Comments on: How Do You Create Your Jewelry Photos?

By: Sarah Duncan

Sarah Duncan — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 11:51:18 +0000

Watch out for mixing different light sources – they can give the photo different ‘colour casts’ or even lines. I did this at the start, and it caused me no end of grief to work out what I was doing wrong. I now use either natural light only (by far the easiest) or use daylight bulbs in my lights and work in the darkest room in the house with the curtains closed. And if you’re trying to shoot a ‘white box’ product photo, take the white balance off auto, and use the appropriate setting for your light source – I generally use the cloudy daylight setting for my naturally lit photos. It’s taken me a year and a whole load of courses to work this out!

By: Claudia Crawford

Claudia Crawford — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 13:38:02 +0000

In addition to all of Rena’s great information, my advice would be to use minimal background. Too many “props” just distract from the jewelry and rarely look professional. Just my 2 cents…????????

By: Rena Klingenberg

Rena Klingenberg — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 21:36:53 +0000

Mike, thank you for your lovely comment on my jewelry tutorials and photos! :) In my experience, the most important things for good, clear jewelry photos are: - Digital camera or cell phone camera. The cameras in most modern cell phones have the ability to take very good jewelry photos. - A way to take pictures without moving the camera - a tripod is great for this (you can get them for digital cameras and also for phone cameras). You may also be able to set your camera on a flat surface such as a book to photograph your jewelry without any shaking or movement. - Good lighting. See this roundup of ideas for setting up for well-lighted jewelry photos: Make Your Own Light Box. - Edit your finished photos. Your computer or phone probably has a photo-editing app so you can crop your photos, and adjust the contrast, lighting, color levels, sharpness, etc. (If your phone or computer doesn't have one, do a quick google search for "online photo editor".) You'll find a ton of other great tips and ideas in this section here at Jewelry Making Journal: Photographing Jewelry. Wishing you all the best, Mike, and hope you'll be sharing some of your jewelry photography with us! :)