When you photograph a product, it should be as true to life as possible. While bokeh is desirable for portrait photography, it isnt for jewelry. But I wanted to go further to really add some sparkle to the gemstones. For the first class in our jewellery series, I photographed a blue gemstone necklace surrounded by diamonds. I used a three light setup to create the final image of this gemstone necklace. The image above is the final photograph of the diamond necklace. The result is a single image in which the entire subject is in focus. Camera shake is a photographers worst enemy. For the gemstone necklace, I ended up using three lights. On top of that, their diminutive size and the high magnification it demands makes it difficult to achieve sufficient depth of field. The Arca Swiss tripod plate compatibility ensures you can slide your camera directly onto the top of the tripod ball head with ease and the spirit level will help determine when the tripod is level. Once youve nailed your setup, check out these seven simple things you need for photographing jewelry. Unfortunately, this doesnt work for product photography.
Choose one and go with it. Editorial photography often features a model or jewelry in a lifestyle environment. As with a built-in flash, bright sunlight will create reflections and harsh shadows, so you may want to diffuse the light. The second necklace I shot was far less textured rather, it was smooth, polished metal with two diamonds. Need more info? [Note: ExpertPhotography is supported by readers. Once Id decided on the layout of each shot, the next step was to make sure the products were clean. A kit lens generally has a wide angle element and a short zoom; numerically the focal length will typically read from 18 to 55mm. Aring light is brilliant for jewelry photography lighting because they light the rim of the object. Follow every step as Karl experiments with lighting ratios and positions on his way to acheiving the final shot.
The metal in the image on the left appears golden yellow, while the metal in the image on the right appears to be a gradient of colors with blue as the defining color. You can even photograph jewelry at home. Inconsistency is never a good thing, even when it comes to jewelry images. I decided to create a sort of light tent, which I did by adding reflector cards. Instead of cropping and sizing each photo differently or varying other settings, such as lighting or background colors, you should create a template of guidelines to ensure that each image is taken and edited the same way. Reflective surfaces will bounce light around in annoying ways. Remember, you dont need dozens of lights or expensive modifiers both jewellery shots could easily have been achieved with a single point light source. For the rings shoot, I went for a cleaner, simpler look, shooting the two rings together on a, For all three jewellery images, I used my Hasselblad H6 with a 100mm lens (equivalent to about 67mm in 35mm full frame). What is the best camera for jewelry photography? We dont suggest this if you want to do professional work. What you need to do is choose one style for your jewelry photos and stick with it! It is especially important to provide a photo in-context when it comes to jewelry as it is challenging to know how big (or small) the product really is. When shooting for focus stacking, its important to have your camera locked down. By implementing a guideline for your team on how the images should be taken will also keep to keep images consistent. As with the necklaces, I used a bare bulb point light source as my key light. Many flash lighting setups found on online stores arrive in kits and contain all the necessary accessories like a flash trigger (that attaches to your camera), umbrellas, diffuses and stands. Keep everything in the frame simple and clean so that your jewelry really shines. Whether you're shooting diamond rings or gemstone necklaces, jewellery photography is notoriously tricky. CMYK is used for printing and SRGB is for online use. Once this is complete, you can simply continue with any other post production work you had planned. As you can see, the left image has a short depth of field and the focus falls off fairly fast, the further the product is to the camera. You can do this by covering the window with a white sheet or piece of paper; any other colour will change the colour of the light. As artists, it is tempting to make images a bit more complicated than needed. To overcome this issue, I used a technique called, Advice & Insight from Top Photography Professionals, Boudoir Photography: Tips, Tricks and Techniques, Choose the Best Lighting Modifier for Your Photography, Architectural Photography: Tips from a Pro, 20 Best Female Poses for Portrait Photography, A professional guide to shooting environmental portraits. Usually, youll want to go for a standard lens. So there's no point working on your lighting until you are sure of your composition. The advantage of a tripod ball head is in the fluid movement to obtain a desirable angle. All three of these product image styles are appropriately clean and uncluttered. 9. One-Shot allows you to set up your images and focus without fear of the focus shifting. But there are a few tricks and techniques you can try that will simplify the process and make your images sparkle. Always have a cleaning cloth with you. Jewellery photograph class video trailer. For online use, ensure your images are converted to SRGB! If you select a large aperture of f2.8, more light enters the lens, but only a small amount of subject ends up in focus. A large aperture of f2.8 or f4 is therefore not ideal as you wont be able to see the full detail of the entire piece of jewelry. You can see the result of each of these individual lights in the image below. The more fall-off or soft focus you have, the less the customer will be able to see your product, as shown in the two images below. These are all excellent, flattering angles! The best way to keep your images simple and clean in order to provide your customers with a seamless shopping experience, is to photograph your products against a white background. Instead of using a macro lens, I used extension tubes.
