The quality of photographs benefits eCommerce businesses in many ways. However, jewelry photography isn’t like any other as it includes taking closer shots and is mostly done indoors. Even if you’re running a small business and using mobile phones or own a complete setup of DSLRs and lights, you still need to carefully balance the shine, angles, and cut to be able to showcase the best of your jewelry to an audience through images.
Below are eight important tips that are already being used by experienced jewelry photo editing services photographers and companies to make their jewelry look way more attractive than it looks in casual photography.
8 Jewelry Photography Tips for Expensive-Looking Photos
Managing Lighting Conditions
One of the most important factors in jewelry photography is the lighting and source of light. Using a camera flash light is never a good idea for professional photographs. Using a flashlight will result in jewelry reflecting the brightness; this will lead to the product getting covered in white light spots and dense shadows in the background. It may not always be a good idea to do it on your own, and when investing hugely in businesses like jewelry, outsourcing (jewelry retouching and editing services provider) does the job.
Using natural light will be the best option for your business if you don’t have a highly skilled photographer with a very professional studio setup. However, make sure to use the light in an indirect way, for example, by keeping jewelry near an open window during day time. Similar to any flashlight, direct sunlight will also result in shadows & reflections, this issue can be eliminated easily by diffusing the light. Take a white and super thin sheet or cloth to cover the direct light effect. You can even use colored paper or cloth to give your photo a different tint.
Check & Manage White Balance
Observe your jewelry photographs, do you see an orange tint or one part being blueish, especially the images that were taken indoors? Incorrect white balance is more than capable of destroying your jewelry photos, especially silver jewelry, because in worst cases, your silver may even appear as gold. Almost all types of cameras are equipped with AI to automatically adjust white balance, but it only goes well for casual photography and doesn’t work for professional jewelry photography. Managing white balance requires an expert-level editor and if your business doesn’t have one, then consider a retouching service provider today.
You must consider adjusting the white balance manually from your camera’s advanced settings, this will result in generating more realistic-looking images. Try to make the best out of white balance, and the remaining deficiency can be easily adjusted by an expert editor during the editing phase. In case you’re using an iPhone, then adjust camera settings before shooting and use the “cast” setting to neutralize affected color balance.
Tripod Usage for Uncompromised Stability
Once you’re done with fixing light and color balance, eliminating camera shaking is the next important tip. Even minimal camera shake will result in poor quality and the absence of jewelry details from the image, and that’s something that cannot be eliminated during the editing process either. This problem especially occurs in macro photography for small jewelry objects because holding the camera in hand is the most widely used method. But this may sometimes result in a blurred photo when checking on a big screen.
Using a sturdy tripod can easily eliminate this problem completely, and for macro photography, for closer shots, you can use a gorilla pod. Or you can even buy a tripod with a removable ball head. Tripods offer fluid movements that give you the benefit of obtaining the desired angle easily. Simply unlock the head and once the camera is set to the perfect angle, lock it again and start clicking.
Correct Aperture to Ensure Complete Focus of Jewelry
Using a macro lens for jewelry photography is not as good as it is for other products, and using a wider aperture of f2.8 or f4 will not benefit you. That’s because it may lead to brighter photos but will also lead to a compromised depth field, and only a part of your jewelry will be in focus. This is also called the bokeh effect in macro photography, which is considered a benefit otherwise but not in the case of jewelry photography.
Instead, use f11 or f16 aperture settings when photographing in Aperture Priority. This will minimize the bokeh and will depict the complete detail of the jewelry item.
Composition of Jewelry & Props
Type something like “jewelry photos,” and thousands of images will be available to you within seconds. But only a few stand out and catch a customer’s eye; one of the major reasons for this is picture composition. Composition means camera angle and placement of jewelry + props. Unlike plain background photography, clicking photos with props requires thinking harder than usual.
The rule of thirds is the most used method for compositional assistance. This template generates visually appealing images and divides the image into 9 separate portions. The idea is that if you arrange fascinating objects along the lines, at their intersections, or inside the 9 sections, your jewelry will look fantastic. Additionally, you can even place props to fill one section and keep jewelry opposite to it. This is one good experiment but make sure to make slight changes because individual products and conditions require a little bit of tailoring.
Perfect Camera Angle
The exact height and camera angle ensure that all parts of the jewelry are clearly visible and result in better product understanding for customers. Photos taken from a low angle will result in wrong-shape visualization, and keeping the camera too high will not yield attractive photos. Try to keep the camera at around 45 degrees, it’s highly recommended for jewelry photography. To show the exact shape of the item, a flat-lay shot is an excellent choice.
Take one shot from the top so that your customer can understand what exactly they’re getting, and choose multiple best angles to cover all important details. If you have already been through the photoshoot part and the results are bothering you, then consider outsourcing a jewelry image editor, as they’re capable of straightening poorly clicked photos.
Consistency Throughout Jewelry Products
Using different chart papers for each item or choosing a tree to showcase earrings and a glass table to showcase a necklace may otherwise sound attractive but will break consistency. The absence of consistency leads to confusion among customers and also hinders brand value establishment. It will look like a third-party website selling jewelry from multiple sellers.
Consistent background and other props result in easy to understand and uplifts browsing experience. You must implement a few consistency guidelines for your team or the outsourcing agency you’re getting work done from. Avoid using different photographers for different photoshoots. Every photographer has some uniqueness in the shooting, which can further hinder consistency.
Check the Shadow
If you are an eCommerce business, then you must know that the prerequisite for uploading your jewelry pictures online on e-commerce platforms such as eBay, Amazon, etc., is a product photographed against an uninterrupted white backdrop. As hard shadows prevent them from accepting the finished product, you must see that the product’s shadow is not captured. Editing shadows from the image can be tiresome if you have to do it for bulk images. Hence for this, you can outsource jewelry photo editing services to professionals who can provide you the result within a quick turnaround time.
Conclusion
Jewelry photography differs from usual photos and requires a keen understanding of the art. This is why brands need to focus and invest time to enhance and make them presentable. If you’re still unsure or have already gone through a photoshoot but images aren’t desirable, then consider outsourcing jewelry photo retouching services. Such providers are highly experts in repairing or even completely replacing the background of existing photos and enhancing it for better visual appeal.
