Pro Technique of How to Take Pictures of Jewelry at Home

Jewelry photography is more complex than other product photography. Know why? Because jewelry pieces are reflective. However, with the right equipment and technique, you can capture flawless jewelry sparkles that instantly attract target customers. Since you have clicked on this article, I assume you want to learn how to take pictures of jewelry that brings results fast. So, start reading the article and learn what equipment you need, how to use it for jewelry photography, and useful tips to get found and loved by your customers.

Here are three reasons why you must do professional jewelry photography to stand out in the competition and grow your brand.

• Online Shopping Enhancement: The world is moving fast. Everyone is busy working hard and rarely goes to shops to purchase jewelry. Thus, creating realistic and eye-catching jewelry images is a great way to reach your customers on social media, increasing your brand popularity and sales both online and offline.
• Showcasing Jewelry Unique Features: Every jewelry brand has something unique to offer. So, what does your brand have to offer to customers that they buy jewelry from your shop and not your competitors? You can highlight your jewelry's special features in pictures. Take images in a way that captures customers' attention instantly and lives in their minds rent-free, enticing them to take action.
• Increase Popularity and Customers: Uploading stunning jewelry photos on social media platforms increases your customers online and offline. People get to know about your existence and come and visit your shop to see what jewelry pieces you are offering and their quality, increasing trust, loyalty, sales, and return of the customers.

Photographing jewelry with the right equipment is the easiest. Let’s see what tools you need to photograph jewelry like a pro.

Jewelry photography can be done with phones but if you want to stay up in your game, I highly recommend investing in a high-quality DSLR or mirrorless camera. For example, the Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera has a 1/8000 shutter speed with great features, high resolution, and low-light performance which is comfortable to use and best for jewelry photography.

Use a tripod to stabilize your camera during jewelry photography. The speedy shutter close makes the camera shake, resulting in shaky and blurry jewelry images. However, you can easily avoid camera shakes with a tripod. You can purchase a tripod that can be used for phones and cameras and take stunning flawless images.

Using a 1:1 ratio macro lens is a must for capturing precise details of a piece of jewelry. The more jewelry details you can showcase to your customers the better it will capture the audience's attention and create a conversion. Purchase a 1:1 ratio 50mm or 300 mm macro lens to precisely capture every detail.

You can use both natural light and artificial light for jewelry photography. However, ensure every image looks natural regardless of the light sources.

If you are using natural light, choose a well-lit room and set up the setting beside a window. Take the images in the morning or afternoon (when it is not at its brightest like 3 pm to 5 pm.) or in the golden hour. Avoid the afternoon time when the sun is at its peak. Meanwhile, for studio jewelry photography anytime is the best time. Just set up the equipment and take the amazing jewelry photos.

Use a softbox to create soft lights that will help you well-lit the jewelry, soften the shadows, and naturalize the jewelry image. You can find it in different sizes and designs like rectangular and round. You can use softboxes for both natural lighting and artificial lighting.

You can use white foam boards as a prop and a reflector. It is super useful for jewelry photography which can also be placed like a lightbox and take jewelry photos with it.

Since jewelry reflects a lot, using a reflector is a must. You can use a whiteboard, or white paper, or purchase reflectors like diffusion light/paper from the shop. Place the reflector in a place opposite where the lighting is coming from, ensuring the softening of the shadows.

Do you need to use props for capturing high-quality jewelry photos? Why not! Props emphasize and enhance the beauty of the piece of jewelry. However, use minimum and relevant props that complement the jewelry. For example, using various ghost busts, clothing, and fabric, tiles, acrylic sheets, monstera leaves, fake plants/flowers, designed glass, and more.

Last but not least, you need to use an updated Photoshop tool for professional jewelry retouching. Due to using a macro lens, lighting, and camera exposures, jewelry images often have harsh shadows, dull or bright colors and lighting, and other issues that need to be fixed. Use Adobe Photoshop for jewelry photo editing flawlessly and with ease.

We have come to the main part. Let’s see how to photograph jewelry with the easiest steps.

Keep up with trends by researching what your competitors are creating. See how they are engaging with the audience and making sales. You can also take jewelry photography ideas from Pinterest and search engines and try new and creative photography styles with your jewelry. For example, putting water in the mirror, placing the jewelry in the mirror, and taking an amazing jewelry image where its beautiful reflection can be seen in the mirror and water.

As I said before, you can use studio light and natural light for taking quality images.

Natural Light: If you have a well-lit room in your house, don’t hesitate to use natural lighting to make the jewelry photos look the best engaging. Place the table at a 90° angle. Position the white paper/other colored on the table as a background with a tape or clip. Place the reflector behind the jewelry to soften the shadows and strengthen the lighting. Prepare the setting with the necessary props and take the image using indirect sunlight

Studio Lighting: You can do jewelry photography at your preferred time with artificial lighting. Choose your desired room. Place the table. Set soft boxes at a 45° angle. Ensure the jewelry is well-lit. Set the setting and place a reflector behind the jewelry. Take the photo till you are happy with the shot.

Note: You can also make lightboxes with large boxes, and white foam boards, or purchase high-quality lightboxes where lighting, reflectors, and other facilities are available.

Complement the jewelry using inevitable props. Here are some props suggestions for taking quality images.

