310 - Jewellery shoot

I had this brief chosen as I had not carried out this type of work before, and found it to be a challenge and different at the the same time. My initial thought was how as I to carry out this task, so I set out to plan it. First of all I needed to source the jewellery from the client, to match the other half of my brief. Once I had sourced my items I then started to put together a plan. I investigated how to go about this and decided to use a light table with flash lighting, and use the studio, which I subsequently booked. I then refered to my crib sheet (see earlier blog for general crib sheet). Once I had the items and studio I then went about photographing them, both in the studio and at my home studio.
Noted is the estimate for this shoot.

Estimate for Jewellery shoot.

Qty	Description	Rate £	Total £
	Fee for Miriad studio to produce 10 images of selected Jewellery . To be shot on 2 days in a studio, to be licensed as per the agreed contract.	2000.00	2000.00
1	Hire of studio for 1 day	250.00	250.00
1	Hire of additional studio lighting	150.00	150.00
2	Assistant	150.00	300.00
2	Cleaning materials etc	50.00	100.00
3	Post production for 3 days	150.00	450.00
	Cost of picture clipping	50.00	50.00
	Costs of home studio	100.00	100.00
	Additional lighting hire	100.00	100.00
	Other post production costs including printing	100.00	100.00
		Total £	£3600.00

Here are my initial images from my Jewellery shoot, from which I will choose 10. There is a variety of pieces, borrowed form several good trusting ladies, all taken on a light table or light box, but there is another alternative, not used, is what is known as a light cube. The light cube has diffused light (lit from outside the cover), not direct light as I have used for my images. These are the 3 main methods of producing images for this type of product, and they can and do vary by manufacturer, in size and other details.

I have used a variety of styles as well, as personally I do not like the stark bland lighting that is used generally for this type of photography. However I have included for this option. I will now select from these my final 10 images. Further below I have included some images that I have seen and been interested in, but when I came to do my own I changed the images that I had in my mind to suit the material I had and to show the different ways that jewellery can be shown. Each type of image will reflect on how the brief appears and is required, and to the use the image is to be put to.

The images below were taken in the college studio on a light table, with varying lighting and f stops to record the image. One of the main issues I had with using the light table at college was that the surface of the table was very damaged and scratched, which meant that quite alot of post production work had to be done to sort this out. It would not have been to much of a problem(apart from a professional point of view) if the image had been due to be sent for what is known as picture clipping, as the image would then be isolated from the background. For my home studio I used a light box, but this was only powered by a small set of bulbs. it is meant to view slides and suchlike but did allow me to produce some acceptable images.
The use of my 50mm lens has produced some very good images including allowing me to adjust better for the depth of field given the size of the apertures used. When using my home studio I used my 24 to 105mm lens so as to be able to get a little closer to my subject given the small area to work with, and I found it easier to use in this situation, and I got the right results. I have now ordered my own light table so that I can continue with this type of work.

The images below are for discussion and have little or no work done to the image, except to change them to JPG from RAW. This is the initial sort of some of the images I took.
In all cases each image was taken with a Canon 5D MKII.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

This was the first image I took and I like the lighting on this rather than plain white background.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB  but with lighting adjusted

I have changed the lighting and this does give a different view of the necklace. The above is a better representation of the necklace from my point of view. But this view does have merit for display purposes and it is down to personal preference. 

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

This is a different necklace with the same lighting as above.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

A slightly more subtle lighting was used for this watch image to cope with the reflections.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

using 2 watches as a pair.

f10-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

Separate watch.

f10-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

th other separate watch

f10-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

a necklace with the same lighting along with a bracelet

f10-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

A slightly different type of necklace with a slightly brighter lighting

The lighting here was quite bright as I was trying to aviod much post production.

f5.6-1/125-ISO=100-50mm lens-AWB

these are ideal for picture clipping exercise.

The following images were taken using a small light box and stand alone flash units in my home studio - the dining room table.

f14-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

These hand images are an experiment to see how the items look.

f13-1/160-ISO=400-65mm lens-AWB

f18-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

f14-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

These are 2 images of the same brooch, but showing the back and front.

f18-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

f13-1/160-ISO=400-105mm lens-AWB

Below are sample images I have seen that have given me some idea of how to present and meet the brief, with different lighting styles and presentation methods.

