I am trying to take digital photos of jewelry to post on a website but the images are not clear, any advise?

Question

The "not clear" problem seems to be with the lighting as I can't get anything to look true-to-life. The coloring is way off and there is very little detail. Also the background is an issue. I have tired a white sheet and a black sheet but it always looks... well, like a sheet. Any suggestions? I only have everyday around the house items to use so anyone's creative know-how is most welcome. Also I have tried taking the pictures at night and during the day inside my home and during the day (10am "ish") outside. Outside seems better but still off. Help please!

Answer 1

Hey Michelle,

Use white, as you were. Step back with the camera. You may be too close for the camera to focus. Take a couple of lamps, near, but out of the picture, and have them illuminating your jewlry. When you load the pictures the Jewlery will be smaller, but you Crop off the edges outside the view. That way you get a picture that the camera could focus on, and it comes out more clearly.

You might try looking up the focus distance in the owners manual, then maintain at least that distance when shooting.

Answer 2

I feel that you need to use the flash to force the aperture to close while still having enough light for an exposure. Many here will tell you different, but follow this advice and see what you think.

Use your macro setting and experiment. Let's say you have a point and shoot camera with macro and a flash on the camera. You might have to go to a manual mode to do this, but...

Put your ring on a nice background surface. I like to just put it in a ring box. Zoom out at least half-way so that you will be working about a foot away from the ring. Be sure that you get focus confirmation. Shoot a picture USING flash. Check the LCD for the result. If you have overexposed the ring, use the EV adjustment to reduce the exposure. For small items, I often find that I need to reduce the exposure by about 1.0 EV. (That's -1.0 EV.) It is better to have the ring properly exposed and the background underexposed, so just worry about the ring for now. Using a deliberate underexposure will cure the "too shiny" appearance of the stones and metal.

If you know how, you can use either full manual exposure or just Aperture Priority and choose a smaller aperture (larger number) to make the ring show up in better focus.

If you have a DSLR, post your question again stating the kind of camera that you have and the lens that you are using and we will give more details.

If you are doing any image processing at all, such with Photoshop or it's cousins, you can crop the image to 800 pixels by 800 pixels and use Supersize images on eBay. I always use the Picture Pack when I am selling anything of any value.

Check out http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/heartring.jpg which I did a while ago using a Nikon Coolpix 5400 exactly as described above. I do NOT think this is acceptable, but we decided not to sell the ring anyhow, so I didn't bother to do a better job. It's still better than some I've seen. I don't keep old photos of sold items around, so I don't have much to show you, but at least you know that it's possible to get an acceptable result even without spending huge dollars on your equipment.

The key things to remember are:
-Macro setting
-Zoom out to get about a foot away from your subject
-Use flash
-Try different EV settings and expect that you will end up with a negative EV setting, such as -1.0 EV.

Here are a couple more auction photos done as described:

http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/yorkie01.jpg
http://www.members.aol.com/swf08302/montblanc05.jpg

Answer 3

Although photographing jewelry is simple; instructions can be quite involved. It is alot of information to put here. Do some research on the web using google. However, the bottom line is if you are using a point and shoot camera, you are not going to get great results.

You need a SLR camera with a macro lens (macro 105mm is good); diffused lighting setup and either daylight balanced lights or the ability to change your white balance on your digital camera. I assume you are not shooting film. Below is a link to some help ebay gives for amateur photographers.

Do you have a scanner? Try using that instead atleast on flatter pieces. You can do a top and side view for rings.

Answer 4

"Cute photo of my child but I don't have the money at this time ... Anyway to get some photos made from this more affordably without the words going thru this pic?" Then you don't have the money for that picture. I don't have money for a new car at this time (and I won;t for a while with "clients" like you) but you don't see me going to a car dealership and stealing a car off the lot! What you are trying to do is a violation of the photographers copyright and could net you fines of up to 150000$ (in the US ... varies in other countries) also, most of the regulars on here are professorial photographers who try to pay their bills (in part or in full) with their work ... they certainly won't tell you how to steal from another photographer. You want a cheaper picture of your kid then you can take it yourself and get it printed at some cheap photo lab like Costco or Walmart! EDIT @ Markus "Hmmmm.... 'the photographer has an online website with the image if my child posted'. Did you sign anything in advance to give the photographer the publishing rights for your kid's picture(s)? If not, he may very well be in violation of your (your kid's) personality rights." 1- There is no such things as "publishing rights" to a persons image ... that's not a real legal thing. 2- No expectation of privacy... it was portrait day at school and the photographer was invited to take pictures. 3- Portfolio use isn't commercial use of a person's likeness. If he had a picture of the kid with the words "I approve of this photographer" that would be an entirely different matter.

Answer 5

Use a piece of black velvet as the background. Check your camera to make sure you are using the correct white balance for the type of lighting you are using. You may need to use a macro lens or attachment to get sharp, close-up pictures. Most cameras can not focus as close as you need to for small product photography(macro photography). Do not use a flash. Try using a daylight balanced lightbulb in a reflector as your lightsource. You can get daylight bulbs and a reflector clamplight cheap at Home Depot or a hardware store. Get the highest wattage bulb possible, and use the lowest iso setting on your camera, if it is adjustable. Use a tripod, or something to support your camera.

Answer 6

put the jewelry in the sun that is right next a very dark place. You stand in the dark place and turn the lowest brightness of flash on. Take the picture from above it and look down while taking it. If that doesnt work do the exact opposite. It depends on what jewelry you use.

Answer 7

Use a dark background and a light source other than the flash.

The background will make the object appear more clear and the the flash shines back

Answer 8

Hi,

Make sure that your camera is NOT too close to the object, if necessary, start to move back untill the shot looks clear. You are most likely too close to the object and you simply need to move back a little. You can always email me if you still have issues.

Answer 9

1

Answer 10

try sticking it on some type of finger substitute or stick and try changing cameras, rooms (for light), lighting, or angles. Try everything you can. Maybe use a colored wall as a backdrop. you can even hook up a curtain/sheet. Definitely try changing the camera or camera mode.