Beading Blog - thebroadroom.net: Some notes on photographing jewelry

One woman's adventures in the wide, wonderful world of beading. Current blog Profile Playlist I also blog here

1. Natural, indirect lighting is the only lighting that's ever worked for me. If you're going to go pro, you'll probably rig up a light box, but I've found adjusting the camera settings can work quite well.
   
   My "old" Kodak DC4800 actually has aperture settings, so knocking these up a notch or two keeps too much light from getting into the picture. On my other "old" Olympus Camedia, there don't seem to be aperture settings, but you can change the white balance to daylight.


2. The quintessential "boring" plain white or black background works best. You can always add a prop or two, but somehow colored backgrounds look nice but distract from the jewelry.
   
   I have had luck using wooden backgrounds, like a wooden table. Dark grey can work. Red is good but I would use it only for key pieces, not for every piece.


3. Use the "macro" (tulip) button on your camera and play with using optical zoom.


4. I don't have a tripod, so what I do is use my hand. I rest my digicam on my left hand, as if the hand were a tripod. The ideal is to rest the hand itself on something else, but even if you're holding your left hand in air, it's still better than trying to take a close-up by holding the camera in both hands.

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