Top Ten Backgrounds NOT to use to Photograph Jewelry
Do not place your items on your black leather couch. Your old leather couch.
Do not take a wine glass, fill it with confetti and hand earrings off of the edge of the glass. In fact, stay out of the kitchen entirely, no jewelry on top of beds of beans, rice or coffee beans.
Do not use the broken off arm of a mannequin to model a bracelet.
Do not shoot the jewelry on your wooden floor. It may be lovely as a wooden floor, but it’s a terrible background for jewelry. Esp. when it’s a very scratched floor.
Do not put the jewelry on, while wearing just whatever you happen to have on that day, and have someone snap a picture of you, sans your head.
Do not take a pictures with human models that make white skin look pale, ghostly, sickly or otherwise just not attractive. And watch out for male models who are excessively hairy. How about this? No live models unless the photographer is a pro and the model is a pro, or at least extremely well groomed.
Cleavage, I forgot to mention cleavage. Too much, not a good thing.
Do not shoot your jewelry on fabric that has a very thick nap, pile or is linty. Velvet seems like a good idea, but it isn’t.
Do not shoot your jewelry on a background so lovely that I go, “OOooo, what is that? I want that picture/print/fabric/whatever.”
Don’t make me ask questions such as, “What is that?” “Is that an earring?” “Is that a set?” “What body part is that?” If you make me wonder, if I can’t tell right away what the item is, I’m off to the next seller’s website.
How about you? What’s the worst, most distracting background you’ve seen in a jewelry picture? Post a comment below. Thanks!
Ha! Thanks for this posting, it’s all true—I’ve seen all of these “don’ts” and even worse. There were a few examples of bad design in a humorous presentation at the PMC conference that looked like they had been photographed on an industrial carpet or car floor mat.
Here’s another no-no: room reflections. I don’t want to see you holding the camera reflected in your piece. A “lighthouse” (a.k.a. photo tent, a collapsible box made of translucent white fabric, in which you place and photograph your pieces) is one of the best investments you can make, next to a decent camera.
Thanks for the great tips Marco!
Elaine
LOL!
Like Marco, I must have seen them all. It’s hard to say which is worse then another as anything that distracts from the piece is bad.
I think “Models” (as in an artist’s friends or family) come to mind as pretty bad. Unless you use a pro model and pro photographer it’s going to end up looking very unprofessional.
Not that you always need a pro to shoot your art. Though I personally don’t like photo tents (I’ve had a few), or “domes”, or “magic boxes”, some people find them adequate. And if space is an issue, then a photo tent is the way to go.
Stevie B.
Hi Stevie, you mention light tents being good when space is an issue — would love to hear what you prefer when there is more space!
Thanks,
Elaine
Well with more space (like when I moved from my condo into my house) you have more possibilities. I use part of my basement for my photo shoots, though if I didn’t have 2 dehumidifiers running it wouldn’t work (humid = bad to studio lights).
Basically, I setup almost the same setup as the professional photographer I have been using (and for book entries and such, will likely use again). I bought a shooting table, a good tripod, a tripod extender (horizontal bar that holds the camera far out from the tripod in the air so you can get real close), 2 500 watt soft boxes (special lights that dont leave harsh shadows and can be fitted with a few accessories to change the light), 1 light stands, and 1 light boom.
I junked the milky white plexi that came with my shooting table and bought 3 different 2′x2′ plexi pieces, all 1/8th of an inch. Black, clear, and clear with one side frosted.
My “normal” setup is black plexi (I love the dark reflections), piece to shoot centered on plexi. Camera on extender on tripod and extended enough so I can get a nice close shot. One soft box is lighting the top of the piece (suspended from the boom) and as close as possible to the piece. With a soft box, the closer the light to the subject the softer the light and thus softer shadows (if any). To the camera’s right and at about a 45 degree angle, is the second soft box, lighting the piece from the right.
Now on the left should be a 2nd soft box or a flash/strobe in a soft box (much better) to provide a fill light, the other soft box being used as a main light. Unfortunately budget restriction (read girlfriend of 12 years/wife) prevented me from getting a 3rd light. So instead I use a reflector to bounce the light back on to the piece from the top and/or side light. Anything white can be a reflector, I use white canvas board and white poster board because that’s what I have lying about.
I also use the poster board behind the soft box on the boom and angle it to reflect onto the plexi and produce an effect, like a white to black or black to white gradient. If I was shooting on the clear one side/frosted the other plexi I would use a light under the shooting table to produce a gradient that radiates outward from the center of the light. If, on the other hand, if was shooting on a piece of white something (could be plexi, paper, etc) I would use a flag (a black piece of cardboard in my case, held in my hand–see budget above) and position the flag under the boom light at an angle to the piece I was shooting to create a gradient, from soft whites to dark black depending on the angle and how far it was positioned from the light.
I also position crinkled pieces of tinfoil around the piece to throw back some light in certain places, and black pieces of cardboard to reflect a darker reflection were its most needed (especially on silver). Gemstones are a book in itself (which my simple post is turning into
)
Then the post processing begins…My cameras RAW editor program and then photoshop.
Well, that’s some of it anyway. Each piece is a subject all its own sometimes and a good photographer can bring the best of a piece out. To me a good photographer is an artist, painting with light. So far I am just finger painting and that’s why I will use my photographer for very important shots.
-Hope that answer your question Elaine
I should get my own blog for this…hey, wait, I do have…
-Stevie B
You can check out some shots at my web site, some from the pro, some from me (this is not a plug…or is it?)
Oh, and I use a Canon EOS 450D with a Canon EF 50mm 2.5 macro lens (no converter–see budget above). And in what seems like a past life I did take photography in high school (film), and worked at a prepress shop where I learned a bit of photoshop and quark express.
-sorry for the long post and the rambling but it’s my nature…or is that nurture? Hmmmm