Shots for jewellery website

Hi everyone.

I was recently encouraged by my wife to take up photography again after many years of abstinence. She is a designer and maker of jewellery and has a very small business. She wants (me!) to make a website to show her range to potential clients.

The plan is to have descriptions of the products and "straight" shots showing proportions of the items on mannequins and false hands etc.

I would also like to shoot some more eye-catching / creative images to lure in the casual browser.

Below are some examples of what I've done so far. I would value any comments/ critisims / advice for improvement anyone could give.

Basically I would like to know if I am barking up the right tree with these!


























Thanks

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'The RAW is the score and the print is the performance' - Apologies to Ansel Adams

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You need to invest in a light tent, though I seem to recal someone on here made one from a laundry hamper. But if its for a business then go ahead and buy one, have you also considered claiming for photo equipment generally, probably might seem a pain working out the capitol allowances but every little helps.

Best advice I can offer is gather as many jewelwry calalogues together as possible and study how the pro's have laid stuff out, this is probably the best time of year to do it with everyone pushing their Xmas offers. check out ads in fashion mags as well for ideas. but just to remind you...light tent, light tent, light tent,

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My Names Alan, and I'm a lensaholic.
My PPG link
My Flckr link

It was Don who made the laundry hamper light tent. I made one and it works a treat.

I remember Matt Posting some good links on the subject.

Here we go
link

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Camera:|K-7|
Pentax Lenses:|DA12-24/f4 ED AL|DA35Ltd Macro|FA31Ltd|FA77Ltd|FA50/1.4|F70-210|FA20-35 f4/AL|A*200/f4 Macro ED|A50/1.7|A50 Macro f2.8|1.7xAF adapter|
Voigtlander|125/f2.5SL Macro APO Lanthar|
Sigma Lenses:|EX DG 100-300 f4|2X & 1.4X TC|
Flashes:|AF540FGZx2|RingFlash AF160FC|

I'm glad to hear sombody found that usefull!
another easy one for web use is to lay your stuff on a good flatbed scanner, use some empty film canisters or blocks to hold a peice of colored foamcore over the scanner, and scan your jewlrey in.
the shots above are certianly good, but there's always room for improvement, esppecially for commerce.

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Fired many shots. Didn't kill anything.

Hi Haworth, with any product shots of this type, IMHO you need to get the whole subject item in sharp focus from front to back (i.e. by controlling the DOF and the use ample quantities of good lighting).

As others have suggested here, the use of light tubes/tents certainly simplifies the out of focus backgrounds, which again enhances the product.

I do like pic 1 (apart from its black corner) & pic 5 which I think is spot on.

As already mentioned, take a good look at how other folk do it, see what suits you and then do it better.

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Kerrowdown... Aka Romantic Highlander.

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand... William Blake.

"Mistress" Pentax-A 15mm F3.5, "Good Lady" Pentax-A 20mm F2.8, "Friendly Lady" Pentax-A 24mm F2.8, "Deviate Lady" Pentax 28mm F3.5 Shift, "Street Lady" Pentax-A 28mm F2.8, "Bohemian Lady" Pentax-A 35mm F2.0, "Retro Lady" SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8, "Special Lady" Pentax-A 50mm F1.2, "Femme Fatale" Pentax-A 50mm F2.8 Macro, "Sweetheart" Pentax-A*85mm F1.4, "Lady Luck" Pentax-A*135mm F1.8, "Gorgeous Lady" Pentax-A*200mm F2.8 ED, "Duchess" Pentax-A*300mm F4.0, "HM The Queen" SMC Pentax 500mm F4.5

I think they're all vey good. Although they aren't meant to be straight product shots, I'm still wishing more of the item in focus. Keep barking, I think you're at the right tree.

Your wife certainly has talent - I make a bit of jewelry too and I know the imagination and effort that those pieces require. Kudos to her!

edit: forgot to mention that I especially like #3, but the entire length of the middle drop should be in frame.

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"Just put your eye to the camera and push the button-thingy."
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Thanks everyone for the useful comments.

Grateful for the comments on the depth of field. Using a narrow DOF was a (misguided) idea I had to try to make the images more "stylish", so back to the drawing board I go on that one!

I like Don's idea of using the scanner, especially for the "straight" example images - I shall have a go and see what happens.

Giving Tree - I will pass on your kind words to my other half. I know how long and hard she works on the pieces and she will appreciate the praise.

I got a light cube / tent thingy a few weeks ago and have been playing around with it with varying amounts of success. Image 1 is the best I've managed so far.

I have a problem though which I'm hoping someone on here might be able to offer a handy tip to solve...... The image below was shot in the light cube, but all the pearls look like eyes! The black 'pupil' bit is the reflection of the lens poking through the tent. Short of painting my lens white, can anyone think of a way round it, or will I just have to accept lots of time dedicated to post production is needed?






Cheers

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'The RAW is the score and the print is the performance' - Apologies to Ansel Adams

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You could wrap white paper or cloth around the lens to remove the 'pupil' effect. Better still, use a longer focal length lens and step back a bit.

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Peter E Smith

My flickr Photostream

I like much the third photo and the fifth one especially.

Regards
f248

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Pentax K7-Pentax 100-300F, Pentax 35-80F, Pentax 18-50DA, sigma 28-80 2.8 -sigma 135-400 APO.

Aye, you need to get further away from the subject as Mannesty rightly suggests.

There also used to be a matt spray in aerosol form (name escapes me for the moment) that would help to reduce the reflective surface a little on the pearls.

But hey the cold winter dark nights are here, you could spend the time with CS3 in the warm.

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Kerrowdown... Aka Romantic Highlander.

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand... William Blake.

"Mistress" Pentax-A 15mm F3.5, "Good Lady" Pentax-A 20mm F2.8, "Friendly Lady" Pentax-A 24mm F2.8, "Deviate Lady" Pentax 28mm F3.5 Shift, "Street Lady" Pentax-A 28mm F2.8, "Bohemian Lady" Pentax-A 35mm F2.0, "Retro Lady" SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8, "Special Lady" Pentax-A 50mm F1.2, "Femme Fatale" Pentax-A 50mm F2.8 Macro, "Sweetheart" Pentax-A*85mm F1.4, "Lady Luck" Pentax-A*135mm F1.8, "Gorgeous Lady" Pentax-A*200mm F2.8 ED, "Duchess" Pentax-A*300mm F4.0, "HM The Queen" SMC Pentax 500mm F4.5

perhaps a plate of glass will help, placed between your subject and lens.
glass will reflect any color light, even the white off the light tent.
it depends what angle the light hits it at.
also
move your light source around.
try different camera/subject positions.
you may be able to reduce the black holes on the subjects that way.
another way to reduce reflections would be polarizing your lightsource, and adding a polarizer to your lens.

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Fired many shots. Didn't kill anything.

Thanks again everyone,

I'll try my 2X converter to get further away and see what results I get. At least the black dots will look smaller. I've got a polarising filter so I will give that a go too. The glass plate sounds interesting also.


I had thought about dulling spray, but having never used it I worry about how well it would come off from between the tiny pearls. Since these items are made for customers, I might end up spending hours with a toothpick and soapy water! I'd be a dead man if it permanently marred a piece Maybe best to stick to the PP route. Ah well, as was said, long winter evenings are here.......

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'The RAW is the score and the print is the performance' - Apologies to Ansel Adams

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oh, forgot something rather obvious...
you could use a peice of black foamcore/matboard cut to the same size as your light tent's front panel, and cut a hole in it for your lens.
a large square reflection sometimes works well with some subjects......

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Fired many shots. Didn't kill anything.