Photographing jewelry in my lightbox

[Daethian]

I need some help here. Every time I take a close up shot while using a black jewelry stand in my light box my pics turn out blurry. Its definitely the black background that's causing it because I don't get the same effect when I use a glass or something else to display the jewelry.

Obviously to display the jewelry it makes sense to use the stands and all of them I own are black. I could recover them in white fabric but there has to be something on the camera end I'm doing wrong.

Help?

Ok I think I figured it out on my own! I switched from AF to MF and it seems better now.

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by Daethian

I need some help here. Every time I take a close up shot while using a black jewelry stand in my light box my pics turn out blurry. Its definitely the black background that's causing it because I don't get the same effect when I use a glass or something else to display the jewelry.

Obviously to display the jewelry it makes sense to use the stands and all of them I own are black. I could recover them in white fabric but there has to be something on the camera end I'm doing wrong.

Help?

Ok I think I figured it out on my own! I switched from AF to MF and it seems better now.

I was going to say... use spot focus, and don't let the camera choose the focus point (which would be thrown off by the contrast)

[i speak in math]

Can you post an example (with exif and such)? I think this might help in figuring out the problem.

[Daethian]

I think I deleted the bad pics but I'll look for one in my recycle bin.

No luck... I deleted them from the camera before I moved them to the PC I guess. I'll use manual focus going forward and hopefully avoid the issue.

Thanks!

[el_vago32]

Use spot metering and meter for the subject, not the black stand.

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by el_vago32

Use spot metering and meter for the subject, not the black stand.

changing your metering mode won't effect your focus.

[el_vago32]

Originally Posted by i speak in math

changing your metering mode won't effect your focus.

Can't believe I missed that lol

I automatically assumed the OP was getting blurry pics because of a slow shutter speed due to the camera metering on the black part of the frame, my bad

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by el_vago32

Can't believe I missed that lol

I automatically assumed the OP was getting blurry pics because of a slow shutter speed due to the camera metering on the black part of the frame, my bad

could very well be. I assumed they were on a tripod stopped well down, as anyone shooting jewelry should be. But without an examples shot, its hard to say what they are doing without complete guesses.