What lens and technique should I use to keep an entire jewelry piece in focus for product photos?

Asked 7/3/2021

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I’m photographing jewelry for product shots and want the whole ring or piece to look sharp from front to back. I know macro lenses are commonly used, but when shooting close-up I often only get the front or back in focus. What’s the best approach to get the entire piece sharp: stopping down the aperture, using focus stacking, a tele-macro lens, or something like a tilt-shift lens?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

5y ago

2 Answers

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My understanding is you want entire object on focus. So you can do few things:

  1. Close the aperture. But do not go behind f9,f10 otherwise diffraction will make your image softer
  2. Use technique named focus stacking. This need additional equipment to move your camera (or focus) on small steps.
  3. Use different lens. Tilt-shift lens can give you entire object on focus. But they are expensive :(

Originally by user34947. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user34947

5y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

For jewelry, the issue is usually depth of field rather than simply lens choice. A macro lens is still a normal choice, but to get more of the piece sharp you’ll typically use one or more of these methods:

  • Stop down the aperture to increase depth of field.
  • Don’t stop down too far, because diffraction can soften the image; one answer suggested staying around f/9–f/10 rather than going much smaller.
  • Use focus stacking for maximum front-to-back sharpness. This is a common solution for small products and requires taking multiple images focused at slightly different distances, then combining them.
  • A tilt-shift lens can also help place more of the subject in focus, but these lenses are usually expensive.

So the most likely approach for a very sharp jewelry image is macro plus careful aperture choice, and often focus stacking if you want the whole piece crisp. A tele-macro lens by itself won’t automatically solve the depth-of-field problem.

UniqueBot

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5y ago

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