Whether it is a pearl necklace or a diamond ring, jewellery photography can be intimidating because of how small, intricate and shiny the pieces of jewellery are.
However, you can make photographing jewellery easier with the right setup and some simple tricks.
The following tips will teach you how to take good photos of jewellery and you will understand how to make it look attractive.
Things To Keep In Mind While Clicking Jewellery Pictures
Clean Your Jewellery
The first and foremost step to taking amazing jewellery photos is to make sure that your pieces of jewellery are clean and polished.
What may not seem obvious to the naked eye will be revealed once it shows up in the highly focused images taken by your camera.
Unless your jewellery needs some serious cleaning, you can simply remove dust and dirt by wiping it with soft wet cotton or microfibre cloth to add instant shine to your jewels before the shoot.
You can also wear gloves so you don’t leave fingerprint marks every time you are placing them.
Background
Before you start thinking about the camera setup, lens, angle or lighting the first thing to decide is the background that you will place your jewellery on. Consider the colour, texture, shape of the backdrop that will help enhance your product without overpowering it.
White background for shooting jewellery is the safest. This is so because of the reflective property of most pieces of jewellery like metals and gemstones, that absorbs all colours and so white background will avoid changing the colour of the piece.
The white background reflects light whereas black absorbs light so the product will be better lit against a white background.
However, to create soft light and lesser shadows, a black background is a good option.
Place your jewellery on contrasting coloured surfaces to create strong and appealing images.
A pastel colour palette will add depth and personality to the jewellery. Solid colour and several shades of the same colour will draw more attention to your product.
Use different textures and styles in the background to tell a story through the picture.
Though remember to keep shades and textures to a minimum to avoid too many distractions that will divert the viewers focus from the main subject.
Lighting
As mentioned before most pieces of jewellery are highly reflective, so you’re likely to find the jewellery in your photo reflected and you want to avoid that.
Unless you’re a professional photographer it is not possible to take spotless photos with a camera flash, so you can use natural lighting instead by placing your item next to a small window.
A simple DIY setup is to place a paper at the bottom and around the camera lens to block off reflections and bounce more light back to your subject.
You also want to be able to create soft and even lighting to exclude as much shadow as possible.
You can achieve it by turning off all other unnecessary light sources in the room and avoid mixing different types of lighting that may produce different colour temperatures.
Camera Stability
Despite the built-in software found in cameras and smartphones, there will still be camera shake if you hand-hold your phone/camera, resulting in blurred shots of your jewellery.
To avoid blur photos always use a tripod. Tripods are reasonable, effective, and improve both quality and consistency.
When your camera is held steady by a tripod, it gets easier to use optimal aperture and ISO settings.
All you have to do is mark a spot on the floor for your tripod and then replicate your setup even when shooting on different days.
When looking to purchase your first macro lens, think of choosing a lens with a focal length of 60mm.
This focal length benefits in obtaining half-life size magnification, whereas more expensive macro lenses, provide life-size magnification.
Focus
The goal is to highlight the intricacy of your jewellery, such as the main diamond or the details on a bracelet, so you’re likely to just use Auto Focus on them.
However, even in close-ups, the focus may still not be on point so you’ll need to verify it afterwards by reviewing the image and zooming in for a closer look. You will have to get the right focus through trial and error.
Don’t opt for low aperture shots of your jewellery that focus on only one aspect of the product.
High aperture with proper focus will create a sharp photograph.
Use an aperture setting of f/11 o rf/16, and set your ISO to as low as possible- around ISO 100.
Photography With Models
It is a good idea to use models as jewellery is designed to be worn and your jewellery photo should give an idea of how the jewellery will look in real life and on the human body.
It doesn’t necessarily need to be a portrait, even a hand or neck will be enough.
The jewellery photography with model and clothes should not distract the viewer from the product. Use one colour clothing and minimal make-up.
How To Edit Jewellery Photos
It is common knowledge that capturing dazzling jewellery pictures is a daunting task.
Ornament pieces often fail to be captured in full details and also the reflection from gemstones and metals renders them dull in images.
Photo clarity also depends on strategic lighting and jewellery dimensions.
Thus, jewellery retouching post photoshoot is inevitable. To get a perfect professional-looking photo of jewellery you need a good photo editor for jewellery editing.
Adobe Photoshop is the best photo editor for jewellery retouching with several tools that make professional jewellery images possible.
Photoshop Touch is a jewellery photography app for editing photos on your phone. It is a mobile analogue of Adobe Photoshop.
Jewellery Photography Retouching
A well-designed jewellery image with good lighting does not require retouching unless you want to make the subject sharper.
But more often than not you will need these retouching tools for a perfect photo.
Standard Tools
These are tools that are used to impact the entire image like brightness, contrast etc.
Brush Based Tools
These are tools that let you make edits to specific areas of the image while keeping the rest of the image intact. Brush based editing tools only target the image where you to perform an editing task. Very easy to use and very useful as it gives you the power to control what to edit in an image.
Unsharp Mask
This is a function in Photoshop that is used to adjust the sharpness on the photo.
Clone Tool
To replace stones in a jewellery photo, use a clone tool. If some gems look better than others, replace them with the better ones by cloning the stones you want.
Spot Healing Brush
If you notice dust, dirt or scratches on your jewellery then don’t be disheartened, use spot healing tool to easily remove them.
Mixer Brush Tool
Use this tool for smoothening. If the metal looks very dirty and you need to replace the whole part then use the pen tool to draw the shape of the metal and fill it with a gradient that resembles pure glitter of metal.
Smudge Tool
A brush-based tool used to smudge colours around a specific part of the image. For instance, in case of a pair of earrings with the white light reflecting on the pearls. You can use the smudge tool to smudge colours and give the pearls a nice gradient shine.
Brightness/Contrast
Many people use the brightness and contrast adjustments because most free photo editor for jewellery tools allow you to do this.
Brightness, as the name indicates makes the image brighter. The contrast makes colours deeper and makes the darker areas of the image contrast more with the lighter areas. It makes the colours pop!
Too much brightness tends to make the details of the image fade. Contrast usually makes pictures look better.
Dodge Tool
This is a brush-based tool that is used to lighten a certain part of the image. It is similar to the Brightness adjustment but it lets you target specific areas of the image.
Hue/Saturation
This is used to change the colours of an image or parts of the image.
Thus, you can use this tool to change the colour of the metal or to change the colours of the subject itself.
For example, if you have the same style of jewellery with 5 different stones. The colour of some stones can be edited in Photoshop, that is, you can change green to blue or change or yellow to orange.
Burn Tool
Just like the name suggests it is used to burn something, that turns it black as the burn is used to make things darker. It does the opposite of Dodge tool; it lets you make specific areas of the photo darker.
Inspiration For You: Best Jewellery Photos We Found Online
Scroll down for scintillating jewellery photo gallery
We love how the pieces of jewellery stand out against the model and background shades.
Nature is used as a background and the way they’ve made a plant twig into a jewellery stand is super creative.
The black background enhances the subject so well!
In this picture, the photographer has used the same colour shade as the jewellery and still managed to keep the focus on the subject.
The reflection of the ring adds to the charm of the photo.
All women want to be photographed this beautifully in their wedding ensemble.
The aesthetics and creativity of this photo are unmatched.
The colour combination is stunning.
The subject is not in focus but still captures viewers’ attention.
See how the wedding ring pops up against all the props in the background.
Which of these pictures did you like the most? Tell us in the comments below!