Read our DIY 2 post about how you can take advantage of your camera settings shooting in manual mode. Keeping your photography consistent makes it a lot easier for the shopper to browse your products. Using cardboardmight take a bit of extra time, but as with using a mannequin it shows the natural shape of the necklace and will look pretty good when you take the photofrom the front. For both shots, the first light alone yielded a great result!
Can you imagine if every time you had a different photographer, you had a different style on your website. Lets face itjewelry is shiny, and while sparkle is great, camera lens reflections and white highlight spots visible on your jewelry is not. Direct, contrasty light is notorious for exposing imperfections in products, adding unbecoming shadows, creating unavoidable reflections, and other nuisances that may or may not be able to be fixed in post. And you certainly don't have to be a jewellery photographer to get professional results! Include the details, the clasps, chain and the item being worn. So I opted for much less textured background surface. You will need a mid-level camera or a high-quality professional-grade DSLR. Its also a good idea to view the photograph on a variety of different screens. Follow our tips to create compelling images! That said, to focus stack a series of images in Photoshop is fairly straightforward, because the software does most of the hard work for you. Download your free 30-page e-book revealing my go-to lighting setups from 25+ years as a professional photographer. That meant I needed more lights. The diamond necklace featured much broader metallic tones and more smooth shiny surfaces, which can be difficult to light. The background is an integral part of your shot, so its important to select the right one. The final lighting setup resulted in a more vibrant overall image. Because I felt these were more in keeping with the broader metal tones of the necklace. Photographing jewellery can seem like a daunting task the products are generally small and reflections can make it very difficult to get a good shot but by remembering the techniques covered here, you should be able to get some great results. The more photos you provide, the less customer service questions you will receive and hopefully your conversions will increase! All Rights Reserved. Our guide will help you start capturing those great jewelry shots today. Colour accuracy isnt always due to your camera or lighting setup. Also known as normal lenses, standard lenses produce an image that roughly matches what the human eye sees. The final photograph of the diamond necklace, achieved using a two light setup. Unless youre a very skilled photographer with a very professional studio, take your jewelry product images using natural lighting. Keep in mind that youll still want to adhere to commercial photography guidelines and keep your work looking very sharp. Before you start thinking aboutlens choice or lighting, you first need to decide what background to use. To keep everything look consistent, use the same lighting or studio. When it comes to rings, Blu-Tack, glue dots and double-sided tape can be really useful. Had the photographer chosen the proper white balance settings for each individual image, the colors would have been the same in both frames. Multiple crops and sizes (not to be confused with multiple angles, which are awesome) will only confuse customers and lessen the professional look of your website and offerings. Simplicity and consistency of earring images on the, Bowerhaus works with models for each collection to showcase their products, photographing your product on white will make it look much better. This will open a dialogue box, where you should choose Add Open Files and Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images. When you photograph a product of any kind, you dont want any perspective warping. ExpertPhotography is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. If youre shooting by a window, you will have a lighting coming from one direction. This brings out the intricate details. For still life product images like jewelry, youll want to use a tripod. But photographing jewelry can actually be easier than taking photos of larger items because the, Unless youre a very skilled photographer with. They have an angle of view of around 50 to 55 degrees diagonally. Accurate representation of your product is key, because customers need to be able to learn as much about your product as they possibly can, before they can make a decision about whether or not to purchase it. Getting a good tripod for your setup will ensure that your product photos are in focus. Placing the light close to the acrylic resulted in a harsh, bright light. Once I was satisfied with my lighting, the next problem I had to solve was depth of field. If you can get the color to look accurate you are less likely to have a lot of returns. If your lighting isnt right you will get bad reflections on your items.
So if you only have a black jewelry bust, cover it with a white cloth and then take your photo.
