Sheryl Lambert of Quotentials shares her fused glass jewelry displayed beautifully in three photos - and her tips for achieving your own great jewelry photos using similar props:

Fused glass pendant by Sheryl Lambert
"Photographs for web pages are often put in thumbnail size, and must be eye-catching at that tiny size.

When photographing fused glass jewelry for websites, use a background that is interesting without being distracting.

Fused glass pendant by Sheryl Lambert

Fill plastic containers with textural items, such as rice or beans.

Place your jewelry piece and a decorative item in the beans or rice, and photograph them using the macro setting and natural light.

A small table-top tripod comes in handy here.

Keep a selection of decorative items, such as silk flowers or seashells, that would enhance the color of the piece you are photographing.

Fused glass pendant by Sheryl Lambert

The resulting pictures are eye-catching without taking away from the beauty of your handcrafted jewelry."

Very beautifully displayed and photographed, Sheryl! Thank you for sharing your tips for photographing fused glass jewelry.

Here are some jewelry display photography and editing tips from Michelle Wade of Creativity Bead Jewellery.

Michelle says:

"I have spent hours getting the right results with my jewellery photography as I'm sure you all have done too! I have found the best results come from a combination of digital photography and scanning.

Necklace and Photo by Michelle Wade

To photograph jewellery I use a light tent/box (which I made from balsa wood and light weight white parka nylon material stapled on sides and top). Sized at around 400mm sq works best.

For lighting I bought 2 desk spotlights and fitted them with daylight bulbs, available from a lighting retailer for around $3 ea.

Position the item in the centre of the tent and position the spotlights hard up against left and right sides of the tent.

Mount your camera on a tripod, available for around $80 on eBay, or your local appliance shop, and set your camera exposure to 1.5 - 2.0. Daylight setting is best if you have that option.

For necklaces that need structure, I recommend using a white jewellery neck (bought for about $15 on eBay).

Necklace and Photo by Michelle Wade

Photograph your item, save to disc and edit it in any photo edit programme - Corel Photopaint works best and can be picked up relatively cheaply for earlier versions of the software.

Use your photo editor's brightness, contrast, intensity functions to wash out your background, adjust lightness and darkness, your eraser tool to remove any unwanted lines or shadows, and your replace colour tool if your colours come out inaccurately.

Scanning seems to work best with copper materials, light silver beads, crystal beads and lighter pinks and blues, as you get a better representation of light reflection without that horrible glare effect.

To scan jewellery, lay flat on your scanner, face down, with a white piece of card between the jewellery and the top of the scanner for light blockout and a neutral background.

Necklace and Photo by Michelle Wade

Scan your item, save and repeat the steps for photo editing as above. You can pick up a good scanner second hand for around $60.

Save your files and upload to your website… and watch your conversion rate climb!

Having really nice photos is the difference between sales and no sales as we all find pretty things irresistable!

These tips worked really well for me and saved me a fortune in jewellery photography charges!

Happy snapping!"

Thanks for the tips and photos, Michelle!

See Photographing Jewelry for more tips and techniques for getting good photos of your work.

Technorati Tags: jewellery neck, jewellery photography, jewelry display photography, photographing jewelry, scan jewellery

Filed under Necklace Displays, Displaying Jewelry for Photos by Rena Klingenberg.

Permalink • Print • Email • Comment