There is evidence here that this image has been clipped so as to make it available for many different uses in advertising.

This image may have been "produced" a clipped image on a different background and a reflection added.

This may have been taken on alit background as the shadow is quite subtle, as are some on my images above.

Difficult to work out if this is a "produced" image

this shows several varieties of how to present the product.

This is another way to present the item, but can only be used in this one context. Unless the item is to be clipped as well.

With jewellery the image can be used in many forms and in many types of advertising, and therefore there is a system for isolating the image from the background that it has been upon. This is called picture clipping, which is a technique used to draw around the image. This is usually done over the Internet by a specialist firm, as it is quite an involved job. Below is an illustration of this technique.
Generally Jewellery is photographed on a plain background and shot for multiple use, as the article can then be used in a variety of ways, eg in magazines, on a web site, on a poster, and be placed on a large selection of backgrounds, as the client wants.

I visited the V&A recently and I show below some images of Jewellery that I saw, and the way that they display them.All the images are as shot with no adjustment except to reduce the size and change to jpg.

This jewellery is displayed in the new section of the V&A, and is very impressive in it's layout. The lighting is very subdued and each article is individually lit, but contained in a glass case.

This is a splendid glass necklace dispayed in the same area. This was photographed in a glass case.

This is part of a display of modern Jewellery in a seperate part to the new gallery. It is a modern piece and I have included the disply images as well, but all behind glass

This is in the same section as above and shows another necklace, with a photograph showing how it is worn, incase you are unsure!

This is a bracelet, based on the same comments as above.

These are shots of the display cases showing the way the items are displayed in the shop.

There will be a separate item to explain the final 10 images and how I came to the conclusions that I have come to.

Preserving photographs and other visits.

I visited London recently and made a visit to the British Library in Euston Road. This was a planned visit as they had various exhibitions on at the time, including photographing you dressed as a Victorian if you wished. They produced a series of lectures, and I attended the one about preserving photographic material, which was quite fascinating. They have a Preservation Advisory Centre, which covers a wide variety of subjects, one of which is "Photographic Material", and I make a few notes below to this effect. Although the note below refer to non-digital material, the same comments apply.
Preservation of photographic material.
Preservation is a relatively new specialism and treatment options are often limited, but it is possible to prolong the life of a photograph good preservation practices in handling, housekeeping and storage.
What is a photograph
A photograph is an image produced by by the action of light. The support is usually made of paper, plastic, glass or metal, but sometimes on leather or cloth. Photographic images are usually continuos in tone, meaning changes in shading between light and dark are gradual and patterns such as regularly spaced dots or grids are not usually seen. Images produced by photomechanical processes for books na dnewspapers are non-continuous in tone.

Causes of deterioration

Photographs are particularly vulnerable to physical, chemical and biological damage and deterioration. Handling, poor environments and low quality storage materials (eg papers) all have an impact on the condition of photographs. Images created through certain photographic processes are more sensitive than others, but all photographs are sensitive to poor environmental  conditions. High temperatures, high relative humidity will cause fade and discolour. Light can also cause fading.

Handling photographs

When handling photographs always work on a clean, clear surface of sufficient size. The area should be clean and dry, as dirt can scratch any photograph. In order to minimise damage here are a few tips:-

      Photographs should be handled as little as possible

      Provide a copy print if possible

      Supervise anyone who handles the photograph

      Hands should be clean

      Use two hands to hold the photograph

      Do not eat, drink smoke over the photograph

      Do not use ink to label the photograph, use an HB pencil on the reverse, and do not press hard.

      View under UV light if possible

      Do not stack photographs one on top of the other.

Housekeeping

Simple steps can be taken to improve conditions for photographic materials.

