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Introduction
If you’re selling jewelry online, great product photos are a must. They are the first thing the buyer looks at and often make the difference between them clicking on your listing or skipping to the next one.
Product photography is an art in itself. Some use a complex studio set-up, while others get away with using an iPhone.
If you want to take the best product pictures, ensure your products stand out, and attract buyers - read below for the latest tips & tricks.
Tip 1: Use Natural Light (temperature)
Natural light is the best light for jewelry photography. If you have adjustable or LED lights, set the temperature to around 5,000 degrees Kelvin. That is the temperature of natural sunlight.
If you don’t, try to take your product pictures close to a window that gets a lot of natural sunlight. Make sure it is a bright and sunny day if you want to capture crisp details.
Although, an overcast day can provide bright but flat lighting. Meaning, you will be able to take beautiful photos without harsh shadows.
Try to play around with both and see what fits your jewelry products best. There’s no one-size-fits-all in this situation, but lighting plays an important part.
Even if your lighting isn’t perfect, you can still get great pictures. Keep reading to learn the tips and tricks.
Tip 2: Bending The Light
If it looks like the sun will be hitting your subject at an angle that's too harsh, move your product further away and use something to bounce the light.
You can use a professional reflector to do this, but at-home things like a silver tray or even a ceramic plate can help achieve the effect.
You can also diffuse harsh sunlight by placing white tissue paper or fabric over your window; this will soften the brightness of direct sunlight without changing its color temperature too much.
Tip 3: Minimize unwanted reflections
Everybody wants their jewelry to shine. But that can cause a lot of problems when taking product pictures. Unwanted reflections of your surroundings can affect the color and cause artifacts.
To minimize unwanted reflections on metal pieces, try using a light tent or a softbox. A white card or pieces of white paper set up around your product will also do the trick.
You can even use a mirror to bounce light onto the piece from the other side. This works especially well if you’re photographing jewelry that has diamonds in it because they will sparkle beautifully when shot through their own reflection!
Tip 4: Give your jewelry the royal treatment
To prepare your jewelry for a photo shoot, you want to give it the royal treatment. You should clean and polish your pieces before photographing them.
Clean your jewelry with a soft cloth. Wipe down the surface of each piece of jewelry, gently rubbing with upward strokes from bottom to top (not from left to right). Generally speaking, upward smudges are a lot less noticeable than sideways ones, as they take up less surface area.
Best case scenario, wear gloves and use alcohol wipes to get rid of any fingerprints altogether.
Tip 5: Choose Your Camera
If you have access, use a macro lens for photographing jewelry. These lenses magnify objects, give them more depth, and increase detail.
In addition, polarizing filters help reduce reflections off shiny surfaces and ensure every detail is visible.
If using a phone, turn off automatic HDR & auto-white balance, and turn on manual mode. This will enable you to control the camera settings and help ensure all the colors are consistent across your photos.
Tip 6: Use Technology To Your Advantage
At the end of the day, it's 2022. Your smartphone has an amazing camera built-in and there are plenty of apps that will do the work for you. Just be sure to set up good lighting and a good background.
For editing photos, the obvious choice is to use Photoshop or Gimp (free) to touch up your photos and ensure they are ready for upload.
But if you’re using your phone or simply trying to do this on-the-go, apps like PhotoRoom, VSCO and Snapseed are great for editing your photos. They make it easy to remove blemishes, adjust the color balance, and change backgrounds.
Take good quality photos from multiple angles and make sure each photo is at least 800 pixels wide so it will look good online.
Conclusion
A picture is worth 1000 words. Probably even more, when shopping for jewelry. The first thing a buyer looks at is the product photo. If they like how it looks, they will be inclined to click and learn more.
While it’s a pretty manual process, treat it like creating art and try to have fun with it.
To make your life easier, use a tripod or a lightbox if possible. Take good quality photos from multiple angles and make sure each photo is at least 800 pixels wide so it will look good online.
If using a phone, use the manual mode to set up your shot. Afterwards, you can use a variety of apps to touch up your picture, remove blemishes, and even change the background.
Once you’ve done all this hard work, use Uploadify to automatically upload your jewelry to marketplaces like 1stDibs, Etsy, Ruby Lane, and eBay.