Taking photos of jewellery using props

Just re-took a few pics of jewellery I’d previously taken photos of with the blank white background, only this time on a cream cloth in my ‘lightbox’ with props. I have to say that I understand now how it works in adding interest and atmosphere, and even makes the jewellery easier to see when it is placed against or near other items, rather than floating in a stark void.

Not sure whether I’d take all my jewellery pics this way, but it has been fun so far with the few I’ve taken, so will continue experimenting for future photos. My ‘lightbox’ is actually a cardboard box without the roof. The box was too small to keep the roof, but I still had the sides, and just placed an old cream throw inside. The lightbox was still the main source of light plus I had a side lamp. Although some shadows are still there they are softer than the ones that appeared when the jewellery was on paper with just one direct light. I quite like some muted shadow, as long as it doesn't get in the way of the jewellery. I didn’t even clean the props first as I was just quickly experimenting.

Taking photos of jewellery

Today I thought I’d spend some time browsing the Etsy community forums, firstly to ask for a critique of my shop before I list any more items, and secondly to familiarise myself with the Etsy website and maybe pick up some useful tips.

Well, it seems as though I may need to re-take some of my photos as three people told me that they were too bright and the background too white and stark. So I’m now in the process of making myself a light box and will try out different backgrounds and textiles instead of using white paper, and try to make my pics more atmospheric and the light more diffuse. With London still being overcast I don’t expect to be able to take any decent daylight photos for a while.



I’m still a bit confused over what I'm supposed to be aiming for, although dark shadows need to be eliminated and I can now see so many of them in a lot of my pics. The ones I took of the Queen of Diamonds red glass jewellery set seemed to work better for me holding them up to the light attached to white paper. Admittedly the light was quite powerful - it’s actually my S.A.D. lightbox at 10,000 lux strength. I felt quite pleased that I’d found another use for it in photography, rather than just trying to chase away the winter blues. The light is also a nice white light and I prefer it to ordinary tungsten lightbulbs which gives everything a gloomy hue, making the photos come out too dark. I don’t believe in touching up the photos except to brighten them, but I’ve obviously gone overboard with that.



So tomorrow I’ll experiment and post some alternative pics here once I’ve sorted out the lightbox and tried other backgrounds, with some props. I feel I need to get this right before I do any more listing, and hopefully get some more feedback first - so do feel free to give your comments on which photos work best for you, and any other suggestions you may have.