Your product photographs can make or break your jewelry business’s success. How will you persuade customers to buy if they can’t view detailed jewellery photographs on your website? Lights that need to be manipulated are, without a doubt, difficult. Reflections and smudges must be avoided.
Manipulate the lights to your advantage. Set the shutter speed and aperture to a specific value. Photographing jewelry is not as simple as it seems; you will need equipment, a photography lighting setup, a white background, and a deep understanding of the depth of field.
Then there are the vexing reflections to contend with, not to mention the need to add sparkle to jewelry in photographs.
So, let’s get started and learn how to capture some gorgeous photographs of your prized possessions. This guide will show you how to prepare, light, position, and edit your images to make them look like you hired a pro.
Table of Contents
Lighting
To photograph your jewelry, you will need light. A room with windows against a wall is an excellent choice. Furthermore, it produces a smooth and appealing ambiance that is ideal for this picture style. To get the best effects, stand close to the window. You can use light diffusers if the sun is shining too brightly and casting unpleasant shadows. You will get lighter if the window is more significant.
If you do not have access to natural light, you can purchase artificial light sources such as a softbox. Many online stores sell photography lighting kits as well. Do not get carried away with all the reflectors and LED lights. Maintain a minimal setup. After you’ve gotten to know the camera, you can experiment with different lighting techniques in your photo sessions.
Tripod and camera
It doesn’t matter what lighting arrangement you employ if your handhold your camera. A camera shake is almost often the effect of holding your camera or smartphone in your hand. Neither of these scenarios is ideal. A tripod can also help you avoid a camera shake. This is a common issue when learning how to photograph jewelry because you will often need to shoot at shorter shutter speeds. This is since you will be shooting with modest apertures to keep everything in focus – more on this later.
Finally, the focus is crucial while working with macro lenses; a tripod allows you to operate in Live View for precise focusing. Tripods are inexpensive, efficient, and improve quality and consistency. Using a tripod to keep your camera steady, you may use the best aperture and ISO settings. Mark a position on the floor for your tripod, and you will be able to reproduce your setup on different days quickly.
Background
When you think about it, it’s not such a horrible thing. A busy background inside the image could work against you because your jewelry item is attracting all the focus. It’s also an excellent way to display the goods once you’ve captured the customer’s attention. The jewelry is set against a white background, which prevents it from absorbing or reflecting light or colors from the environment.
You may make white background for your shoots in a variety of methods. Consider purchasing a white paper sweep if you plan to take a lot of different jewelry photographs.
A white background is the industry standard; in many marketplaces, it’s even required. Large rolls of paper create a white or colored background with paper sweeps. If a sweep segment becomes dirty, cut it off and replace it with a clean section. A poster board is a cheap alternative to sweeping that you can get at your local drug store or online.
In this manner, it will appear as near to how it is in real life as possible, which is crucial if you’re trying to sell jewelry through your picture. You will have a delighted customer if your buyer obtains a product that meets their expectations! You will not only avoid needless returns, but you will also build a positive reputation, and they’ll be more likely to buy from you again.
Foam Boards And Grey Card
When it comes to commercial photography, there’s always a dark side. In most cases, the lighting is insufficient to produce a good image. To brighten the shadow, use a white foam board to reflect light into it. The best option is to use a regular foldable table.
Look for one that measures between 24 and 27 inches in width. When shooting on a table, you will need tape or clamps to keep your foam boards and sweeps in place. For precision and consistency, white balance is crucial.
The best approach is to use a grey card or a color checker. All you have to do now is take the first shot with the grey card in the scene on your camera. Take another photo of the grey card image if you adjust the lighting setup, and so on.
Then, using the eyedropper tool and a grey card image in Lightroom, set the correct white balance, then synchronize it with the remainder of the images taken under the same lighting circumstances. This is why it’s critical to keep consistent lighting throughout the jewelry photography series — more on lighting later.
Set up
Set your table 90 degrees to the right or left of a window if you’re near one. The light will be softer the closer you are to the window. After setting up your table, you will want to set up your sweep. There are several methods for accomplishing this, but the idea is to have your sweep vertical. You can tape your sweep to a wall if you’re near one. If you do not have anything to secure the back of your sweep to, you will have to construct something. A wooden block or bricks might suffice.
