Jewelry Photos

[Connieliv]

I design jewelry and need a good lense for Canon Rebel to photograph my designs, Can someone recommend a lense for real close up shots, need to show small details on the designs. I will also need to upload the photos to a website.

Thank you,

[CalamityJanet]

Hi! You can get a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens for about $75 that should do a good job for you. Here are some shots I did for someone who decorates old shoes and sells them on ebay. I used the 50mm on my Rebel XTi.








If your budget can handle it there's also the EF 100mm f2.8 macro., but that one runs about $475. Hope this helps!

[mlspmk]

Well, here's a map for closeup shots:
- buy reversing rings on EBAY (~$8) an buy and old (but good) lens on EBAY also. Something like a 24 or 28 mm f1.8 lens (I bought Canon FD lenses this way) can be had for less than $20. Be sure to buy the rings that will match the lens you will put it on. They are male/male rings and should be sized to fit the filter ring on your existing lens and that of the newly purchased EBAY lens. The purchased lens mounts backwards on front of your existing lens and will get you some really close shots. Best if you mount a 24mm on smething like a 135mm or so, but exact focal lengths are not important.
- just buy a lens with macro capability. The Sigma 17-70 is a favorite of mine This will get you somewhat close, but not as close as the reversing ring solution. (less than $400)
- buy the Canon MP-65E lens. It will do 1x - 5x macro shots that are incredibly close. (about $860)

A universal problem with macro shots is lighting, but since it is jewelry you'll be shooting (as opposed to pesky bugs that like to move around), you should be able to get good lighting on your subject.

HTH

[lexcell]

Hi Connie,
Photographing jewelry requires a good macro lens to capture the details that you mention. While many zoom lenses say they have macro they are not true macro lenses. They focus closer than they would without the macro feature but do not give you the reproduction ratio you need to photograph jewelry.

If you already have a good lens for your camera, you can add a Canon 500D close up lens that threads into many different lenses regardless of brand. That is a good inexpensive option.

A better option would be to buy either a 50mm or 100mm macro lens. They are designed specifically for close up work and allow you to focus very closely to capture the detail you are after.

The 60mm range lenses have a closer minimum focus distance and a wider angle of view. The 100mm range have a greater focus distance giving you more room to work and a narrower field of view so you can control the background better. They both have the same reproduction ratio of 1:1 (at least the Nikon and Canon versions do).

My personal recommendation for photographing jewelry, if you can afford it, is to go with a 100mm macro lens.