As some of you may have seen, I have posted a Image of the Diamond Ring that I bought my Wife 20 yrs. ago.

However, I have found that photographing a Diamond Ring is not quite as easy as I thought it would be. I tried to capture the brilliance of the Diamond in the light box that I have. I used my Tamron 70-300mm Lens with Macro, which is the only Lens that I have with any Macro compatibility.

I set the AV to a higher number to get the whole ring in focus. The Image did come out better, thanks to some of the help you all gave me before. The problem is that I just can't seem to get the whole Diamond in a real, sharp focus. Some of it is a bit "blurry." I even wanted to try and capture the sharp cutting of the center Diamond. I did not use my Flash, as was explained earlier. The stand for the ring was about all that I could find, since I am by no means a Pro at this kind of stuff.

I know that I can do a better job, but just don't know all the "tricks of the Trade." If you, out there have any advice or better knowledge please do not hesitate to let me know what you think. You have done it before, so do it again. I do read what is explained to me.

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That's quite alright, Bob. Just ask away. You will get help, just like I did. I shoot a Pentax K100D with 4 different Lens's. I'm still learning and always will be.

Welcome!
Les

Mine is an Image of my Brother and me taken at the Battleship USS New Jersey BB-62. Since he served aboard the old girl, and I was with her in action of the coast of Vietnam back in 1967. Now, she is a museum for all to see what the famous Battleships of the Iowa Class were like.

Regards,
Les

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP. Those LINKS that you provided are just full of information that I will read. It sure will take awhile to "digest" all of what is described.

Les

With my Pentax K100D there is a knob, on the top left, that you can turn for different functions for the Camera. One of them is the AV.

I'm reading that if you turn to this setting, you can change the AV to smaller or larger focus. The higher the number, the more focus you get. The smaller the number, the less focus you have. Is that right?

So, that means that when I shoot a close up, like I've been trying, I should make the number bigger to get more focus on my subject? However, if you change the knob back to Auto Pict will that change what I have just used on AV or will it automatically adjust to the Image I'm taking?

Les

My Phoenix 28-210mm Lens does quite well. The Tamron 70-300mm Lens does a great job, also. Since I can't afford those big fancy, expensive Lens that I really don't need, I use what I have and they seem to work just fine. I would just love to have one of those big Wildlife Lens's, but they are for Professional people. I just don't have $1000 - $3000 to spend on Lens's like that.

Regards,
Les

Yes, I did try without the Vivitar 520 and this was the result. Not really all that great, in my opinion. Again, I've probably done some things wrong, but that's why I ask what others have to say. I'll keep trying, as always.

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In answer to your questions, the light box is just a cardboard box that I cut windows in the top, but not the sides of it just yet. Rough measure is 1.5 ft. wide, 1 ft. deep and 1.5 ft. high. It's nothing fancy, but I've read that you can get a whole lot of different effects using a home made one, rather than spending money on one of those fancy ones. I've seen on Ebay that there are light boxes for sale that have all the things that you need to get started. Different colored backgrounds, 2 small lights for either side of the box, and it's collapsible. The price is modest. $32.00 US currency is not a whole lot of money, really. Don't know what that is in British money.

I have read, also, that the higher the EV setting, the more focus you have. This one, I think was set at 11EV, if that makes sense. The smaller the number EV the less focus you have. Right?

The Flash is a Vivitar 520 that attached to the top of my Pentax. Maybe putting a white thin cover over the flash would reduce the glare? :

I'm going to keep playing with this and read what all of you tell me. There is so much to try.

Thanks,
Les

Greetings & Welcome from over here in the USA. I shoot a Pentax K100D and just love it. Now, I've got to learn so much on how to use all it can do.

Regards,
Les

Greetings to all!

Seems that I'm going to need some advice here again to see what you think about the Image I've taken using my "home made" Light Box. I have used it a number of times to photograph some of my Classic Car Collection and it seems to work well, at times. However, this time I have tried to photograph a Civil War Cannon that I've had, using a mirror. This is the first time I've tried doing this and I know that there is something wrong with what I've done. Should I have used a different background? It seems that it is just too bright. Any comments or help is always appreciated.

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