G’day; Use a perfectly clean sheet of thin glass which is adequately
large (not less than 2ft square) raised at least a foot above a non
fussy background with the jewellery in the centre of it. Light the
work with diffuse lighting mostly from behind the camera, which is at
an angle to the work, not directly above. If the lights and camera are
judiciously placed there will be no reflections from the glass, but if
the jewellery is translucent like good jade, a carefully placed mirror
ora bright, narrow beam torch can shine a beam of bright light through
the work from an angle below the level of the glass, and well outside
the camera view, making jade come to life. The final effect will be
to have the jewellery floating in mid air, giving a feeling of
lightness to it.
If one has a scanner and wants to do a quick picture of a translucent
piece, simply place a white basin over the job on the scanner. The
diffused light reflected back down from the basin will shine through
the translucent work. Scan at around 360 dpi and save the resultant
picture to your own archive folder in a non compressional mode. But
first copy the picture, then resize the copy to a convenient size,
say 30% of ‘original’, in a jpeg compression. It will be very
convenient to attach to an email, taking only a few seconds for the
recipient to download. I find I can produce a very acceptable hard
copy on glossy paper with the whole job taking only about 5 minutes.
If you have time, spray the glossy with Incralac normally used to
protect polished metal (I know it is available in America) and it will
dry in five minutes or so with no trace of the lacer visible, but the
print will be far less vulnerable to water staining and marks from
damp fingers. This is of course no real substitute for a thoughtfully
composed and carefully lit photograph. Nevertheless, the result can
be quite good. Cheers, – John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua
Nelson NZ