I started the “What’s in my Bag Series” a couple weeks ago and today is the first in depth post regarding macro! How do I get those close up ring photos? With my Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G! I know that Canon’s primary macro lens is the 100mm f/2.8L so Nikon and Canon don’t play by the same rules. Before I get too far into these posts, it’s important to know that Nikkor is Nikon’s way of branding some of their most recent quality lenses. It’s not a knock off of Nikon. 😉 Hahah! Now that we have that cleared, let’s talk macro!
Introducing the Nikkor Macro VR 105mm f/2.8G!
I bring this baby with me to every engagement session intending to photograph creative ring shots. Flowers make my heart happy!
I love the sharp, crisp, up-close detail this lens picks up!
Not only do I bring it to engagement sessions, but of course wedding day.
… and even other pieces of fine jewelry, not just rings.
But here’s a litte trick in case you didn’t know. One trick I practically use often and LOVE! See below in the left photo how a yellow tint is being picked up by its surrounding colors? It could have been from the ribbon or the artificial bathroom light accidentally turned from the typical chaos of a wedding day. I try to avoid colors that are picked up in jewelry similar to this (definitely rings as well). This was from Zari and Sean’s recent wedding and thought I would use it as an example of how to eliminate discoloration in post processing. Of course, it is best to avoid it during the shoot so always avoid shooting details with artificial lighting if you want to steer away from the yellow tint. But this is great to know regardless because it’s surprising what a ring or a piece of jewelry can pick up … even from the outdoors in non-artifical lighting.
In Lightroom, you should have an “Adjustment Brush” to the top right above the “Basic” editing tab. It’s the horizontal icon above what is tagged as adjustment brush in the photo below. Once you click on it, the tab will open to this window you see below.
Where it says “Effect”, click on the effect and a pop up list will appear with brushes you can use. In this case, the Saturation effect is what we are after. You can customize how strong or how weak you want to use the effect by using the sliders below similar as if you were editing the photo normally. This time, you are only editing a specific part of the photo. If you want a little desaturation, you can move the slider back and forth to find out what looks the most natural since every photo is different due to lighting/coloring. Along with desaturating, I also bump up the contrast as well as the sharpness to make the piece of jewelry stand out. Be sure that you are working with silver metal holding the diamond/crystal. If you are working with gold jewelry, obviously you don’t want to desaturate the entire ring because then your client will be confused seeing a silver ring in her photos when she has a rose gold ring. Be cautious of the edges and the size of your brush. 🙂
Make sure when using the brush to be attentive to your edge. You don’t want to desaturate the items around the piece of jewelry. Then the image will seem off and unnatural. Basically, even though you are putting your time and attention into the photo, you really don’t want your couple to know that you did that. Not that you are hiding the fact that you had to edit it, you just want the photo to look as natural as possible and not funky. You can adjust your brush size by your mouse (easiest for me). When you are making the mask with your brush, you won’t see it red highlighted until you click and hold your mouse over the black dot (where you started the mask). If you accidentally drew outside of the area you were targeting, on Mac computers hold down the OPT key and your brush will turn into a negative sign. Again, you can adjust the brush size accordingly and remove the area you accidentally desaturated. It’s very forgiving.
If you decide after you are done that you didn’t desaturate it enough, just click the black dot, simply adjust the sliders and watch the preview change before your eyes! Once you get the hang of this trick, it becomes a faster process where you can pay attention to these little details every wedding! I use masks every session/wedding for other effects and love this feature in Lightroom! No more Photoshop for me! 🙂
Before and after! It’s a very slight difference but it’s cleaner and more true what you would imagine your jewelry to look like. After all, don’t men pay high dollar to not have a yellow tint in diamonds? Unless, you want the yellow diamond then that is a different case. 🙂
If you have any questions regarding this process or about the lens itself, let me know and I would be more than happy to answer them for you. 🙂 Comment below and thank you as always for being a loyal reader!! xoxo!
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