Shooting Jewelry Simply and Elegantly

In this lesson, we wanted to demonstrate just how easy it is to create your own custom shooting space. In the corner of a relatively small room with 8-foot ceilings, we put together a simple lighting set, which consisted of a 30"x50" sheet of white foam core held up by a couple of sawhorses.

We attached an Olympus C-5050 Zoom digital camera to a Manfrotto tripod and positioned it close to the front edge of the foam core.

We would later bring in a Photoflex Starlite Medium Digital Kit and a 12" White/Silver LiteDisc setup so that ultimately, the entire set would take up less than 25 square feet (5 feet by 5 feet) of floor space. As you can see, you can create a set-up like this just about anywhere (figure 1).

We set the camera to Manual Focus in order to position our focus precisely on the bracelet. To do this, press and hold the Focusing button on the top of the camera and turn the Jog dial until MF appears (figure 2).

Once the focusing mode was set to MF, we used the Up and Down arrow keys to focus in on the bracelet. Finally, we activated the flash, set the shooting mode to Program, and took our first shot (figures 3 & 4).

Figure 4 illustrates a classic example of built-in flash lighting. Since the light illuminating the bracelet is very small and traveling in the same direction as the point of view of the lens, it renders the bracelet relatively flat and dimensionless. There are small sections of the bracelet that are illuminated and reflected back into the lens, but it is the center of the foam core that is most noticeably reflected back, making the bracelet appear relatively dark and making the lighting look uneven and unnatural.

To demonstrate the effects of soft box lighting, we brought in a Starlite Medium Digital Kit and positioned it to the left of the set so that the diffused light passing through it would rake softly across the bracelet to create a more natural sense of dimension.

Then we made some adjustments to the camera. We disabled the flash, changed the shooting mode from Program to Manual and created a Custom White Balance setting to match the color temperature of the Starlite Kit (3200 K). For the manual exposure settings, we set the aperture to f/8 (its smallest aperture setting) to achieve maximum depth of field*, set the shutter speed to 1/30th of a second to render a good exposure and took a shot (figures 5 & 6).

*To learn more about depth of field, check out the lesson on this site entitled, "Controlling Depth Of Field In Product Photography".

Notice how much better the result looks. The lighting is soft and even, and the crystal and sterling sections of the bracelet are bright, colorful and dimensional.

If you wanted to eliminate the soft shadow cast onto the foam core and make the bracelet appear as though it was resting on a pure white background, you could simply position a silver reflector on the other side of the bracelet to fill in the shadows and brighten the overall shot.

Here, we attached a 12" White/Silver LiteDisc (silver side facing the bracelet) to a Litedisc Holder and 2214 Litestand and positioned it to the right of the bracelet, just outside the frame of the camera, and took another shot (figures 7 - 9).

Remember that once you have your lighting set-up in place, you are ready to drop in any other pieces you may need to photograph.

Now that we've covered the basics of lighting and shooting jewelry, let's examine some ways we can use backgrounds and props to create shots that are a little more dynamic. Keep in mind that since every piece of jewelry is different, you may need to consider different types of backgrounds and props.

Here, we decided to use an oval beach stone to serve as a base from which to drape two bracelets. To make the shot more interesting, we decided to prop the stone so that it appeared to be standing on edge. To do this, we first affixed a right-angled hardware bracket to the foam core with the help of a liberal amount of "ghee" (a 50/50 mixture of modeling clay and kneaded eraser). Then we stuck some more ghee on the back of the stone and pressed it against the upright section of the seated bracket (figures 10-13).

Next, we experimented with draping the bracelets over the stone until the composition looked interesting. "Styling" your pieces of jewelry can be fun, but remember to be patient, as it can often take more time than you might expect to get the "look" you want (figure 14).

For this set-up, we again decided to show the differences between built-in flash lighting and soft box lighting. Here, in a more dimensional context, the differences will be even more pronounced. We set the camera back to the flash settings, framed up a vertical shot and took a shot (figures 15 & 16)

In the result, the flat lighting of the built-in flash makes the bracelets look somewhat cheap, almost like the crystals are made of plastic. The sharp shadow falling off to the right of the stone is another indication of high-contrast, unnatural-looking lighting.

We then disabled the flash and again adjusted the camera settings back to accommodate the Starlite Medium Digital Kit and took another shot (figures 17 & 18).

This simple change in lighting has made a world of difference. The bracelets are naturally lit and the stone gradually shifts in tone from left to right and casts a subtle, diffused shadow on the background.

After reviewing the result on the back of the camera, we realized that we wanted to increase the contrast across the stone and across the background. To start with maximum contrast, we removed both the front face and internal baffle of the Medium SilverDome. This set-up allowed the soft box to serve as large, rectangular, hard-light source. We positioned the Kit a little further back so that the light would rake across the front of the bracelets and stone and angled it toward the camera slightly to keep light off the rear section of the background.

We increased the shutter speed to 1/60th of a second to compensate for the increase in light levels and took another shot (figures 19 & 20).

The result shows a dramatic increase in contrast and in sharpness. Notice how the background falls off sharply from light to dark and how the shadow cast from the stone is sharply defined.

To soften the transitions from light to dark in the background and shadow, we attached the internal baffle and took another shot (figures 21 & 22).

Notice the effects of the baffle in the result shot. In this configuration, the soft box throws both hard and soft light. As you can see, the background transition and shadow edges are noticeably softer, while the overall shot still maintains a significant level of contrast.

To achieve the maximum level of diffusion for this set-up, we then attached the diffusion face to the Medium SilverDome, slowed the shutter speed back down to 1/30th of a second to compensate for exposure and took another shot (figures 23 & 24).

With the addition of the diffusion face, the soft box has become a much broader, more diffused light source. Notice how the transition from light to dark in the background has become even smoother, and that the stone shadow has become smaller and even more diffused. Also note that the shadows cast from the bracelets are much smaller due to the wrap-around effect of the soft box.

Even though there is a significant amount of wrap-around lighting to this shot, the right side of the bracelets still fall into shadow somewhat.

To bounce a little more light into this area, we brought back the Photoflex 12" White/Silver LiteDisc, positioned it slightly behind and to the right of the stone and took a final shot (figures 25 - 27).