IN THE FIELD: Gold Or Silver
A few weeks ago I was out doing some street photography in the shopping district of a nearby town. I got some shots of the local architecture, storefronts, construction workers, signage, and people milling about town.
As I walked past a shop filled with jewelry and beads from around the world, something shiny in the storefront window caught my eye. It was a small display of hand hammered sterling silver scarf rings.
I liked how the light reflected off the facets in the metal. Getting a good photo looking through the window proved to be nearly impossible. So I went inside and asked the owner if I could get a few photos of the display, and she said, “have at it.” I decided to photograph them using the available light in the shop rather than using a flash.
The natural daylight and the overhead halogen lights combined with the cloudy white balance setting I was using, turned the silver a warm golden color. And while it does not reflect the true color of the piece, I like the mood it sets.
f 2.2
1/80th
ISO 200
cloudy WB
David Heilman 
flash and metal/jewellery don’t go very well so excellent choice to use natural light.. the color is warm and that conveys goldi-ness very well..
I am a sucker for B&W though and however counter-intuitive it might look at the face of it, I would also give that conversion a look – u never know 🙂
I like that…”goldi-ness”! Following your advice I did try a conversion to B&W. It looked pretty neat but I don’t think I played around with it enough…it didn’t seem to have the impact of the color version. Or I don’t know what I’m doing LOL. I think I’ll give it another go and post it later this week…maybe even today.
it might not work on all. I had a few examples in mind but can’t seem to have a link handy. will send it over when I find it. It is the experimentation that matters most..the results not always 🙂
Jewelry can be a pain to photograph sometimes especially silver but I’ve used a blue filter sometimes to get the silver to really come out and have used bounce flash. Great bokeh; I thought at first it was gold jewelry 🙂
Hey…interesting idea using a blue filter! Since we are having monsoons here today I think I will get out some of S’s jewelry and play a bit! Thanks for the inspiration!
Lovely! I love the highlights on the hammered surface, and the shapes and colours in the background, too.
It an amazing store. The owner has thousands (really) of strings of beads from all over the world. It’s so colorful. I have a few shots of the displays but I would really like to go back and spend some more time there. The shots I took were hand held…next time I’m using a tripod so I can play with depth of field and lighting more efficiently.
Nice of the shop owner to let you take the photos! Great photo with cool bokeh!
It sure was…I’m hoping she will allow me to get some more photos of the displays. It was rather overwhelming for a spur of the moment visit.
Wonderful image !!
Thanks Bernie! I really like the warm glow in this image.
Beautiful, David.
Thanks John, at first I thought they were rings but had to ask the gal because the holes were so big LOL.
very effective with use of dpth of field, warmth and lines, David.
Thanks Jane, for this shot I set the camera on the table so I could use a slow shutter speed and obtain a shallow depth of field. The light worked out perfectly.
Definitely silver 🙂 But if I haven’t seen the silver one, I’d say this is a very professional shot 🙂
Wow professional…I think a good bit of luck was at play with this one too.