April 23
Jewelry Display Photography
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.
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