Are you trying to advertise your jewelry and make sales? We'll help you find the best way to photograph jewelry. We've prepared a detailed guide on commercial jewelry photography to help you boost your sales.
We'll help you find the right equipment, learn some helpful jewelry photography tips to improve your , and explain the new trend of AI product photo generators. With our guide, you'll improve your jewelry photography and attract new customers.
In this article
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- Jewelry Photography Shouldn't Have Any Reflections
- Use Macro Lenses for Jewelry Photography
- Always Pay Attention to Shadows in Jewelry Shots
- Use Natural or Soft Lighting for Jewelry Photography
- Create Meaningful Compositions to Showcase the Product
- Create a White Balance With a Gray Card
- Use Focus Stacking for Jewelry Photography Editing
- Use Mannequins or Models
- Create a Jewelry Clipboard
- Ensure Your Jewelry Shots Are Illuminated Consistently
- Get a Tripod to Get Steady Jewelry Photos
Equipment You Need for Jewelry Photography
Equipment is crucial for good photoshoots – depending on your budget, you can get as many items needed for jewelry photography as possible. You can start with essential jewelry photography equipment and gradually get more expensive gear.
Camera
The first and most important thing you'll need is a camera. You don't need the most expensive camera to photograph your jewelry. If you can't afford a camera right now, you can use your iPhone to take jewelry photos.
However, whether you're using a camera or a smartphone, you'll find tripods very useful. They'll help you avoid shaky pictures, and they're cheap.
Lighting
Then, consider buying a lighting kit. Lighting is essential for good jewelry photography. You can use natural lighting, but ensure you have a suitable artificial light source.
Learn more: Jewelry photography lighting setup
Different Lens
Next, depending on where and how you want to photograph your jewelry, having different lenses for your camera can be helpful. For instance, have one suitable for indoor and one for outdoor jewelry photography.
Backdrops and Props
You can also consider getting some props or backgrounds – a white background is very effective and can be created from many different things, such as white paper sweeps, poster boards, or even white linen. Besides that, your options are limitless.
How To Photograph Jewelry in 5 Steps
If you've got everything you need and your jewelry is ready, it's time to start photographing jewelry. We've prepared five steps to ensure each jewelry photoshoot goes over smoothly.
Step 1. Set the Table
Once you find the perfect spot for your jewelry photoshoot, it's time to set up your studio. First, you'll need a table. It doesn't need to be anything special – you can just use a standard folding table. Set your white background once you've found the perfect place for your table. As we said, it can be a linen or paper sweep. You can tape it or use clamps to hold it up.
Step 2. Set Up Lighting & Background
The next step is to position your lighting just right. If using natural light, set your table near a window. If you're not, set up your light source at a 45-degree angle from your jewelry. You can use foam boards behind your light to make sure your light is diffused and evenly spread across your jewelry.
Step 3. Style the Jewelry and Clean
Now you need to use your imagination. You can set up your jewelry however you want for the photo shoot. You can use jewelry stands and props or anything to make your jewelry stand out in the pictures. Just make sure to properly clean your jewelry before the photo shoot, as with the proper lighting, every grain of dust is visible.
Step 4. Adjust Your Camera Settings and Shoot
Once you've set your jewelry and background, it's time to adjust your camera settings. Play with different camera settings and take test photos. See what works best for your jewelry. Adjust your aperture and ISO and try out blurry background and shutter speed. You need to experiment to get the best results and professional jewelry photos.
Step 5. Edit Your Images
After you've finished the photo shoot, it's time to edit your jewelry photos. It's the most crucial part, as it allows you to transform your jewelry pictures into a masterpiece. If you're unfamiliar with editing and retouching, you can hire a professional to do it for you. You need to make your photos look professional instead of posting raw pictures if you want to entice potential customers. If you are new to product photography, free online AI photo editors can be helpful for you.
Helpful Tips and Ideas for Improving Jewelry Photography
Now that we've covered all the steps of jewelry photography, here are some useful tips to make your jewelry photos look more professional.
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Jewelry Photography Shouldn't Have Any Reflections
Since jewelry is already reflective, you should eliminate reflections. You can do that by shooting from different angles and using soft light. Try moving your light source around to avoid creating reflections in your photos.
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Use Macro Lenses for Jewelry Photography
Macro lenses give your jewelry photos a unique and professional look. They allow you to take wide-angle photos and focus your photography on one section of your jewelry. It allows customers to see the tiniest details of the jewelry before they buy it.
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Always Pay Attention to Shadows in Jewelry Shots
Just like reflections, shadows should be avoided in jewelry photography. To eliminate shadows from your jewelry shots, try adding another light source from the direction of a shadow. It will allow you to create flawless jewelry photos without shadows.
