at least close to it.

Ok, it's late for me.... Have a great night you all!

PS: Doug, thanks so much for your time with me a few weeks ago on the phone. I love my
Phase One system.

Vadim
Jewelry Photography | Jewelry Retouching | Jewelry Videos

 

[FacetFlash]

Fore jewelry or watch photography, there isn't much in things you can buy to take the perfect photo out of the box as I know. Our studio has a bunch of handmade/custom made things to hang, support, light, bounce, etc.

This is somewhat true. But. I can build anyone who is interested the same light kit that I personally use that will get you photos out of the camera that you will love, granted you have at least the minimum equipment. Total custom. If you're interested just contact me through here or my website. It can be used for any product photography. With purchase, I will also help you with tips and tricks!

Thanks!

FacetFlash - Home

 

[Antonio Chagin]

Well as Vadim says, is difficult to find a strait image nowadays. If is not focus stacking is that combine with lots of retouching and the use of digital backgrounds. Most of the watches that I photograph are then retouch and placed in a different background by the artist in charged.
One of the most digitally compose image that I've done was a Gold Label Christmas campaign. We had more than 10 images combined.

 

[FacetFlash]

Killer photograph Antonio!

 

[Antonio Chagin]

Thanks Facet.

 

[MedShooter]

Antonio, I was wondering what made you choose the Horseman over other similar products like the Cambo X2 Pro or the Novoflex Balpro T\S etc?
Are there any differences between these?

 

[Antonio Chagin]

Well that's a long story. I use to have 2 Horseman VH 6x9 set ups for landscape photography. I was in love with this little camera and regretted selling it.
After going digital I bought the 17, 24 and 90 TS-E Canon lenses and used them vastly for a long time. For shifting moderately it was ok, for tilting always found so difficult to get the proper amount of tilt + focus shift.
When I about to get the D800 I started the search for a hole new system with flexible lens mounts and reasonable tilt shift.
I went over the Silvstry, Cambo and Horseman. I ended up choosing the Horseman having shift movement in the back standard which is very good for stitching, other is how small, light and convenient this little camera is.
In Luminous Landscape forum I ask Simon Harper who owns and worship this camera as well and he show me the best lenses for it which are actually very chip, the APO Rodenstock N enlarging lenses. Also there is an adapter for Hasselblad, and Pentax 645 lenses.
I own several Pentax 645 and mostly interested in the 35mm A on this combo. It is a bit tight to use but still can make an 75 mpx stitch with it equivalent to a 28mm lens.
With the MF lenses the tilting capacity is not good. Image get or sort of distortions, so the quality is not acceptable for professional use.
In this image you can see what I mean for tight:

Best ACH

 

[Antonio Chagin]

This is a video of the back standard shifting. Hope is not to heavy on the web.

http://vimeo.com/45512848

 

[priscillacinnamon]

Sorry about the link drop! I just figured not a lot of people see jewelry photography around so I thought I'd share!

I am using a 645DF body with a p40+ back most of the time which I actually got from digital transitions, Thanks doug! I also shoot with a 7D sometimes. I used to use a TF a lot but over time I have shifted away from it. I currently use a 120mm macro.

As far as software, I mostly use Photoshop for all my needs and have just had lots of experience over time with many other professionals.

Most of the time I like to actually try and get the piece of jewelry in the full frame that way I can get as high res as I need to be able to edit and also have the resolution for print, etc. But sometimes I am cropping the photo for DOF and I also do image stacking sometimes.
I use a custom lighting tent I have created from scratch and built on my own. I shoot everything with one light, being a strobe over the tent.

I'd be happy to answer any questions! Feel free to contact me also!

When to you choose to do image stacking? Is it for certain conditions or merely because of the look you are after? Thanks, Priscilla

 

[MedShooter]

For those shooting with a tech camera for jewelry; are there any real advantages over a good tilt \ shift lens for jewelry work? My T\S shifts 8° and I know that a tech cam with bellows would go more than that but I'm thinking whether it's going to have any practical advantages. Also, most of the shots that I shoot are with the ring standing up and slightly angled away from the lens where the tilting and shifting wouldn't be as much use. So, I'm thinking whether the expense, bulk and slower workflow of a tech cam would really be worth it???

 

[Antonio Chagin]

Med this is a difficult thing to explain because I'm a photographer and not a scientist.
By experience, when you do jewellery or watch photography like in my case, the tilting that you need is quite big. This makes it difficult for the design of the lens to render an outstanding image and at the same time makes it difficult to refocus.
When you are in a technical camera the lenses yield a better image when tilted. this is more noticeable out of the centre.
In architectural photography is easier to work with Canon or Nikon tilt shifts because the tilt movement is smaller. You just tilt a bit and shift does not matter so much in the sense that is posible.
With jewellery, even when you are using focus stacking, you still need to tilt.
This image is 9 shot for focus stacking and the front standard is very well tilted:

 

[Antonio Chagin]

In the film days we used to make images lake this with one shot using F/22 1/2 or even F/32.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

In the film days we used to make images lake this with one shot using F/22 1/2 or even F/32.

Why can't it be done with one shot digitally if it is possible with film?

 

[Antonio Chagin]

For me is more controlable working further away from the watch so I use a 120mm lens. This way I can lit and prop with more space.
Modern sensors need f/8 as for obvious reasons. Even though is a 35mm sensor I still get short DOF.
Before you had to think how to get more DOF by using a shorter lens, maybe a 150 or 180 in 4x5 film and using f/22 1/2 or 32 would give you more DOF.
In the other hand things have changed. We look for more detailed, cleaner, highly retouched, 100% viewable images these days.

 

[Bryan Stephens]

Antonio, your watch photography is excellent and the lighting spot on.

I used to dabble in this in my hassy film days (about 10 years ago) and never could quite master the lighting aspect.

Now I just insure the jewelers instead. :grin:

 

[Antonio Chagin]

Thanks Brian. You are smart guy.!