Photographing Jewelry

Photography is a must have skill if you aren’t having your photographs shot by a professional.   These days, the quality of your photographs will make or break a sale.

Spending some extra time practicing and learning how to take great pictures will not only save you a bunch of heartache in the future, but help increase your sales as well.

Taking Jewelry Photographs with a Scanner?

Long gone are the days when you could use a scanner to photograph your jewelry (if there ever was a time you could use a scanner).  Scanning “photographs” leaves your work flat with strange glares, and erratic lighting.

Don’t give your potential customers a reason to say no!

You will realize very quickly that taking photos with a scanner leaves you in a competitive disadvantage in today’s marketplace…and this craft is the most competitive of all home based businesses.

These days, digital cameras are much more affordable, and if you don’t own a digital camera, you probably know someone who does.  Here are some digital jewelry photography tips for taking great pictures.

Macro-Mode isn’t Always the Best Solution

Ever wonder why your pictures are partially in focus?  The key to answering this question is understanding depth of field, which is about the relationship between a digital camera’s focal range and a camera’s aperture or f-stop setting on your camera.

Understanding depth of field is especially critical to photographing jewelry, especially if you are using the macro mode function to take your photos. 

Follow this link for a simplified explanation and visual examples of depth of field.

Not all digital cameras allow you to adjust the f-stop setting, but there are some things you can do to optimize your f-stops when photographing jewelry.

Lighting Jewelry Photographs

When it comes to lighting your photographs, you have two choices:  Natural daylight, or an enclosed studio set up such as photo light tents or photo light boxes.  Choosing the right kind of lighting will greatly improve the quality of your pictures.  If you are just starting out, I would recommend learning how to photograph with daylight first, before attempting to use an indoor set up. Here are some free tutorials for lighting photographs:

How to Photograph Jewelry with Natural Daylight.

Jewelry Photography Lighting Techniques

Shopping for a Digital Camera?

There are several factors you should consider when buying a digital camera for your home business.  If you are in the market for a digital camera, make sure you read our article on buying the best digital camera for taking jewelry photographs.

Styling Jewelry Photographs

How you style your photographs can affect sales, but that is really dependant on which venue your photographs will be used in.  Do you do minimal, museum style photographs, or should you use props for your shoot?  Is it wise to do several types of shots when photographing your lines or is it ok to stick to whatever style suits your brand. Take a look at our discussion of what kind of jewelry styling works well for different types of selling venues.

Photography for Juried Craft Shows and Wholesale Gift Shows

This is definitely one area that you should consider investing money in, especially if your photography skills are not producing consistent results.  We all know that jewelry is the most competitive category to get into the best quality (and often lucrative) craft shows, as well as a must for getting into the good wholesale gift shows, so having the best jewelry photographs is a worthwhile investment. 

Even if you can only afford a set of ten, you would be better off having ten professionally shot photographs to use for juried craft shows or for applying to wholesale trade shows. Here are some tips for selecting the best professional jewelry photographer.

Interactive Photographing Jewelry Tips

After reading through our articles and tips, you may still have a few lingering questions. Try visiting our free photoclinic, where you may submit up to four photographs for review. The photo tips clinic is designed to be an interactive way for anyone who wants to improve their photographing jewelry skills.

Just simply read through the page, and enter your submission at the bottom of the page. Be sure to include vital information such as what kind of digital camera you are using, your lighting set up, and any image correction software you may be using.