But there is still a baseline to follow. If you want to read more about aperture, check out our blog post that explains aperture, ISO and shutter speed for product photography. Consistent, clean background removal services, Seamless and scalable ghost mannequin services, Learn how our color solutions can optimize your studio workflows, High-end photo retouching for campaign images, Retouching for lifestyle and elevated images, Network and learn at our live FLOW events, Hear from experts and thought leaders in ecommerce, Discover companies like yours using Pixelz, Stories from our customers about image editing best practices, Articles on best practices and the latest trends, Trends and indepth reports on the ecommerce industry, Live Webinar 
Both of these have different requirements and techniques. The focus stacking meant the image of the rings required the most work in Photoshop. Use fishing string or thread for things like dangling earrings. You'd be surprised, but photographing artwork can be quite challenging. Accurate lighting is vital in any type of product photo. Editing the shadows out in post-processing can be a massive pain! That said, there is some creative leeway in editorial photography. CookonStrike. When you photograph jewelry, it is easy to overlook some of the details and things can quickly go wrong. The camera body may not be as significant. It depends on whether your photoshoot is for print or online, outdoors or in a studio. Get photography inspiration, photography tips and special offers straight to your inbox from Karl Taylor Education. Next, youll want to examine your product and repair any imperfections that you find; sometimes jewelry comes in missing stones or gems, and it can be a bummer not to notice those hand-fixable details until you pull up the image in Photoshop, because cloning isnt as easy as it looks, and re-shooting requires time that could be spent elsewhere. Taking a photo of shiny jewelry using your cameras flash is never a good idea! A macro lens is for photographing small subjects at very close distances. You can always adjust the length of the chain with where you choose to clip it, so dont worry too much about the size unless you have a huge piece. For all three jewellery images, I used my Hasselblad H6 with a 100mm lens (equivalent to about 67mm in 35mm full frame). Focus mode: Because the products dont move, you can set your camera to One-Shot mode. Harsh lighting is a big mistake in jewelry product photography. It will be easier to see if any mistakes pop up. Product and e-commerce photography are the images you will see online or in a product catalog. are all colour calibrated differently. How to create wraparound light for jewellery photography. Jewelry photos are detail-oriented. You want to avoid this as much as possible as when it is online, the shopper wont be able to see the detail. I made a series of matte black tubes, which I arranged in a close formation for the necklace to rest on. A true white light will not cause any sort of colour casts, such as the blue or green of fluorescent light. Before we begin, it is good to keep in mind that there are two different kinds of jewelry product photography. The top mistake made by jewelry photographers is using the wrong lens. You dont need to. the requirement is a product shot on a seamless white background. Even the smallest speck of dust will be visible to viewers if you execute the photographs with the correct amount of sharpness, and in jewelry product photography, the shinier a product is, the better! Jewelry (and in particular earrings) can really range in size and unfortunately you wont be able to show everything to scale on your eCommerce store otherwise some studs will be so small you may not be able to see them. Pick the Right Lens for Jewelry Photography. White also reflects light whereas dark colours absorb it, so your product will be better lit if you shoot on a white backdrop. This means we may receive a commission if you purchase something by clicking on one of our links. A standard macro photography lighting setup should consist of at least two flash heads or continuous lights, one for the left of the subject and the other for the right. Or using it at inappropriate times. It seems like it takes more time but if you do this at the beginning it will save you time at the end and a lot less time editing and removing the dust and fingerprints of the jewelry at the end. For e-commerce and standard product images, megapixel count wont matter too much. This disadvantage has a lot to do with depth of field. Not only does it really showcase how your products can be worn but it also can help to build your brand image for your ideal customer. Which Settings Should You Use for Jewelry Photography? So many brands dont provide enough images. The image looks natural to the viewer. You dont need to stretch a white sheet from wall to wall to create a white backdrop just use a piece of paper and fold it in half so it stands up. This will prevent camera shake and ensure that your lighting remains correct. It would be very confusing for the consumer as it wouldnt look on brand. From the File tab, select Scripts and Load Files into Stack. Softboxes exude a nice, soft, and even light. Showing the effect of the addition of the picolite on the diamonds. I suggest f/8.
Good news! The acrylic diffused the light, resulting in a soft, gradient lighting that acted as my main fill light. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. After repairing damages, its time to give the product a thorough cleaning and dusting.
Product links on ExpertPhotography are referral links. If your lighting isnt great or consistent, your items will look very different in color across your online store. If your lighting isnt great or consistent, your items will look very different in color across your online store. You can see the result of the additional light in the video stills below. Keeping your photography consistent makes it a lot easier for the shopper to browse your products. You can never have enough product images on your product page, so shoot more and from every angle. Marilyn Mack's silver and gold pendant features faceted, cabbed, and natural-surface gems, with single and multiple colors: serpentine, drusy rainbow pyrite, amethyst, peridot, citrine, sterling, and 14K. Soft focus can be artsy, but in jewelry photography, it tends to backfire because the human eye values sharpness above all. In our series of jewellery photography classes,I demonstrate step-by-step shoots for three different pieces of jewellery. It can be due to the colour mode. These images will likely be small or only for online use. The two necklace shots required similar lighting setups that utilised a combination of lights. You want something that will enhance your product, not overpower it. These are a more affordable alternative and help you achieve the magnification you need. There are plenty of other angles that you could photographjust remember to stay consistent! The key is to know when to dial back and not make the photo too busy. Dont skip out on those detail shots. Sometimes we get so focused on the bigger picture, we forget that the details are important. All rights reserved.
