Jewelry Pictures. Which Lens?

Hi,

I've been asked to take take pictures for a new jewelry website. It's going to be an ongoing assignment for me.

The client wants close up pictures of the jewelry as well as some head and shoulders shots of a model wearing a necklace, earrings etc.

I have a Canon 5D and although I have an 85/1.8 portrait lens, I feel that a 100mm macro may be what I need to take both kinds of pictures being asked.

Is the 100mm macro a good choice for this kind of work using a full-frame camera, or should I be looking at the 50mm macro instead?

Thanks,
~Dom

Not sure how closeup you will need to be for some pieces but the canon 50mm lens only does 1:2 magnification , meaning the minimum FOV width would be 72mm vs the canon 100mm which does 1:1 and a minimum FOV width of 36mm. Other than that I would think either lens would do pretty well. The sigma 50mm macro lens does got to 1:1 magnification.
I think for this type of shot- at least the closeups, it's the lighting that is more difficult to get right - many people would use a light box I suspect.

Brian V.

a friend wanted me to shoot some pictures of her jewelry so i brought my 100mm macro lens and when i was shooting, i was wishing i had my 55mm macro instead. i had to rush so i couldnt set up my tripod so i did them handheld. with the 100mm, i was too far away go hold camera steady lol..

When my wife did cabochon work, we took all of the pictures with a 50 mm macro on a crop. I would think that larger than that w/ a FF might make it difficult to get the entire piece of jewelry in. http://blorky.smugmug.​com …103_TtjcK#10950​3393_XEoKj

Hope that helps.