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:
- Close the aperture. But do not go behind f9,f10 otherwise diffraction will make your image softer
- Use technique named focus stacking. This need additional equipment to move your camera (or focus) on small steps.
- 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
0
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.
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AI5y ago
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