How to take photos of jewelry

Jewellery photography is an art that is learned

It has now become a requirement on the agenda: knowing how to photograph jewelry and watches. Because knowing how to photograph jewels can make a difference.

It is essential to offer them in all the digital showcases useful for your business, from the site to the social channels, and knowing how to do it correctly allows you to add value to your products and highlight their best features.

In fact, it is not always easy to photograph still life or worn jewels, perhaps small and made of reflective material.

In any case, it is not necessary to be a professional photographer, but it is still necessary that the jewelry photos are of good quality in order not to risk obtaining the opposite effect to the desired one if the image is blurred, with reflections or with a background that distracts attention from the precious.

We therefore offer you some tips to always have jewelry photos perfect for the purpose.

For the success of a jewelry photograph it is essential to have the correct equipment available:

1. a good camera will allow you to take high-quality shots with sharp and well-defined photographs of the jewelry;
2. you can also evaluate a smartphone as long as it has a good camera with a well-cleaned lens, although you will hardly get the same result as a reflex camera or one of the latest quality mirrorless cameras;
3. attention to the lens which must be macro to offer optimal performance on small objects photographed with shallow depth of field
4. Finally, it is advisable to have a tripod because even the steadiest hand is subject to very small tremors, even more so if the photographer is not a professional in the trade and risks the bad effect of micro blur
   rotary table suitable for short videos for a 360° view of the subject

Other precautions to pay close attention to jewelry photography are also:

• the brightness, often artificial due to the difficulty of being able to have a correct exposure with natural light which undoubtedly remains the most evocative and emotional
• the background that must be free of imperfections, very clean and monochromatic (typically white) so that the observer focuses his attention on the protagonist object of the photograph
• framing of the subject, for the typical photo intended for an e-commerce is with the subject photographed in the center with the front, side and back and three-quarter view, completed by the 360​​° video
• if the jewel is worn, the framing of the subject must possibly respect the rule of thirds as explained further on

For still life pictures, i.e. only objects not worn or supported by external elements, the use of the light box is increasingly widespread, a small and economical photographic box composed of monochromatic walls illuminated by LED lights supplied.

However, the best way to photograph jewelry is to wear them, this is always the most exciting and engaging solution, it is the situation in which the products give their best and really manage to convey all their charm. These are undoubtedly artistic photos that require not only particular attention in the choice and care of the model, both in clothing, makeup and hairstyle, but also require creative skills and artistic elegance at the limit of professionalism.

A further jewelry photography tips possibility consists in the use of supports for jewelry or watches stands that create a base of setting and at the same time facilitate the positioning of the product for the click. These accessories are particularly useful when photographing jewelry in the studio.

Rules of thirds

The rule of thirds is a widespread technique for composing a photo in all commonly used formats, namely 1:1, 4:3, 3:2 and the more cinematic 16: 9.

Photos of jewels with rules of thirds

The frame is divided into thirds and the subject is placed in one of the crossing points of the 4 imaginary lines projected in the camera viewfinder. The resulting photo is more artistic than the subject framed in the center of the photo.

The rule of thirds with reflex cameras, latest generation mirrorless cameras, and even the most performing recent smartphones, it is easy to activate the reference grid.