      Monitor and control the temperature and relative humidity

      Regularly check for damage

      Remove of damaged and store separately

      Keep areas clean

      Avoid using household cleaners

      Do not store photographs in direct sunlight

      Do not store near photocopy machines as they emit ozone which will damage the photographs

Visits
I have not made many visits recently, but I did manage a trip to London and got to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait exhibition at the NPG. This is always a very good exhibition, and to see a good selection of contempory photography is always good. I sometimes don't always understand how some images are chosen, but nevertheless I can always learn something from them. Generally it is the lighting but sometimes the explantion is needed to understand why the photo was taken. Lighting always seems to be the key, which brings out the character of the person, whether one light, 2 lights or more, and natural light used creatively.
Also the NPG had an exhibition by the painter Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) entitled "Regency Power and Brilliance". He was the leading portrait painter in Regency Britain, starting at just 21, and the paintings were exceptional in alot of cases. his use  of light ont he portraits was immense, and I think I enjoyed this exhibition more than the other. This may have been due to the majesty and size of the paintings, but remembering photography was not invented until about now in some form, then this is how the mainly rich and famous would have had their image portrayed. It was an excellent exhibit to go with the Taylor Wessing, showing the contrast between the two ways of presenting people. But, due to rearch for other parts of this course alot of the early photographers, and not so early were previously Painters, and photography became an extension of this. I add here that art was my favorite subject at school, but then I could not aford a camera, although I had my first one at 10.
Also on at the same time was the the "Landscape Photographer of the Year" exhibition at the NT. This is also such a good exhibition to visit. Again the winning images were good examples of the use of light as well as composition and being able to direct the viewer to the scene the photographer wanted him to see.


Books
When I was wandering along the South Bank over christmas the footpath was diverted due to the building of the new station at Blackfriars. This led to a diversion and passed an art book shop. I just popped in to see what there was available, and on the floor were 3 stacks of catalogues for sales of photographs. These were From the likes of Christies, and were from diverse places as New York, Rome and London. The catalogue prices ranged from €75 and beyond. However they were for sale from £2 to £4 remarkable value for the the contents. I bought 3 for a tenner and they include so many images from famous photographers, from Edward Weston to Man Ray to photographers I had not heard of. the prices are listed for auction purposes, and are quite staggering for some, up to $1800 or more. I shall go back and get some more as they are quite inspirational, and full fo ideas, both old and modern.

  

310 - printers

There is such a great market for printers, at so many different types and prices, it can very difficult to decide which one to choose. Dot matrix, ink jet, and laser being some types, either colour and/or black and white.
The choice also very much depends on how you are going to produce your prints, and this should be considered prior to your your shoot, and to fit in with your client brief should you have one.

The variety of printing methods today is vast (for digital printing) as is the surfaces to which you can print. These vary from your cheap supermarket papers to archival papers, to aluminium and acrylic, from photographic papers to canvas. Your image can look very different depending on the surface it is printed on. There is also the choice of Matt, semi matt and Gloss for instance,and some in between.
I tend however to send my printing requirements away to an on-line printer as the results are so much better.

The major consideration today is the cost of the inks. When I visited the professional studio of Paulo Loroso the main consideration in the final print was the cost of the inks, and this was the most expensive part of his (or any other photographers business) business. Some businesses offer only CD's/DVDs for the client to take away, and let them print the ones that they require. However there are other mediums to consider, such as the web, and maybe the reuirment to print from this.

My home printer is an A4 Epson stylus PHOTO 220R printer. It uses Epson's unique Micro Piezo print head and 6-colour inks. The prints can also be made borderless on formats from 10 x 15cm to A4. With a resolution up to 5760dpi on suitable media. It has the ability to print on CD/DVDs. You can also apply effects, change layouts and add frames to the photos, with the included range of easy to use software. It is PC and MAC compatible, and has the Epson Print Image Matching III for faithful photo reproduction. The printer produces acceptable prints using the Epson Inks, which tend to be expensive. I have also used Epson papers previously to produce my prints, as the inks are matched for this make of paper.
The technical specification follows:-

Epson Stylus Photo R220 6 colour inkjet photo printer, Epson Micro Piezo™ Up to 5760* x 1440dpi, *optimised dpi on suitable media *1 15ppm*2 15ppm*3 120 A4 sheets plain paper, 100 A4 Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper,2 (Plain Paper). Up to 300g/m2

(Ultra Glossy Photo Paper)

Envelope C6 (162 x 114mm), No 10 (241.3 x 104.8mm),

DL (220 x 110mm & 220 x 132mm)

Envelope Weight From 45 to 75g/m

2

Maximum Printable Area (mm)

Print Margin 0mm top, left, right and bottom*

*Via custom setting in printer driver.