White Background Props:

• Bust for Necklaces, Bracelets, Earrings, and Full Sets.
• Prop Wax
• White Paper/White Foamboards

Lifestyle Jewelry Photography:

• Cups and Bowls.
• Fake/Real Plants & Flowers
• Various Designed Papers
• Designed Glasses
• Jewelry Box/Gift Box
• Duo Boards
• Various Styles and Colored Fabric
• Geometric Foams
• Full Jewelry Set in One Frame
• Models
• Water
• Bricks
• Flashlights

When you are done choosing light sources, and props, and preparing the setting, it is time to clean the jewelry and place it on the photography setting. The reason I kept jewelry cleaning after all this work was so that no dust or fingerprints get captured in the macro lenses.

Clean the jewelry with a microfiber cloth so that jewelry gems and stones do not get damaged. Wear cotton gloves throughout the photo shoot to ensure no fingerprints get captured. Also, clean the camera and macro lens with microfiber clothes to ensure no dust and dirt get captured from the camera.

Using the right camera settings will make or break your final jewelry image.

• Manual Mode: Set the camera to manual mode to experiment with different settings and capture amazing images.
• Raw Mode: Take jewelry photos in raw mode so that small detail gets captured sharply in the frame.
• ISO and Aperture Settings: Use low ISO like 100 or 200 and set the aperture to F/9/10/11. The combination of high aperture and low ISO makes the jewelry picture noiseless, sharp, and detailed, ensuring viewers love what they see.
• Shutter Speed: Set a fast shutter speed like 1/180 or 1/200 to captivate the moment.

No matter how beautiful your jewelry photos turn out, it needs thorough photo post-production services.

• Dust, Dirt, & Fingerprint Removal: Even after all the cleaning, some dust and fingerprints may get captured in the photo, remove them and make the image spotlessly beautiful.
• Color Correction: Macro lenses capture every detail with precision. However, the final image comes in different colors and is a bit dull. You need to retouch the image and provide its natural color and shine.
• Lighting Correction: Camera settings and lighting sources may collide and create different colors like too bright or dull. Thus, correct the lighting.
• White Balance: Often we forget to fix white balance in camera settings during jewelry photoshoots, creating yellow and orange type colors in jewelry. Fix the white balance in Photoshop and ensure the lighting looks well-balanced in all places.
• Shadow Correction: If your jewelry images have harsh shadows, you need to soften them. Also, retouch reflective shadow sharply, if you are taking images on a reflective surface. Remember, jewelry looks the best with reflective shadow.
• Remove Distractions: If the background or props are not complementing the jewelry, remove them. You can simply put the jewelry on a white background and it will look amazing. Only keep props or backgrounds that complement the jewelry and increase its beauty.
• Overall Check: After doing all the necessary edits to the jewelry image, recheck once. If you are happy with the edit, save it.

I assume you are a student or entrepreneur who started a new jewelry business with a limited budget, then this section is for you. In this section, I will explain how to take photos of jewelry with a phone using a small or no budget at all.

1. Natural Light: Find a room where sunlight shines well. Set the table beside a window or do the jewelry photography on the floor or bed. Ensure the indirect sunlight is falling well on the jewelry.
2. Rig: Stabilize your phone with a rig. Do not take jewelry images hand-holding the phone. The final image may turn out shaky and low-quality.
3. Camera Settings: Use three-grid mode to position the subject correctly in lines and take amazing jewelry pictures. Also, see if your phone has a macro lens option, activate it, and take jewelry pictures captivating the smallest details.
4. Props: You can use simple home products as props like plants, flowers, flower petals, designed glass, fabrics, brick, and so many more things. However, keep the props to a minimum and relevant.
5. Retouch: Nowadays, phones have built-in photo editing options. Use that to remove flaws from the jewelry photos. Also, you can find many free apps for photo editing online.

Here are 5 essential tips I keep in mind while photographing jewelry.

• Simple is Best. When it comes to jewelry photography, keeping everything simple is the best choice. As it will keep the audience's attention on the jewelry and see the details.
• Maintain Consistency. Follow one style either white background or lifestyle jewelry photography. If you mingle two types of photographs in your social media and website, it will break the consistency and confuse the audience on what to like and see.
• Take Photos from Different Angles. For online stores, the more photos you upload the better audience trust builds, and sales increase. So, take at least 3-5 photos from different angles and showcase the uniqueness of your jewelry product.
• Do not Mingle Different Jewelry in One Place. Even if the jewelry is from the same collection, do not take a group photo. It will confuse the audience on what to choose and purchase. Take individual photos of your jewelry and post them individually.
• Avoid Distracting Props. While taking photos, we love to try everything. It is not wrong. Explore new ideas and props. However, ensure the prop you are using is not diverting the audience's attention from the jewelry. The final jewelry photo needs to be eye-catching and direct viewers' eyes to the jewelry.

Jewelry photography is tricky but fun. You can explore new ideas and trends to capture creative jewelry pictures and stand out from others. Do not overthink about the results. Keep taking engaging jewelry photos with consistency and you will get results automatically. See what your audience is liking and post pictures following the theme and soon your audience engagement and sales will increase.

Lastly, I hope our article on how to take pictures of jewelry was helpful. Use our method to take amazing jewelry pictures with a camera and phone. However, if you need professional help with jewelry photography in Europe and retouching, we are here to help you. From photographing to retouching jewelry, we’ll do it all flawlessly and deliver the perfect image to you on the promised deadline. Our packages are affordable and the site is audience-friendly. Check out our RetPix website and get a free trial to see the image quality and judge.