john lucas
Alan I print out a background that looks like that on our computer. I place the pens or whatever on non glare glass and then place the background a couple of feet below. Kind of depends on what lens and it's angle of view. This way I can light the background separately so I have more control of how bright the gray and black are.
I used to do it by putting a spot light on a black background on the floor but controlling where the spot was in relation to the piece. It's much easier to reach down and shift the printed background to align the spot exactly.
Here is a similar photo but I simply printed off a fade background on 11x14 paper. Place it about 2 feet from the ring and move it until my customer liked it. On this one I put a polarizer on to help get rid of the reflection. I still had to touch some of it out. I like the reflection but this customer doesn't.