9 Tips and Ideas for Outdoor Jewelry Photography

Are you trying to sell jewelry and need the best pictures to help your sale? Take your jewelry outside and take the best photos of your product. Outdoor jewelry photography has produced the best results for product photography.

With our guide, learn why outdoor jewelry photography is better than indoor and why you should practice it. We’ve prepared several tips and ideas to help you. With these tips, you’ll have the best outdoor jewelry pictures and appeal to your customers.

How Is Outdoor Jewelry Photography Different Than Indoor?

If you’ve taken photos indoors and outdoors, you’ve probably noticed the significant differences in the final pictures. Besides the obvious difference in location, what makes indoor and outdoor photography different? There are several factors.

The first and most crucial difference is lighting. Studio lighting can’t be compared to natural lighting. While taking indoor jewelry photos, you can set the lighting however you want.

You can use different lighting for jewelry photography depending on your needs, but most will agree that natural lighting is more appealing to the human eye overall. That’s why photographers try to catch “the golden hour” to make the best possible jewelry pictures.

Another difference between indoor and outdoor jewelry photography is the background. When taking photos of jewelry, indoor photographers often opt for a white background. Solid-colored backgrounds often result in two-dimensional, unoriginal photos.

Taking your jewelry outside and experimenting with different backgrounds will result in unique and lively jewelry photos.

When you shoot indoors, you need much more equipment than for outdoor photography. If you’re taking pictures of jewelry inside, you’ll need various lighting kits, such as flash, LED, fluorescent, incandescent, etc. You’ll also need clamps, different backgrounds, props, and more.

Why You Should Practice Outdoor Jewelry Photography

To boost your jewelry e-commerce business, you need to make your product pictures as representable as possible. Even though indoor jewelry photography can produce some great photos, they’re often similar to one another and lack the spirit and photographer’s personal touch.

That’s why many photographers take pictures of jewelry outdoors. Outdoor jewelry photography offers countless options for original, vibrant photos, and your jewelry will sell itself. The reasons for practicing outdoor jewelry photography are numerous.

Outdoor jewelry photography allows you to experiment with different locations and backgrounds. Your ring might look magnificent with a tree behind it, and your bracelet could stand out on a beach background. The options are endless – all it takes is a little imagination from the photographer.

Another reason for practicing outdoor jewelry photography is that you can get various shots from the same location as the sun moves or the weather changes. For instance, you'll get astonishing morning sun shots if you take photos of a necklace in the morning.

Then, as the sun moves, your pictures will look significantly different, and if it’s cloudy or it starts raining, it gives another perspective and fantastic results.

9 Outdoor Jewelry Photography Tips and Ideas

If you’re still not sure how to create the best outdoor jewelry pictures, we’ve got you covered. We’ve prepared a list of useful tips and ideas to excel at outdoor jewelry photography. With these tips, you’ll take the best jewelry photos outside and boost your jewelry sales in no time.

1. Shoot During Soft Lighting

The key to successful outdoor jewelry photography is using natural lighting to your advantage. Outdoor lighting is often more flattering and appealing than artificial lighting, but it can sometimes be too bright, so we suggest shooting during soft lighting hours.

How can you do that?

You should try shooting in the early morning or late afternoon when the sun isn’t at its full strength and catch the “golden hour”. When the sun is not high in the sky, the lighting is softer and easier to work with, and it’s best to wait for the sun to hide behind a cloud.

You won’t have direct sunlight but natural, soft lighting for your jewelry. On the other hand, you can hide in a shadow and do the photoshoot there, away from direct sunlight.

2. Use Outdoor Backlighting to Your Advantage

Backlighting happens when you put your jewelry in front of the light source and take a picture with the light coming from behind your product. While you can do indoor backlighting, it produces different effects and is harder to work with.

Outdoor backlighting results in your jewelry having a glare from behind with soft jewelry colors in the front. Such photo shoots produce breathtaking gradient results that will help you sell your jewelry in no time. Outdoor backlighting gives your jewelry a glowing effect which will make your jewelry seem high quality and supreme.

3. Experiment With Locations

One of the greatest advantages of outdoor jewelry photography is the unlimited options for backgrounds. Bringing your jewelry outside allows you to choose and experiment with different locations until you find what works best with your jewelry.

