# Taking photos of gold rings with cree torches - good or bad idea?



## omar (Aug 21, 2013)

Cree torches - anyone ever heard of them?
These are *really* powerful LED torches
I found them while searching eBay

*Idea*: take pictures of gold rings with my Canon IS 100mm lens

Good idea or bad idea?
I can get a 1000 lumens torch for £10 - which will come with a mains charger

Would this be toooo bright?

Thanks


Omar


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## dr croubie (Aug 21, 2013)

Depends, how directional are the torches, how big are the rings, how big in relation to the frame, what's the background colour?
In short, gold rings are reflective. You are going to see every part of your lighting setup and your studio and camera too if you're not careful with the lighting. Easiest way to not get reflections of the camera and studio is to make their reflections (in the rings) relatively dark compared to the subject itself, ie lots of light overpowering the room lights. But then you get lots of reflections of the lights themselves.
Also, having highly directional lights can blow out some parts and leave really dark shadows (although that could be what you're looking for). Solution is to get more lights to eliminate the shadows, or use softboxes to diffuse the light a bit. If you've got no softboxes yet, you can also get them from chinese fleabay for £5 each. They're made for speedlites, but nothing some Gaffa tape won't fix. And if the torches are too bright, you can add successive layers of tissues to cut it down more, or just move them further away.

With, say, 4 torches and 4 softboxes for £60 you might end up getting a quite versatile setup (at least, for macro, won't be much use for portraits).
I'd also be thinking about how to mount them, those Manfrotto gorilla-clamps (or whatever they're called) would be ideal, gorillapods and gaffa tape if you've got them, or the traditional stack of books and a few beanbags would make a very cheap setup.


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## omar (Aug 21, 2013)

thanks for the detailed reply super helpful
i'm just concerned the light will be tooo bright when shone 30cm away
so... a lightbox is a good idea
i've got one lying around somewhere
i think i'll give it a go
thanks


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 21, 2013)

1000 lumens is not very bright. A typical 75 watt incandescent bulb puts out 1170 lumens. I use 12 high cri fluorescent tubes for my light table, which each put out 2660 lumens, and twice that would be better.

So, if you can get 32 -60 of the torches, you will have some nice lighting.


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## omar (Aug 21, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> 1000 lumens is not very bright. A typical 75 watt incandescent bulb puts out 1170 lumens. I use 12 high cri fluorescent tubes for my light table, which each put out 2660 lumens, and twice that would be better.
> 
> So, if you can get 32 -60 of the torches, you will have some nice lighting.


can i ask for a favour and ask to see a pic of your setup? that would be great to see

i think the torches for taking pics of rings will be good - i'm hoping that the light will directly pinpoint the ring and give it more light as a result??? or is that just madness that doesn't make sense!? 1000 lumens is 1000 lumens after all - doesn't matter if it's focused or not?


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## emag (Aug 21, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> .......I use 12 high cri fluorescent tubes for my light table, which each put out 2660 lumens, and twice that would be better........



Holy illumination Batman! I'm squinting just thinking about that... ;D


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## bchernicoff (Aug 21, 2013)

The problem with cree torch light is that it is VERY focused. If you could bounce it off some white foam board, I think it will work pretty well. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=white+foamboard&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Awhite+foamboard


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## omar (Aug 21, 2013)

bchernicoff said:


> The problem with cree torch light is that it is VERY focused. If you could bounce it off some white foam board, I think it will work pretty well.
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=white+foamboard&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Awhite+foamboard


thanks
i've actually already got what u gave a link to
i have 2 led lights either side - about 100 led bulbs each (these aren't studio light - they're the ones used in car garages!)
i have surrounded with these white boards


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## bchernicoff (Aug 21, 2013)

omar said:


> bchernicoff said:
> 
> 
> > The problem with cree torch light is that it is VERY focused. If you could bounce it off some white foam board, I think it will work pretty well.
> ...



Yeah, so that sounds like it should work well. I imagine color (colour) accuracy is important for jewelry, so be sure to set a custom white balance.


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## omar (Aug 21, 2013)

bchernicoff said:


> omar said:
> 
> 
> > bchernicoff said:
> ...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Aug 21, 2013)

omar said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > 1000 lumens is not very bright. A typical 75 watt incandescent bulb puts out 1170 lumens. I use 12 high cri fluorescent tubes for my light table, which each put out 2660 lumens, and twice that would be better.
> ...


 
Here is a shot of me using FoCal when it first came out. The level of the light was only about 8.5 ev, where as even filtered daylight is going to be 12-13.

There are cloth diffusers over the lamps, 4 on each side and 4 on top for a total of 12 tubes. They are 98 CRI tubes that I had to special order online by the case, but they are wonderful. I also have glass underneath so I can light from the bottom, but don't use that.

I'd recommend diffused light with one of the torches focused on the rings as a sparkler. I hope it works out for you.


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## omar (Aug 21, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> ...
> I'd recommend diffused light with one of the torches focused on the rings as a sparkler. I hope it works out for you.


awesome. great to see how u pros do it 

actually... one other really important thing...
i am now taking videos of the rings on a turntable...
this actually makes things different to just taking pics
the pics that u see on the link i gave are actually stills i got by print screen from the video


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## Policar (Aug 21, 2013)

This is a really ass backwards approach to product photography. Bad color rendering, not nearly enough light (those lights aren't really 1000 lumens, and 1000 lumens isn't nearly enough), wrong quality (hard not soft), I could go on. Just about as bad an approach as possible.

Read up on product photography. You'll probably want strobes and some sort of cyc or tent.


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## JerryKnight (Aug 21, 2013)

All this talk of lumens, I think some clarification is needed. The physics of light are complicated, but essentially, lumens aren't the right measure of light for photography purposes.

Lumens measure the total light in the beam of a light source. It's a great way to compare two different lights of the same type, which is why it's required to list the ANSI lumen rating on almost all flashlights, lightbulbs, etc. 

What's important to photography is the incident light on a scene (ignoring the complex reflectances of each object), which is measured in lux. A 1000 lumen flashlight will cast more lux onto an object than a 1000 lumen light bulb at the same distance, because a flashlight gives more light per unit of solid angle, measured in candelas. Of course, the distance of the light source also greatly affects lux. (Remember the inverse-square law?)

So don't say "1000 lumens is not enough" because it doesn't specify how much of that light is hitting the scene and being reflected into the camera.

That said, you can't ignore the uncalibrated, inconsistent color temperature of almost all flashlights, as well as the downsides of having a point light source (hard shadows, etc.). "Pro" photo/video (ie. expensive) lights and diffusers/modifiers are better, but the question will always be what's good enough for you. With a lot of experimentation, you could get good results from any light source.


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