How can I achieve quality pics of jewellery?

Can anyone tell me a cheap and easy way to take quality pics of jewellery at home. I have a cheap digital camera and not much else. I am on a pension so budget is almost zero. I get blurred and fuzzy pics which are not good for ebay. Does anyone have some good suggestions. Thank you.

Get a good tripod (not expensive) that will give your camera a steady mount. See if you can get a remote trigger or shutter release cable. This will help prevent camera movement. Find your minimum focus distance for your lens.

Get a cardboard box and paint the insides a matte white. Open areas to let the light in and set the stage for your shooting area. You can use colored material to set up the background. Using a cloth sheet or towel will help soften the light or the flash is you are using on. The soft light will help reduce the glare of the jewelry (helps with the sparkle).

Take some test shots to find out what background material will make your subject stand out.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 9:51 pm and is filed under How to make jewellery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to “How can I achieve quality pics of jewellery?”

  1. Mere Mortal Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 3:26 am

    It's all about the light.

    A homemade light tent, tripod and some cheap floods should do the trick.

    Here is a decent tutorial: http://www.tabletopstudio.com/documents/jewelry_photography.htm

    A little tip between me and you. Sometimes it is hard to get a good exposure through gemstones so bracket a few exposures and then HDR them together. It's a bit time consuming but it will produce a nice image. It also adds a magical glow to the piece.
    References :

  2. Eriko Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 4:02 am

    Put your camera on close up mode – it will probably be a flower symbol. and also make sure that your hand is steady when you take the picture and get good lighting
    References :

  3. Sakura Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 4:11 am

    First of all, you need good lighting. Second, use a tripod.
    References :

  4. stew575 Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 4:34 am

    Get a good tripod (not expensive) that will give your camera a steady mount. See if you can get a remote trigger or shutter release cable. This will help prevent camera movement. Find your minimum focus distance for your lens.

    Get a cardboard box and paint the insides a matte white. Open areas to let the light in and set the stage for your shooting area. You can use colored material to set up the background. Using a cloth sheet or towel will help soften the light or the flash is you are using on. The soft light will help reduce the glare of the jewelry (helps with the sparkle).

    Take some test shots to find out what background material will make your subject stand out.

    Hope this gives you some ideas.
    References :

  5. FotoZ 4 FX Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 4:58 am

    A few tips about macro photography:

    1. depth of field is very limited so purchasing a program called Helicon Focus ( http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfocus.html ) would be a good investment and certainly worth consideration to improve your close-up photos.

    2. Chances are very good that you are trying to hand hold your camera when shooting these jewelry pieces. DON'T DO THAT. A tripod is a must for shooting small items. You can't possibly expect clarity when your heart is beating, you are moving and you are breathing… all these things are causing your images to be blurry. Get your hands OFF the camera and your image quality will improve dramatically. If your camera manufacturer has a cable or remote shutter release… get it and use it.

    3. Unfortunately, you didn't give the make of the camera you have. If you had, I could probably (DEFINITELY) have given you some additional tech advice that your camera may have to help you improve on your photography.

    It is of utmost importance that you stop holding your camera… if you don't do ANYTHING else… get a tripod (small, tabletop version) to make your shots.

    One other lighting tip on jewelry (and you can get this at a flea market): find some milk colored tupperware bowls… cut the bottom out and shoot down through them at your jewelry… place lighting outside the bowl to enhance the jewels and the tupperware will act as a diffuser to soften the light and provide nice even light all around your gemstone article.

    Hope this gave you some insight as to what you might be doing wrong… if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me at my yahoo.com address (the name I use is my address).
    .
    References :
    Pro Photographer in Philly: http://www.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?P_ID=13971

  6. Photo Traveler Says:
    June 30th, 2009 at 5:29 am

    The best thing to have for product shots or portraits for that matter is good lighting, you can get an affordable lighting kit for less than 200 to brighten your jewelry with 400 Watts. That way you hopefully wouldn't have to use the macro (close up) setting to capture a decent shot.
    References :
    http://www.photographystudioequipment.net