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Use Natural or Soft Lighting for Jewelry Photography
To produce breathtaking results, photograph your jewelry using natural or soft light. Natural light gives fantastic results during the “golden hour”, and soft lighting can produce incredible shots. You can use multiple soft lights from different angles.
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Create Meaningful Compositions to Showcase the Product
Props are a great way to highlight your jewelry. However, don't overdo it and make a cluttered picture. Instead, create meaningful compositions with your jewelry as the center of the image.
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Create a White Balance With a Gray Card
A gray card is useful for correcting white balance and exposure. You can even do it on the spot while shooting – create a white balance with a gray card during the shoot, and then later get a reference image and correct it.
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Use Focus Stacking for Jewelry Photography Editing
Focus stacking refers to stacking photos with different focuses. It's mainly used for macro shots of small jewelry. With several macro shots of the same photo with different focuses, focus stacking is a technique that will give you a completely clear jewelry picture.
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Use Mannequins or Models
Implementing a human element makes your jewelry photos more engaging and relatable. You can find a model to pose wearing your jewelry, or the photo can just show a model's hand or neck wearing your jewelry. You can also use a mannequin's hand to do that.
Learn more: Jewelry model photography
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Create a Jewelry Clipboard
You can create a jewelry clipboard if you don't want to use a model or a mannequin. Take a piece of cardboard and cover it with white paper. Then, pin the jewelry to the clipboard and adjust it to look good. It will show the natural shape of your jewelry.
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Ensure Your Jewelry Shots Are Illuminated Consistently
Your jewelry should be illuminated consistently throughout the photoshoot and as evenly as possible. The easiest way to illuminate jewelry is by using natural light.
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Get a Tripod to Get Steady Jewelry Photos
We suggest using a tripod to avoid shaky jewelry photos and get clear shots. A tripod will save you from handheld photoshoots that produce angled and shaky shots. With a tripod, you can also set a slower shutter speed.
[NEW TREND] Generate Flawless Jewelry Product Photos Quickly With AI
The newest growing trend for jewelry product photos is AI photo generation. If you can't take photos of your jewelry yourself, AI product photo generators can produce photos with ease. Numerous AI photo generators are available online. Our top pick is Wondershare VirtuLook.
Wondershare VirtuLook is a powerful photo generator that uses artificial intelligence, advanced technology, and algorithms to generate unique photos however you like. What's impressive about Wondershare VirtuLook and other AI photo generators is that they don't search the Internet to find the best photos for you. Instead, they generate new unique images based on your text prompt.
Wondershare VirtuLook has a user-friendly interface and allows you to generate jewelry photos in just a few steps:
The steps for generating product pictures with Wondershare VirtuLook are the following:
Step 1. Click the "Try It Free" button and register a free account with Wondershare VirtuLook to create 40 jewelry product photos at no cost.
Step 2. Upload your original jewelry photo, then left-click on the cloth or product area you want to keep. For the best results, review the basic requirements for original photos before proceeding.
Step 3. Now, change the background for your jewelry photography by using Template or Custom Editing. Choose and try the different template to change the style and background.
If the template doesn't include the scene you need, try using the Custom Editing feature to create a personalized photo according to the text prompts.
Step 4. Lastly, click the Cast to spell button to generate the photos with AI in seconds..
FAQ
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What is the best way to photograph jewelry?
The best way to photograph your jewelry for commercial purposes is to illuminate your jewelry evenly and consistently. Try to avoid reflections and shadows as much as possible. Another way to get the best jewelry photographs is to use a tripod. This way, you can prevent shaky jewelry photos without setting a faster shutter speed. -
What is the best lighting for photographing jewelry?
The lighting will depend on what results you want from your jewelry photoshoot. However, since jewelry is naturally reflective, we bly suggest using soft lighting. You can use natural soft lighting, such as a shadow or shooting when the sun is behind the clouds. If you're using artificial soft lighting, set it at a certain distance from your jewelry piece and use several different lighting sources. -
How do you make jewelry sparkle in photography?
Sparkly images of jewelry give off an extravagant look, but making your jewelry sparkle in the photos can be tricky. Balancing between soft and hard lighting using one or more LEDs is a good idea.
On the other hand, you can simply buy a lightbox with a built-in sparkler. These lightboxes are perfect for photographing jewelry – some even have an ingrained feature with a set of LED bulbs that produce the sparkling effect. Here are the best lightboxes for jewelry photography. -
How do you photograph jewelry without reflections?
Use paper or aluminum foil at the bottom of your camera lens to avoid reflections on your jewelry photos. It will reduce reflections in your jewelry photos. Try different angles and move your light source around to find the best angle that both illuminates your jewelry perfectly and doesn't reflect light on it.