HELP with Glare and proper Exposure

[Laurie]

I am posting 6 photos that I manually changed the exposure. I am having a glare problem when I feel like I have a proper exposure. Can you tell me which photo is properly exposed and how I get rid of the glare. I have tried white paper clipped to my cube and placing a dark cover over me and the camera and used a defuser, none of these things seem to help with the glare. Any suggestions are welcome.

Here are the details...
I am using a EZ cube table top photography system with
2 -30w Compact fluorescent lights daylight bulbs, full spectrum, placed 12 inches away from the tent
white paper
tripod and used the timer
room is natural light
nikon D7000
nikon 105mm macro lens
manual exposure
ISO 200
F16
exposure time is under the photo

Photo 1 exposed 1.3 sec

Photo 2 exposed .8 sec

Photo 3 exposed .6 sec

photo 4 exposed 1/2 sec

photo 5 exosed 1/3 sec

Photo 6 exposed 1/5 sec

[Mike Jordan]

You are getting blow back from the white background because you are over exposing in the first 4 or 5. How are you metering your light... are you using a light meter the histogram or going until you have one that looks good in your screen and then adjust it in your computer?

Where are you placing your lights? On each side of the cube, both in front or one in front and one on the side? There are a couple of ways to light it, both at 45 degree angles on each side of the camera or you can try one at the camera position and one above or to one side. I like lighting from behind to and have used my softbox front as the background to give a nice bright white background and then light the object from the front so it's properly exposed.

The last two are the closest to being properly exposed but the background (to me) is terrible looking a dull gray. I would shoot these on black or dark blue. You get rid of the blow back and you aren't creating a overly contrasty image.

Nice beads by the way.

Mike

[Laurie]

I was just bracketing until it looked like I got something then would check it on my computer. I have my lights on each side of my cube then I was shooting from above the beads. I will change the background and try moving my lights around.
Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

[Mike Jordan]

Laurie, your camera should have a histogram mode. If so, learning to use this can be a real time saver in getting your exposure correct. It can tell you if you are under exposed (too far to the left) or over exposed (to far to the right). When it is properly exposed for what the camera sees you should have a mountain type peak that slopes off evenly to the right and left in the middle of the graph. I like to be just a tad to the left (slightly under exposed) because that helps bring out colors. If you don't have a light meter (those are great to have as well) using the histogram can really help.

Mike

[Dale M.]

What does camera do in auto mode.... Exposure time seem very long for a controlled light situation....

Dale