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Does anyone have good tips for photographing jewelry?

I need to photograph a lot of jewelry, mostly crystal jewelry for my online shop. I don't know much about photography but can't afford to hire a professional for the hundreds of pictures I'll need.
Each product can have 5 pictures posted with it. I need a good over-all shot and definity a major close up detail shot at the very least.

Jewelry photography is tough. I do all of ours for GEMaffair.com and since we photograph everything in-house, it can be pretty time consuming but it's worth it.

I would suggest first getting a nice SLR digital camera. Learn your settings and never use an automatic setting. We've found that even when using macro lenses, it's difficult to find the right marriage if f-stop and lighting. If you use a high f-stop, you lose the detail, which is essentially the point of jewelry photography, so we try to find the point where shutter speed and f-stop meet for the most crisp image.

In addition, we use a lighting box with both halogen (yellow light) and LED lights (white light) built into the frame of the box. By shooting in a box you can eliminate shadow and most of the pesky reflections that plague jewelry photographers. We also use a hand held LED light to pin point the best position for the camera to catch the fire and brilliance of the gemstones.

In addition, sterling silver will photograph differently than white gold. You want ti to look its best, so play around with lighting combinations and the camera's white balance. Just keep in mind that once you've got the metal to look great, the gemstone or crystal may be way off. Again, it's a balance of working with every item individually to ensure you get the best possible shot.

Another key factor to jewelry photos is consistency; make sure you shoot all of your rings from the same angle, all of your bracelets the same way, ect. The easiest way to do this is to tape off the positioning of the box and tripod if you use one and then slightly mark where each piece needs to be positioned. Those with massive budgets actually use tilt and rotate cameras so they can move the camera around the piece to ensure everything is in sharp focus, all the details are crisp and depth of field isn't an issue. Unless you've a massive budget, this probably isn't for you - plus it's a nightmare.

It's frustrating, but good photos are worth it. If you've got the patience and willingness to try different things, you'll be fine. But, you may save yourself a lot of hours by hiring a pro. Like one of the other posters said, college students make excellent part time employees.

Jewelry Photography Tutorial: Focus Stacking and Bracketing

Tags:   diy · howto · jewelry photography tips lighting · lighting · photography · tutorialNo Comments