Earlier photography was just for passion or collect childhood memories of kids with their parents but now because of the growing need for media, photography is one of the highest paid profession. Basically, over the years, passion has turned into a profession. There are many new entrepreneurs who are opting to own an online store for the business rather than owning a store in the market. So, the e-commerce business is the field who is constantly in need of photographers, as they are the ones who capture the product so beautifully that it attracts a huge number of customers.
Jewellery is the most effort-taking product to shoot in the e-commerce field. As the fashion industry has no limits jewelry produced is of various different shapes, sizes, texture, etc. As a photographer, you need to shoot the jewelry in such a way that you get the best shot and still, its originality is retained.
Are you a photographer who has just got placed in the e-commerce business? Someone who has difficulty in jewelry photography? Do not know how to configure the settings for jewelry photography? If yes, we are here to make you a star on your first day at jewelry shoot. Yes, you read it right. In this article, we will discuss some DSLR setting which you should follow in order to get the best shot of your jewelry. And there are few bonus tips at the end which will come in handy in an unexpected situation.
Let’s check out the camera settings for your jewelry photography
Table of Contents
CAMERA AND ITS FUNCTIONS
Before you get into any kind of photography it is necessary to know your camera and its function very well. Right from the buttons to the lenses you are going to use. Try to figure out which buttons or knobs are used for what function. For jewelry photography, you need to be ready for manual mode photography. For which you should have the knowledge of how to switch from Auto mode to Aperture mode and Manual mode. And also try to figure out which buttons or knobs you have to use to change aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings on your camera.
APERTURE
While shooting something, when you press the shutter release button of your camera a hole opens up that allows your cameras image sensor to catch a small view of the scene you are going to capture. The aperture is something that you set which impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole, the more amount of light gets and vice versa. For jewelry photography, choose a small aperture ( a big number like f/22) if you want all of the jewelry in focus or a large aperture ( a small number like f/2) if you want only part of the piece in focus and the rest artistically blurry.
Many DSLR cameras come with aperture priority so use to. This feature will automatically select the shutter speed for the right exposure.
SHUTTER SPEED
The shutter speed is basically the amount of time that the shutter is open. When you are in the aperture mode, the camera automatically sets the shutter speed. Before starting the actual shoot, click a trial picture and look at the shutter speed setting which was set. If the colors of your product are accurate and the image is clear then those are your perfect settings. If you are not satisfied with the results, switch to manual mode. You do not need faster shutter speed because as you are shooting a still product. The professional and experienced photographers suggest using the camera’s histogram to get a perfectly exposed image.
ISO
The ISO function of the camera measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The ISO has to be set according to the environment you are shooting in. Basically, you can try ISO 100 for shady spots on a sunny day or ISO 200 in cloudy/indoor situations. This means that the lesser light in your surroundings, the higher the ISO number has to be. But there is little problem with high ISO, it is that if you choose high number ISO then it will lead to noisy pictures. So be careful with the ISO setting.
These are the recommended DSLR settings for the jewelry photography. There are some situations when you don’t have a DSLR camera to shoot but a point and shoot camera is available. So, there comes a question, what settings to use in this situation? Don’t worry we will help you with that even. Below are few tips for point and shoot cameras
MACRO
The little flower icon on your camera symbolizes ‘macro’, you can use this for close-ups.
WHITE BALANCE
In order to achieve the true colors under the lighting conditions, you have switch white balance camera setting to Cloudy in order to avoid bluish pictures.
FOCUS
In point and shoot cameras, remember to press down the shutter button halfway and allow the camera time to focus on taking the picture. Also, keep in mind that you are focusing on the main part of the jewelry piece.
SELF-TIMER
You can use this feature to avoid all the slight camera shakes when pressing the shoot button.
LIGHT
Lighting is the heart of photography if you have the perfect amount of light you get a perfect and beautiful picture. But, if the light is not good then you are going to end up with negative results. For the amateur photographers, it is recommended to shoot in natural light, it may outdoors in a shady spot or indoors just beside the window from where the light enters.
If you have problems with shooting in natural light, you can you light boxes with additional very bright light sources. Also, if you have lamps with 250w fluorescent lights you can make use of that. The main advantage of using diffused light from all direction is that it will eliminate all the shadows.
To know more about this topic you can visit jewelryshoot and beadinggem.