A Metalsmith's Journey: Getting to know the camera

A while back I began having some issues with my beloved camera. :(

And as much as I love my Lumix, (looooooooooooooove) I could no longer ignore that it was, indeed, time to get a new one. I considered another Lumix, maybe a slightly upgraded model, it's a GREAT camera (they have a great macro zoom feature for jewelry) but I have long wanted a DSLR that would give me a broader range of manual settings for other photography as well. After looking at various models, it came down to a nikon and a canon.....

Cue my tax return coming in a couple of weeks ago - YAY! - and I am now diving full blown into relationship with my new camera - the Nikon D3100. There is quite a learning curve, which I expected, but I'm already enjoying the camera (when I'm not totally frustrated that that it's not behaving the way I 'think' it should be ! )

I have taken a few photos of the grands and I pulled out some jewelry and took a few photos as well as taking some macro around the house (hello DUST! and thanks for the reminder I need to clean. NOT!)

Here are some samples of the jewelry - on a white backdrop with some pebbles I had laying on my bench. :)

Peridot and Sterling Silver Ring

Sterling and 14k Gold Ring

Ocean Jasper, Sterling Silver Ring

Iolite in Sterling Silver Ring

Sterling Silver Ring assortment

Ocean Jasper in Sterling Pendant with Chain

Onyx in Sterling Pendant with Chain

Jade, Sugilite, Sterling Silver necklace

Palmwood, Smoky Quartz Sterling Pendant with Chain

Plume Agate in Sterling Pendant with Chain

Overall I am pleased. I realize I need to figure out the white balance....for the most part these were taken against a purely white backdrop and yet they vary from fairly white to greyish and some have a pink hue. I tried to correct in picasa but some of it would have thrown the jewelry off too much so I had to quit where you see them. (maybe better editing software would have handled it better...?)

I am shooting in raw and Picasa automatically opens/saves them in jpg so I think I am going to look into using something else as I know you lose some data with jpg. I'd rather save as tiff or png.

I am also looking to change the background. Or I was. I have an idea in mind.....but then I was looking at some sites today - Tiffany's, etc - and they almost all show their product on white backgrounds. I know they aren't really my competition (Is that the understatement of the century?!) but if it works for them....who am I to say 'no to white!'?

However, you can see how my white is not so white. While that's not a bad thing necessarily - if I place those photos next to each other, it then becomes a little distracting - don't you think? I'd love to come up with something that is more consistent photo to photo.

I am also redoing my packaging. Though I never really had any real packaging plan, it was just a natural kraft box and sometimes a sticker/label or logo stamp on the outside. It's time to begin tying it all together. So I ordered new boxes and ribbon and tissue paper that matches my brand. Burgundy, sage (olive), and black.