Stop being Naughty & Get Creative

Taking pictures of your handmade jewelry can be a real chore. Most of the jewelry makers I know, including myself, have had trouble getting great pictures. Some of the most common problems are blur, yellowing, glare, and poor lighting.

Blur can be caused my several things like, unsteady camera, holding the camera too close to the jewelry, or being too far away and zooming in. The best way to avoid these problems is to steady your camera with a tripod or stack of books and use the macro setting on your camera. The macro setting allows you to place your camera very close to the jewelry and still allow the camera to focus on it.

Having you jewelry photos come out with a yellowish look to them is from light bulbs. Regular household light bulbs give off light with a yellow tint. To avoid this use white bright light bulbs like flouresent or the energy saving swirl bulbs. If you have the chance take your photos outside on a sunny day. Sun light will give bright clear true colors to your photos. There are lamps that simulate sunlight. I haven’t tried these to see how they work with jewelry photography. It may be worth experimenting with. Most digital cameras have a white balance setting, ajusting this can give you better photos. Some photo editing software also has white balance you can play with.

You want your jewelry to sparkle and shine, but not glare. Using a light box or tent is the best way to control glare. I have seen jewelry sized light tents for sale on ebay for over 100.00! The good news is you can make your own. Depending on the size you need you can use a milk jug or a tote. The opaque plastic will cut down the glare from your lights and help you keep jewelry sparkle. Sometimes simply placing a piece of white paper in front of your lights will defuse the light enough to cut out the glare. It is key to avoid using the flash on your camera. This will only add to the glare.

Household lamps aren’t as bright as professional photography lamps. This can leave you photos coming out too dark. I use about three desk lamps and then lighten the pictures further in photoshop. If I had more lamps I would use them! I have found that if I hold one lamp above and a little behind me, it seems to allow the camera to pull in more light.

I have seen people using their scanners to get images of their handmade jewelry. It is not my favorite way of getting images of jewelry. The shadow of the jewelry always looks like blur and takes away from the picture. I have tried it with my scanner and it doesn’t work. If you have no camera, do try out your scanner, yours may work better than mine. The main thing is that people can clearly see what your handmade jewelry looks like. Get close ups, get details, and get different angles.

Keep experimenting until you find a set up that works for you.