amoringello
The reason it does not look so gradient is, because I havn't moved the paper up any further in the cocoon. I don't use white, because, it is just too hard to get it pure white in photo. Also I don't lay my earrings or necklaces in the cocoon, I either use a display neck or, as I'm doing now, hanging the jewelry in the tent. Make that stand for the earrings, it will help allot. That Holaday women she has a pole going across the top of her light tent, and has hooks she can hang necklaces from. I tried using a plexiglass rod on top of my cocoon, not a good idea, kept on sliding down lol. Also couldn't find hooks I could attach to tent, all were screw in hooks. Found my old white sheet I used outside to defuse the light when I first photographed my jewelry with a light tent I made out of carboard. There were two little clips I found attached to the sheet, bingo, perfect for clipping the chain on the necklaces, to the top opening of cocoon where the zippers meet. Before I used the gradient black to white paper, I always used studio gray paper I got from Calumet photo. My webmaster recommended that, as he used to have his own photography studio years ago. Lets face it, neither one of us is going to get our photos to look like the jewelry photos on Ivanka Trumps site. I don't have deep pockets to hire a pro, plus to me would defeat the purpose of trying to do it yourself. I think you have it harder than me, because you are working with allot of semi-precious stones, diamonds, or set in crystals, I noticed in your photos. I work mostly with semi-precious beads, bi-cone or round faceted crystals, pearls, and cloisonne. Did A
sheffield take their own photos, looks really good, almost pro to me.
I think we have to be careful to not listen to, to many people, there are always going to be people that say your jewelry is overexposed, or you need an overhead floodlight, or even more light. Been their done that, photographer on facebook said jewelry was overexposed, another facebook photographer said I needed an overhead floodlght. Worse of all, that Carol Holaday designer said in email after looking at my photos, I need more light. She said I use 1000 watts of tungsten light, 500 from the front sides and 500 overhead. Didn't think my fluorescent bulbs were equal to tungsten lights, as bowen claims. Oh and worst of all, she pretty much said the gray display neck made my photos look cheesy, I don't use props she said lol. All we can do is keep on trying, I can't tell you how many times I photographed these same necklaces recently. I looked last night online for some photos of St. Patricks Cathedral interior. After seeing some of them, I thought wow, my photos don't look too bad. A pro had taken a photo of the same alcove I took with painting of mother, and child. They didn't have to deal with all the renovations going on in the cathedral either. My friends told me, they like the new photos, and to stop being so picky, yes there is still some lens flair, but you can barely see it. You seem to have some really good lights, more pro than mine, just take some time to set up the shots.