For instance, a pearl necklace would look amazing on a beach, as the ocean is where pearls come from – the background not only looks terrific with your jewelry but also tells the story and confirms the quality of your product.

You can also try various locations for your jewelry, but we suggest avoiding very busy backgrounds as it can take the spotlight off of your jewelry.

4. Use Natural Framing

Natural framing is a perfect way to make your outdoor jewelry pictures stand out. With a perfect setting, natural lighting, and a well-designed composition, your outdoor jewelry photos will look stunning. That allows your jewelry to shine and catch the eye of your customers.

You can add personality to your jewelry photos by including rocks, flowers, and branches. However, make sure to highlight the qualities of your jewelry with natural framing, not smother it in it. Experiment with angles, draw desired emotions and complement your image tone with natural framing.

5. Use AI Tools to Generate Spotless Outdoor Jewelry Photography

If you’re not yet ready to take outdoor jewelry photos or just want them quickly and easily, don’t worry. You can try some of the AI product photography tools for generating outdoor jewelry photography. We suggest giving Wondershare VirtuLook a try.

Wondershare VirtuLook is an excellent photo generator that uses artificial intelligence and advanced technology to generate amazing pictures according to your will. You’ll get breathtaking AI-generated jewelry photos by uploading sample photos of your jewelry and giving it a text prompt of an outdoor setting.

What’s impressive about AI photo generators is that they don’t look for images online but produce entirely new, original photos based on what you asked them to do. The interface of Wondershare VirtuLook is very intuitive, so the steps for generating jewelry photos are very straightforward:

• Step 1: Upload sample photos of your jewelry.

• Step 2: Provide Wondershare VirtuLook with a text prompt describing the outdoor background for your pictures.

• Step 3: Receive outdoor jewelry pictures in seconds.

6. Learn How to Adjust Your Camera for Outdoor Photography

Another vital part of successful outdoor jewelry photography is adjusting your camera for the outdoors. When you get the right camera, play with its settings to understand it better and adjust it in the best way possible.

For instance, you can start with ISO. Set a low ISO to get great pictures when the light outside is too bright. Then, set a lower aperture to hide the highlights. However, if you’re shooting in the shade, set a higher aperture to let some light in and highlight your jewelry – you can determine whether you want a blurry background or not.

Furthermore, due to various outside factors, your jewelry pictures can come out shaky. If you’re holding the camera in your hands, set a faster shutter speed to avoid shaky pictures, and if you’re using a tripod, you can use a slower shutter speed.

7. Include Models

Even though your jewelry is the focus of the pictures, adding models can really make it stand out. Adding the human element can help highlight your product in the best way possible. It makes your outdoor jewelry photos more relatable and appealing.

It allows customers to see how your jewelry is worn and what it looks like on a person. By including models in your outdoor jewelry photography, you can make your jewelry look realistic, and customers will be more likely to buy it.

Learn more: Jewelry model photography

8. Look for Unique Settings to Create Authentic Images

As mentioned, location is the best advantage of outdoor jewelry photography. However, you can go a step further and find unique settings that will mark your brand and make your jewelry stand out from the competition.

For instance, you can find a leaf with just the right green color to complement your golden earrings and pin them on it. You can also photograph your jewelry under the water and get authentic outdoor jewelry photos. The options are unlimited when you’re shooting outdoors.

9. Display Jewelry Being Used/Worn Outdoors

Models are proven to boost jewelry sales, but you can implement only certain human elements in your outdoor jewelry photography. For instance, it can just be a hand wearing your ring and bracelet or a close-up of a neck wearing your necklace, giving your jewelry a mysterious look.

The images of your jewelry being worn outdoors can include an action shot, such as a hand in motion while the person is walking or holding a drink. It can be a close-up of someone putting a ring on their finger. That creates an engaging look and allows your customers to imagine your jewelry on them.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to boost your sales and improve your brand, consider practicing outdoor jewelry photography. Outdoor photography produces fantastic results with natural lighting and countless possibilities with locations and backgrounds.

You can try some of our tips and ideas for outdoor jewelry photography and get professional pictures with ease. Our tips will help you produce unique, high-quality images of your jewelry. On the other hand, if you can’t take the pictures yourself, you can always turn to Wondershare VirtuLook to help you generate gorgeous jewelry photos.