Photographing jewellery

molinari · 8 Sep 2011 at 16:45

Hello,

I'm hoping for some tips/advice on photographing jewellery. I've been asked to take some photos for a website by my brother. If he could, he'd have them taken professionally but he doesn't have the money, so of course I'd like to help if I can. I'm more used to wildlife and landscape photography so it would be good to get some tips or advice from anyone on here. I expect there to be a fair amount of time on the setup of the shot, getting the lighting correct for shadows, DoF, exposure etc... but equipment wise....

What I have:
Nikon D90
Nikon 18-105 kit lens
Nikon 35mm F1.8 lens
Nikon 70-300mm lens
A recently purchased 80cm light box (as found on ebay)
RedSnapper tripod

I guess I will also need:
Some lamps for either side of the light tent, perhaps another one for straight on or from above?
Would a macro lens be better or would that be an unnecessary level of detail?
Reflective card for the items to sit on

Is there anything else I might need? Any advice or info is welcome

.

Below is an example of the type of jewellery I'll be photographing:

BusError · 8 Sep 2011 at 17:02

Use a longer lens, and some macro bellows if you have them for closeup. I never needed any macro lens for product photography, but then again I never tried on very small items.
You already have the essential bit, which is the light tent.. Experiment with the various backgrounds..

You can use pretty much any light outside the tend, from "warm" halogens to "cold" LED arrays, in fact mixing and matching work pretty well. Make sure to record an "empty" frame for your white balance reference.

The light is pretty essential as always, and getting the light right will certainly make the products look 'better' -- sometime better than they actually are!

1947 Leica, photographed in a light tent, with a 85mm lens on a Canon 350D

Neil777 · 8 Sep 2011 at 18:35

There's some info on jewelry photography here

http://www.akelstudio.com/blog/category/jewelry-photography/

Sig226 · 9 Sep 2011 at 08:01

Have you thought of trying some black velvet instead of the white base ?, it might contrast better with the jewellery.
And if you buy the good stuff instead of the crushed velvet it just absorbs light and may help you control unwanted reflections as well.

Regards Simon

molinari · 9 Sep 2011 at 12:44

Thanks for the replies!
Yes, black velvet and other material will be used to see how it looks. Now I need to find some decent continuous lights to use in the setup. The macro bellows also sound interesting.