So you decided to give Jewelry Photography a shot? That’s great! One way to get better at capturing jewelry is by exploring the skill set on your own. But there are a few technical difficulties that come in your way. We can all agree that its a mountain of a challenge trying to achieve perfection. So what can you do to overcome these challenges and get perfect click of your jewels?
Don’t worry! In this post we’ll be going through a few things that you can avoid, to get a better output of your jewelry and by the end of this post, you’ll have a clear vision of what you’ve been doing wrong and how you’ll make it better!
Don’ts of Jewelry Photography
1)Images with Bad Focus.
Photos of jewelry with bad focus will only disappoint the customers. No one will trust the product if the image is focused only on one side of the product and the other side blurry. Your customers need to trust your product by just seeing the image. High Aperture, full focus settings will create great sharp images. Set the aperture settings of f/11 or greater, and set your ISO to as low as possible preferably ISO 100. Your customers demand good quality sharp images and make sure you provide them.
2)Shaky Outputs.
You may have done your homework on lighting and props for your product. No matter how much good your lighting or props are, it all goes in vain if your photos come out shaky. Reasons for shaky photos are that you’re holding the camera or your phone in your hand and clicking it. Your camera will shake or you won’t have a full focus and both these situations are not of any effect. Try using a tripod for capturing photos. They come at a cheap rate and also bring stability to your images. You can use optimal aperture and ISO settings once your camera is steady on the tripod. Fixing a spot on the floor will help you recreate your settings without even changing the direction of the camera.
3)Complicating the Background.
There is a reason big e-commerce sites like Amazon, eBay and other marketplaces recommend photos of the product with a black or a white background to maintain the customers focus on the product only. Do not add unwanted elements to distract the customers. Having a white background is sometimes mistaken to boring or empty. A
plain white or a light grey won’t allow the customers to get distracted. Black color is also a good option for a background. Although it is not acceptable in some marketplaces and submitting the product image might become an issue.
4)Inconsistency in Shooting.
Make a set of rules for capturing the jewelry and make you follow it. Your customers will only get distracted if there are variations from shot to shot or product to product. Note down all the settings. The background settings, camera settings, lighting, equipment placement etc. Document them in such a way that you can resume shooting the next day without any noticeable changes.
5)Reflections
When your customer is viewing your product, you don’t want them to get confused or notice the glare or the reflection of the light on jewelry. Customers even mistake it for a defect in the product. There is a technical hassle while trying to capture metallic jewelry or gemstones for photography. It is challenge to shoot such objects without the distraction of reflection. Reflections can really ruin a product image. Use a double overhead lighting setup
to minimize the reflection. You can position one large studio light setup on either side with the product placed in between in a steady position like rock. Attach a paper to the bottom of your camera lens. This will block off reflections from the foreground and reflect more light back onto the subject.
6)Inaccurate White Balance
We’re all aware about the fact that our eyes can be deceived easily. Remember the case when the internet was taken by a storm where people could not figure where the dress was white and gold or blue and black. The reason this thing happened was because of white balance. Make sure you set your white balance accurately so that you get the desired output with the colors you intended to get. To get desired results, use the camera’s manual mode or you can set it manually.
7)Bad Photoshop Job
A bad Photoshop job can completely destroy a customer’s interest in the product. A poorly touched product may look fake or over the top and will lose the customer’s trust. Invest time in learning or enhancing your skills in softwares like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. If you’re not good at it, get help from a professional if you can’t brush your own images or don’t have the time. Create your own templates that will consistently align and crop your images. Keep in mind “Consistency is the key.”
Now that you know more about capturing jewelry, go out there and give it a go and get better. Do share your feedback or comment below if we have missed any points.
Thank you for reading and get clicking!