When it comes to photographing jewelry, a lot of ecommerce store owners are intimidated by how small, shiny and intricate the products can be. So, how do you photograph jewelry without reflection? Embracing these principles in jewelry product photography, can really help boost the professional look of your website and hopefully, boost your product sales! But the lens will either make or break your jewelry product photography. Next, select all your layers and from the Edit tab, select Auto Blend Layers and check Stack Images and Seamless Tones and Colors. Privacy Policy Terms of Use, Youll learn how to create attention-grabbing photos in a few simple steps, In this 15 minute video you will learn about, Do you have paintings at home that you'd like to share online? The white balance menu in your camera usually looks something like this. Stick with standard lenses! A more pleasing result was achieved when the light was further away from the acrylic. My tip would be to use a ring light. Many customers buy products based on the colours showcased by your product photography. I could have achieved a similar result with a very precise snoot. Also, you have to play with the lights to make them shiny enough. Photographing shiny things without unwanted reflections is not an easy task. Create a kind of jewelry clipboard. To solve the problem of excessive reflection, I employed a similar technique to the one I used with the diamond necklace: I created a conical shaped light tent that covered the rings but still allowed me to shine light through.
Are you looking for a way to take photos that will sell your products better and make them look even more beautiful? Much like the lens, the lighting setup will also impact your jewelry photos.
Of course, you dont want all the images to necessarily move but one or two images within a product page can capture the shoppers attention and also show how a product can move. Grab a piece of cardboard, cover it in white paper and pin or tape the ends of your necklace to the back. Working with models can be expensive but it can really pay off. For starters, their smooth, shiny surfaces cause chaotic reflections. and capture colors as close to how they actually appear in real life as possible. In fact, in the first shoot, I could almost certainly have achieved the same results withspeedlights! My second light was a small ball of light that I used to create some specularity and sparkle. By having an inconsistent background, is it harder for the shopper to easily scan your web store.
For each piece, take details of all sides. For editorial photography, the settings will range depending on what you are shooting. This will highlight the detail you want to focus on and let the rest melt away into a creamy bokeh. Karl Taylor Education, Unit 11, Les Caches Business Park, Guernsey, GY4 6PH, UK - Tel +44 (0)1481 233222, All website content Copyright Karl Taylor Photography. This, along with the below image of the gemstone necklace, shows just what you can achieve using the simple techniques I've outlined here. My camera was fixed to my Manfrotto Super Salon 280 Camera Stand, but any tripod will work. You can use shallow depth of field to bring attention to details of the jewelry and blur the background. It may seem more logical to use a wide angle lens so that you can expand upon the tiny details. modern minimalist glass earrings. Because jewelry doesnt move, you can use a fixed millimetre lens. It will also keep everything in alignment should you need to focus-stack your images later. These images are usually shot on a seamless solid color background. As an added lighting sidenote, we recommend that you learn your cameras manual mode, so that you are able to control how much or how little light your camera pulls in to make your pictures. Instead of dealing with harsh lighting, photograph your jewelry in soft, natural sunlight streaming in from a window or in soft, artificial studio lighting. If you want to read more about aperture, check out our, blog post that explains aperture, ISO and shutter speed for product photography. Choose the Right Colour Mode (SRGB vs CMYK). Using the auto align' feature in Photoshop post-production. Can you imagine if every time you had a different photographer, you had a different style on your website. You dont want a reflection of your gear or lights as a distraction! Any styling adjustment, no matter how small, will have significant repercussions for your lighting. Dont rely on your client to remind you of this either! Its that simple! By providing detailed photos the shopper will know what to expect when they receive their order. Though taking good product images of jewelry is much harder than taking a good product image of something like a plain blue chair, jewelry does have the size advantage. Award-winning training. So the key to successfully photographing rings is ensuring you minimise any reflections. I took a number of shots, which I then aligned in Photoshop to create a scene that was sharp all the way through. But the composition is still important. From setup & lighting through to post-processing, We reveal the exact camera & light settings, Print out the cheat sheet & start shooting. Why? You then capture a series of images, gradually shifting your focus from the front of the object to the back. For both shots, I directed a bare bulb through a sheet of white acrylic placed behind the product. If you can take high resolution photos and capture the details of the item, you will be able to enable zoom on your online store. I recommend a deeper DOF for the best focus. Next time youre photographing jewellery, keep these tips in mind and remember to have fun! Watches, rings and necklaces all present photographers with challenges. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. Look for a lens that contains the word macro and has a focal length of around 60mm. Make sure that your Photoshop work is on-point, with no colour mistakes or lack of cloning! Just be mindful of how the pieces look under your lighting units. You can really help yourself by choosing the right props, surface and background. If you use one of these and buy something, we make a little bit of money. Beautiful, high quality photos to showcase these details are essential for a professional, consistent ,and reputable site. Aperture: This is where things get a bit more complicated. Have a simple clean background on all of your product images. By ensuring my lighting and composition was as close to perfect as I could get it, I was able to minimise the post-production each image required.