Consumables

Black T0481

Capacity Black 450 A4 pages (at 360dpi, 5% duty)

Colour T0482 (Cyan), T0483 (Magenta), T0484 (Yellow), T0485 (Light Cyan),

T0486 (Light Magenta)

Capacity Colour 430 A4 pages (at 360 dpi, 5% duty per colour)

Dimensions

Standard (wxdxh) 462 x 263 x 196 mm

Operational (wxdxh) 462 x 474 x 297 mm

Weight

5.2Kg

Noise Level

Approx 45dB(A) (ISO 7779)

Power Consumption

Approx 12W (per ISO 10561 Letter Pattern)

Regulations

ENERGY STAR Compliant EMC Directive 89/336/EEC

Warranty

Standard 1 Year Standard Warranty

Optional Extension to 3 years

Print Technology

print head

Epson Variable-sized Droplet Technology with

minimum 3pl droplets

Print head of 540 nozzles (6 x 90 per Black, Cyan,

Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta)

Print Quality

using RPM (Resolution Performance Management)

Operating System

Microsoft® Windows® 98 / Me / 2000 / XP and Macintosh®

Below is one aspect that needs to be checked with any printer, and that is a nozzle check.

 

I do not generally use this printer for producing photographs as the quality is inconsistant, and generally not up to gallery standard, and only being A4 and I have not been able to calibrate this printer due to the software being expensive.

Generally I use an online printing outfit for my larger prints. This is a company called D S Colour Labs Ltd,  working in association with Fujifilm. They offer the full range of services from Prints through to photobooks to acrylic panels and photoflyers, and a whole range of gift ideas.

They use Fuji Frontier 570 printers, and all images sent to them are using their printer profile that they have sent. Images can also be supplied as sRGB. Below is the monitor calibration chart that they supply. This is also a crucial part of the printing process, as you want to get a print that replicates what you see on the computer screen. details for this are noted elsewhere on the blog.

The printer is Fujifilms most popular high volume digital lab system,and with high processing capacities can produce prints in minutes. I have them delivered next day by post. Below is an illustration of the printer.

The specification for this printer is very technical and is not included here, but I have a copy as a PDF on my laptop.

There are many alternative suppliers of this facility, and at varying prices. I have chosen this lab as to date it has produced the best value prints, which is very important in todays economic world. I would add however that I will investigate other sources of printing depending on the final destination of the images.

The other current option is to use the printers at college. This printer is an HP Photosmart B9180 and is aim ed at the professional and creative market, launched Feb 2002..

It has 8 ink cartridges, Matt black, photo black, light grey, light cyan,cyan, light magenta, magenta and yellow.(similar to my home Epson printr but has 2 more black inks). The print quality for colour is up to 4800 optimized dpi colour (up to 4800x1200 dpi colour when printing from acomputer and 1200 input dpi).
Below are the sheets that were printed from the printer I used to submit my final images from.

this is the printer calibration sheet

this is the print quality diagnostics page

The paper used is HP Advanced injet paper (satin-matt) at A3+ 250g/m2, and is top gallery standard.

My personal preference is to use the college printer, as it is calibrated through from the Mac screen to the final print, and gives me the print that I want, and will last, given that it will need mounting correctly, with the appropriate frame and glazing.

Black Text, A4 (Economy Mode)

Colour Text, A4 (Economy Mode)

Photo Bike Image, 10x15cm, 13x18cm, 57 seconds, 88 seconds, 163 seconds

A4 (Photo Mode)

Paper Handling

20 sheets of Premium or Semi Gloss Photo Paper; 15 envelopes

Paper Size A4, 9 x 13cm, 10 x 15cm, 13 x 18cm, 20 x 30cm, 3.5 x 5", 4 x 6",

5 x 8", 8 x 10", A5, A6, B5, Legal, Letter, Half Letter

Paper Weight From 64 to 90g/m

Unit 310 - workflow for Jewellery -to be continued.

