Adjusting the white balance on camera, or on the computer is crucial, to reflect accurate colors.

You can view my pictures in my site as well to give you an idea of what that light box can achieve, I use a DSLR camera, however, most point and shoot digital cameras will also work.

I have large patio doors at the back of my house where sunlight shines through for a few hours. I have a photo shoot “basket”… it has several pieces of scrapbook paper that have great backgrounds for various pieces of jewelry, depending on the color.

I also have some props in there and displays (necklace bust, couple black metal scrollwork pieces and a white porcelain bowl that earrings can hang from). I set up the layout on an end table or TV tray in the direct sunlight.

Now, I don’t want direct sunlight, so I see where that’s coming in at the patio door and I put wax paper on the patio door to diffuse the light shining onto my jewelry. If I have too much “back” shadow (opposite from where the light is coming in) in my photos, I set up my 2 cardboard sheets that have aluminum foil taped on it to bounce back the light onto the piece for less shadows.

I don’t use flash on the camera. After all that, I still go through pic by pic in Photoshop and edit to make them look their best. Whew… hours later I have some usable photos!!! Good photo shoots are the most time-consuming part of my jewelry biz!!

I like most of your examples, but some have spots of flash or glare. I would aim for more even lighting to prevent this. In your etsy store, you had some pictures with obvious shadows.

I would also try to redo those. What I really like (and think you did really well) was give multiple pictures of your jewelry – including a full shot and zoom shots of details.

Best –
Lisa

I just bought a light tent ($25) and am using natural light on my deck (weather permitting) or in a sunny location of my kitchen.

I also use light colored backgrounds as much as possible, the dark ones make everything look dark in my photos and it is hard to see the details and colors. Another tip I received from a friend was to adjust the exposure compensation on my camera (typically shown as +/-).

I also do some photo editing, cropping, resizing, and adjusting the brightness and contrast settings. Hope to see some of your new photos soon. Best Wishes!

Taking photos outside is great but sometimes the light just doesn’t do the piece justice. Adjusting the exposure with a photo editing tool works wonders.

I’ve also used the night setting on my camera, using flash and shooting in the dark! I get my best “glam” shots that way.

P.S.: Here’s a tip that took me years to learn: When you want a background or color or flowers, take a picture of your background and then photo your jewelry piece on that photo – It is magic!

Fannya B

I find outside on an overcast day is perfect for me. My camera is a very basic one…the only things I set are macro, the lighting and a 2 sec timer with a tripod so I don’t get fuzzy pics.

I often look at etsy’s treasury pages to see what photo’s made the cut and why…it helps give me ideas on how to position and crop my pics.

Here are the two types of lighting that have been the most successful for me, when photographing jewelry:

1) Natural sunlight – not shining directly on your jewelry, but lighting it up indirectly, such as through a window that’s near your photography area. One drawback to relying on natural sunlight, though, is that you can’t photograph at nighttime, and on cloudy days it can be difficult to get the lighting just right.

2) White or natural-daylight lightbulbs pointed at your jewelry through something white that filters the light – such as a light tent, thin paper, thin fabric, etc.

Here’s an excellent tutorial for a light tent you can easily make at home. You can easily control your lighting with a setup like this – which will make your jewelry photos better as well as much faster to shoot!

I hope you’ll post again with new photos of your lovely jewelry after you’ve gotten your lighting down!

Use a simple background – I have a piece of foam core covered with natural linen that works well and doesn’t show lint or cat hair. It does take a little experimenting – at first, I deleted about 60% of the pictures I took – but I’ve found that this method gives me the clearest pictures to show off the details of my work with the least amount of set-up or fuss. There’s no harsh glare or any shadows either.

I have a PhD camera (Push here, dummy) and it works great!