In front of your setup, put up your tripod. If you’re using a smartphone with a short tripod, choose a spot on the sweep to set it up. You should have adequate room for your jewelry if you’re utilizing a standard table. At a 45-degree angle to the product, place one light source and a softbox or umbrella.
This will ensure that the illumination is even and soft. Maintain a direct line of sight between your camera and the jewelry piece. You may see some shadow if your product is placed near the back of your sweep. To get a new white background, bring the merchandise closer to you.
Prepare and style
You can also use props such as a marble slab background or an essential textured background, ring holders or stands, or group photographs with other jewelry pieces to make your photos more interesting. Styling truly comes down to how you want to present your products. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
To begin with the basics, first, you should understand that there are a few things you can do if you can’t achieve complete focus; you can adjust the perspective to line the focus plane with the sensor plane as closely as feasible. In these cases, a flat lay composition works nicely.
Then gradually add and test more elements. It’s essential to keep your jewelry clean and polished. The level of detail obtained by a DSLR camera and adequate lighting settings provide difficulty. The finished image is frequently blown up to several times the item’s size. When you photograph anything that is not visible to the human eye, it will be disclosed. Every time you touch your jewelry, wipe it down. Cotton gloves can help you save time and money on reshoots.
Photo
Place your camera on a tripod so that you’re shooting down at the product. Place your lights (with diffusing umbrellas) on either side of your product, angle them down at the product, and make sure they’re all the same power. This configuration should equally distribute light around the frame without causing unsightly bright spots on your merchandise.
In e-commerce photography, consistency is crucial, and deviations from product to product or picture to shot confuse your buyer. Everything should be documented, including camera settings, lighting, background, and equipment placement.
Check whether you can continue filming on a different day with no visible differences. If you can’t get a deep depth of field on camera, you can always use focus stacking in post-production. You will need to picture the product several times, shifting the focus point each time until you’ve covered the entire subject to make the best jewellery photography. Then follow Because gems and metals are very reflective, photographing them is quite challenging. A reflection on your piece can appear a fault and make it appear low-quality.
When learning how to shoot jewelry, you must pay close attention to where the camera is placed and the supports, background, and lighting. All of this could be reflected in the jewelry, which may cause the spectator to become distracted. White backdrops are inexpensive and straightforward to make, and the background of your images may be edited out.
You may make a lightbox, use seamless white paper, and even photograph white objects on white backdrops. You can use free picture editing tools to fine-tune your stand-in background if it has imperfections or anything else you need to repair during post-processing.
Props
There are various ways to arrange your jewelry to make it appear its best. If you want to leave it in the shot, make sure it’s easy to remove or that it’s not distracting. When photographing necklaces, pendants, long earrings, and other similar items, you will want to show them hanging naturally rather than lying flat. Jewelry display busts can be used for this.
White cardboard is a cost-effective alternative. You cut it to fit the jewelry, such as punching a pair of holes for earrings or making two cuts on the top to hold the necklace. A transparent string can also be used to hold pending jewelry. Hold one on each side of the frame and hang the jewelry on it. Holding rings erect using blue tack or adhesive dots is easy, and it’s simple to delete in Photoshop. Avoid using distracting or extra props. Props are an unnecessary distraction.
You may believe that your jewelry would look best when staged artistically, or you may wish to display it on a mannequin in a realistic manner. Use them for your social media platforms if you want to include artifacts that ‘tell a narrative ‘With your goods. Images of products should be as transparent as possible.
Reflections And Angles
The mix of jewels and metal makes jewellery product photography a technological difficulty. Shooting extremely reflective things without capturing distracting reflections is tough. For shooting metallic jewelry, use a double overhead light and follow this approach to photographing shiny objects. When you click on a product on a category page, and there are no more photographs, it’s a huge letdown.
Perhaps the customer preferred an above image of a necklace but needed a close-up shot to understand the inscription on the side better. Would you please give it to them? Make sure your jewelry is visible from the front, side, and rear. If there are any unique inscriptions or embellishments on it, include some detailed photographs. It’s always a good idea to have a ruler or something that can give you a sense of proportion nearby.
As your skill with jewellery photography grows, you will be able to incorporate more components into your sessions and be more creative with your photographs. And I hope you find these photography ideas helpful in getting better outcomes while photographing jewelry at home in the future.