Workflow for Jewellery shoot.

This is the 2nd part of my brief, to produce images to include in a catalogue of jewellery.

My first thought was to how to accomplish this, and where. I decided that the best place to do this would be in the college studio, as I do not have the full facilities at home.

I then visited the studio to work out how I was going to do achieve this, and decided to use the light table instead of a light cube. This would give me more latitude to photograph the jewellery. I had previously used a lighting cube to do a product shoot, but found that I could be more flexible without it.

I then decided how to light the jewellery. This would be using a variety of the studio lights, and once set I could reuse the set up with minor alterations, depending on the piece of jewellery.

My next step was to source the jewellery that I was going to photograph. I acquired several pieces of jewellery, and set about planning how I was to produce images for this.

I then booked a date for the studio. I then photographed a variety of items.
Below is an image of the set up I used.

The light table was set up and the lighting is as follows:-
Softbox reflecting light off the floor to the underside of the table --GM500R set to power level 1 and 1 tenth.
Softbox set at 45 degrees at the front -- GM500 set to power level 1
Snoot with honeycomb set at low to opposite side of softbox -- Esprit 500 set to power level 1/32nd.
The camera was both hand held and also for most of the shots mounted on a movable stand.

Adjustments were made mainly to the aperture on the the camera to achieve the correct exposure when imaging the different items of jewellery, whilst leaving the lighting generally as noted. There were occasions when I did adjust the lighting slightly, either changing the power level or by slight movements of the lighting.

Post production was done in the same manner as the Emma shoot, downloading to a seperate folder, editing and deleting unacceptable images, choosing a selection, then editing the final choice of images.

I have included also here an example of some post production work that I have done on one of my images of the cuff links. This would be typical in the case of jewellery photography ( apart from the picture clipping)as at times it is impossible to not show some lighting/feature that is not required int the image.

The first image is prior to the post production. It shows an obvious streak of light, and the photographer is shown to the left, as a pink line,and as a reflection, with some bright spots. the second image shows some adjustments made to to take out some unwanted reflections and a line of light. Please note that the image is zoomed in to over 200% of the the original.

Also shown below are some grab shots of my workflow to show how I get to my final print.

This shows my intial crop of the actual image. No point in altering the image if you are going to crop later.

This image shows the initial printing page for my Epson

 R220 printer at home. it shows the printer, page set up button and allows you to scale to fit media. it also allows you to adjust the colour management for the print.

this screen allows you to cahnge the quality and various other parameters, such as Best photo print eg 

Once you have pressed print then this progress screen appears. It also shows the ink levels, and should be checked each time to ensure you have enough ink prior to printing.

this is a sreen capture of another item.

See later blogs for images produced and comments.

310 - Digital printing technologies

Digital Printmaking Technologies

Common technologies used to produce digital prints include inkjet, electrophotography (dry toner and liquid toner), thermal transfer (mass transfer and dye sublimation transfer), and laser imaging (digital photo printing) on photographic paper.

INKJET

Inkjet is a popular technology based upon the ejection of small drops of fluid by an actuator that is controlled by a digital computer system. Once ejected from a print head orifice (nozzle), the droplets pass through the air to a printing medium, typically paper, on which they form spots or dots. By controlling both the actuator and the relative position of the medium, an array of spots is produced on the medium to form a pattern. With the appropriate ink droplet sizes, ink colours, and ink-receiving medium, an image is created. Today, image quality and permanence can be produced in commercially available inkjet systems with performance exceeding traditional photographic technology. This is by far the most popular type of printer on the market today, and they are now as fast as laser pinters, and can be used to print large posters and a variety of advertiosng work. I have a small A4 printer of this type at home and is adequate for the jobs required for it to perform. I have only had personal experience of this type of printer for photographs.

