How do I photograph this?
 

We have tried a lot of things, trying to get a clear picture without all sorts of relections happening in the beads. No flash was used, natural light only. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm not going to submerse the whole necklace in water, however, that may be the only way...

It's lovely. To photograph, make up a lightbox with vellum and cardboard. Best way to cut all the reflections, imho.

Thanks! It was actually in a light tent to start, but there was so much light that it made white halos around the perimeter of all the beads (on the beads), which you can see in the picture. Photographing outside the light tent didn't help either.

Thinking about this more. The cardboard would cut excess light, that's good, but how you you light it then?

I had that issue for the first time ever recently in my light tent. Not sure why. Moved the lights further away, pulled out the tripod and shot with a much longer shutter speed. It helped a lot but didn't completely eliminate it. I wonder if some glass is just purely uncooperative sometimes. More likely it's reflecting the white of the tent.

I'm not sure, my eyes are bad, but it looks out of focus to me. What do others think? I was wondering about putting a diffuser on the lights to decrease the intensity of the light.

Used natural light (sunlight)diffused through the light tent.

How I would do it would be to use a black tent or a darkened room and then controlled the light that shined on it. a dark background would also eliminate the annoying white light. I'd probably use large light panles on both sides for over all fill light and then a smaller light behind a diffuser in front for the main light angled so that the hot spots were bouncing the light away from the camera lens. You have a lot of reflective curves there so you have to really control the light that's hitting it paying attention to the angles and where the light reflects. Sometimes this takes adding each light separately and adjusting it till you have the reflections the way you want, turn that one off and do the same to the next one, turn it off and the same to each one after that without moving any of them while they are off. Then turn them all back on and set your exposure.

Water will work but you will have bubbles to contend with and still have reflective hot spots if you aren't careful. I like bubbles on some things and shoot stuff in soda water for the affect. It can be pretty neat.

Mike

I would take it outside on a sunny day. The sun as a light source is just a pinpoint hotspot in the beads. that is the only way IMHO of capturing all the transparency in beads like this.

Natural light causes reflections too. Light from windows become completely reflected.

Being a fan of polarizing filters would suggest one for each light source with a CP filter on the lens. If done correctly that will eliminate most of the reflections IMO.

Use this type of setup for my products with two strobes.

Good suggestions, everyone! I'll pass this info on to my photographer (husband), who will likely then ask for more camera equipment...but it sounds like it's needed for this.

Oh! Cp. Why am I not using my cp for glass pics? #-o. Thanks Alaska! Digging that out today.

Yeah, black cards are probably your best bet here. Try taping something black to the "ceiling" of your light tent. Also, setup the shot and then hold a black piece of card stock in different areas while looking at the viewing window to see which positions remove the right amount of glare. I've also found that photographing beads against a white background (assuming they are laying down and light cannot pass through from all sides) allows light to pass through them and show more depth.

The light meter doesn't like the all black prop sucking up the light, with the all white background reflecting it back. You need a more neutral background. If you shot this on gray, the light would be right. That's the easiest answer. Probably not the most professional pain in the butt answer...but it would work.

lol I think a lot of the reflection may be the white light tent reflecting white on the beads.

A side note: these beads are all made of DH CE-352, which is my favourite test batch so far. Light amber-ish rod strikes to fuschia/red, develops a mirror finish, develops green and yellow tones with DH clear catalyst (which you see on some), and webs into a rainbow of colours. So glad I bought an extra pound of it. I don't think I've even tried encasing it yet, though...

A CP on the lens will help but there will still be reflections that the CP will not filter out. Using a sheet of linear polarizing material on the light source will give you better control.



This is an example of a 17 x24 polarizing filter for use with a softbox. Smaller could be made for strobe or other light source use.

We're considering that, but it's not easy to just pick up locally.

Give this firm a try for the linear polarizer film.

http://www.polarization.com/polarshop/

Or there may be a supplier in your part of the world.