Piezo, Thermal, and Continuous-Flow Inkjet Technologies
These three are the most common inkjet technologies employed. For the digital printmaker they are usually combined with water-based (acqueous) inks, either pigmented or dye-based. The differences among them are the actuator technologies:

Piezo [or piezoelectric crystal actuator based on-demand inkjet technology, in the full term] uses a small crystal that bends when current is applied to it to produce the actuation effect. This "piezo effect" is based on a very small movement of the crystal and subsequent compression of the ink in an ink chamber. The result is the ejection of a very small droplet of ink from a small orifice in the inkjet print head. When properly designed, this system can generate very small, reproducible droplets of ink that can produce outstanding results when the droplets are properly positioned on well-designed inkjet media. Since the actuating pulses can be varied, resulting in more or less bending, a variety of droplet volumes can be produced. This leads to the ability to achieve a digital gray scale and to further improve the image-quality capability of the technology.

Thermal [thermally activated actuator based inkjet technology, in the full term] uses heat to create a very small bubble of superheated vapour to push a small droplet of ink from an inkjet print head orifice. This is the most widely used inkjet technology in the world and can provide very good print quality when properly implemented. It is a more robust technology than piezo since the energy used to eject the droplet makes thermal less susceptible to clogging of the orifice. Also, bubble formation in the ink is not encouraged by the process as it is in piezo; a very small bubble will cause a piezo printer to fail to eject a droplet.

In the early days, the heating and shock experienced in the actuation process limited the ink formulation latitude for thermal. New advances in this technology allow water-based ink designers the freedom to develop inks that do not limit the image quality or durability of the print output. As with piezo technology, final drop volume may be varied to provide grayscale rendering.

Continuous [or Continuous Flow inkjet printing technology, in the full term] is used for digital printmaking exclusively with the IRIS/IXIA inkjet printers (the IXIA has replaced the IRIS). It produces a stream of droplets all identical in size, and the electronics of the system chooses which ones will hit the medium and make a spot and which ones will not. Continuous flow has provided excellent image quality but at a very high cost in both the initial investment, reliability, and speed, as well as image permanence. Pigmented inks cannot be used with this technology. It is no longer a preferred technology.

ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY

Electrophotography is based upon the deposition of either dry powder or liquid toner onto a photoreceptive surface on which a charge is produced, usually by light from a laser or other similar point light source. The toner is subsequently transferred either to a blanket then to paper or directly to the paper and then fused to form the desired image. Dry toner technology is limited in the size of the particles that can be used. Since these particles are relatively large, this technology generally suffers from insufficiently good image quality to satisfy the digital printmaker. Liquid toner, however, can use very fine particles that allow for production of near-photographic quality output. Today, liquid toner image quality and permanence can meet the needs of some digital printmaking applications. Liquid electrophotography's advantage is higher printing speed as compared to inkjet printing or thermal transfer printing but at a very steep price.

THERMAL TRANSER

Thermal transfer is based upon using heat to transfer either a colored coating containing a binder and colorant or dye molecules (by sublimation or diffusion) from a thin carrier film to a receiver sheet that contains a receptive surface coating. The heat may be provided by an array of nibs (similar to those in a thermal fax machine) that are activated by a computer when a colour spot is desired, or by a laser that heats the carrier film causing the transfer to occur. Good-quality colour prints can be produced by this technology, which is frequently used in photo kiosks for printing either digital or scanned photo reproduction prints.

DIGITAL PHOTO PRINTING (LASER IMAGING)

Digital Photo Printing (laser imaging) is based on traditional photographic silver-halide photographic print paper that is imaged by a laser or similar point light source to provide a full-colour photographic image. This technology is gaining popularity in both wide-format photo printing and for digital photo finishing, both in minilabs and in production labs. Laser imaging produces true photographic prints and can be very productive in larger volume applications; however, it requires photo paper as a receptor, which limits its media flexibility. The market ofr colour laser printers has grown considerably over the lats few years. They are however costly to buy and operate and not really within reach of the ametuer or semi-professional photographer.

re Pixel Guild

Went to the hospital today to check out the photos. They are opposite the WVS shop, and I have included a photo. They are well placed as this is a busy area.
Well done Pip for organising the event.