The Jewelry World Weblog

Creating Soft, Diffused Light

In Basic Photographic Lighting Techniques, I talked about the importance of soft lighting to help the camera show off the shape and texture of a subject. However, shiny subjects such as jewelry, flatware or metallic objects need even more diffused light to avoid harsh, glaring highlights.

For this, you need an even, surrounding light source. A photographic light tent is one way to create the proper conditions for your camera.

Photographic Light Tents

This lighting tool is used often by professional product photographers and commercially-made light tents have become popular with eBay sellers. You’ll see hundreds of these for sale if you do an eBay search for “light tent” in the Cameras and Photos category. Most of them are sold under some variation of the “Cube.” These are essentially small, white, cube-shaped tents with one side open to shoot into with a camera.

I haven’t used one of these small commercial light tents commonly sold on ebay mainly because I’m too cheap to pay for something that’s so easy to make myself.

Any light tent is simply a way to surround your subject with a translucent material which diffuses your light. You then evenly illuminate the outside of the light tent, typically with one light on either side of it. This is almost ideal lighting for photographing shiny stuff like jewelry.

The Milk Jug Light Tent

The simplest and cheapest form of light tent I know for small objects is a milk jug with the bottom cut off (you shoot through the neck or a hole cut in the side), like this…

This will work great for small items.

Moving up in size and cost, some of the things you can use are a large white plastic bowl; a translucent storage container; styrofoam sheets (glued together into a cube shape); a white sheet suspended over and around a table; translucent diffusion panels (you can make these yourself from PVC tubing to form rectangular frames with white cloth stretched over them); or even a large white tent.

My Dollar Store Light Tent

I mostly use a large plastic bowl I bought at a dollar store. It’s big enough for almost anything I shoot.

Jewelry Photography with a Light Tent

Jewelry can be beautiful, but it’s also one of the most difficult subjects for photography. On one small item, you can have many different surfaces such as smooth gold or silver, faceted gems and even textured engraving or filigree. These all reflect and refract light in different ways. And, since light is what we’re capturing when we take a photo, how we light each item will control how the final image looks.

Once again, a small light tent is all it takes in most cases to get jewelry to shine without glare. Here’s a detail shot of a gold necklace I sold a while ago on eBay…

And, I think a blue background worked well for this watch…

A watch such as that also has special lighting needs, mainly because of the flat face of the crystal which can reflect light and obscure the dial.

In this case, I had to carefully place a small spot of black paper inside my light tent, so that would be the area reflected by the crystal.

After I got this image onto my computer, I also sharpened it a bit in order to bring out the fire and sparkle of the diamonds.

Source: http://www.sigma-2.com/camerajim/cjgjewelry.htm

I am still amazed how many photos in online auctions for sometimes quite expensive jewelry are too blurry and out of focus to let potential buyers see clearly what they would be bidding on.

Would you bid hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a vague blob that is supposed to be a diamond ring? Of course not! Here is what you will need to take improved photos of your jewelry with your digital camera:

1. A tripod (holding the camera in your hand will introduce some blur!)

2. Two or three worklights with 100 W bulbs (can be found at a hardware store for under $10 each)

3. A translucent plastic storage box to set up as a “stage”, in which the object is placed on a display stand or jewelry bust

4. Several pieces of silky cloth as backdrops

You do not need to get a top-of-the-line digital camera with 5 Megapixels or more, but the camera should have a macro setting and should let you adjust the white balance to compensate for different lighting conditions. Recharagable batteries are a must, as digital cameras go through batteries quickly, and you could easily spend a lot of money on batteries otherwise.

The plastic box setup, with worklights shining through the sides, provides soft shadows, and you can use an extra worklight from the front or top when needed. Do not use your camera’s flash (it tends to make small objects appear flat), and set the white balance to the type of lighting you are using (see your camera manual). Some cloth (particularly the kind used for linings) in a nice neutral color (grey, light blue, etc.) makes for an attractive background.

These tips should improve your auction photos, and best of all, they do not require a large investment.

Pamela Bruce lives in Austin, TX. She has been beading since her teens. She is the owner of Love Beads Unlimited and sells the bead jewelry she designs and creates at http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

What is the biggest mistake amateurs make in jewelry photography? Read on to find out what the two most essential aspects of great jewelry photography are, and how the successful jewelry photographer manipulates these aspects to achieve dramatic and compelling jewelry photography.

Have you heard the term candela? Yes, it has to do with light that is part of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation that the human eye can see. So what has candela to do with jewelry photography? Well, everyone knows that photography is a form of art made possible by light. Without light, there is no photography. Understanding and controlling light have always been the most essential aspects of great jewelry photography.

The biggest mistake amateurs make when taking pictures is expecting to capture the same range of light on a digital back as seen by the eye. Not so fast: the amount of light you see is a broader range than the amount of light a digital back can capture. While the eye can see a wide range at the same time, digital chips cannot. The difference is that a digital chip can capture light all across the light spectrum, but not all at the same time like your eye can. Let’s examine a few lighting techniques used in digital jewelry photography.

FRONT LIGHTING

This is the simplest form of lighting for jewelry photography. It is achieved by placing the light source around the camera lens pointing towards the jewelry to be photographed. For example, flash units on top of cameras, ring lights, or soft boxes next to the lens. Front lighting is flat, and is best used for illustrative purposes. When used for jewelry photography, front light is unexciting and sometimes causes glare from certain areas on the reflective surface that reflects the light from opposing angles.

SIDE LIGHTING

Side lighting gives the impression of three dimensions. By illuminating the jewelry from the side, the viewer gets the impression of depth, as opposed to the flat, two-dimensional effect of front lighting. Side lighting can be most effective in accentuating the surface textures of jewelry. When using side lighting in jewelry photography one must be careful in placing the light to avoid unwanted reflections.

AVAILABLE NATURAL LIGHT

Available natural light completely surrounds a subject. This lighting situation is very even and already exists in an indoor or outdoor setting without adding any artificial illumination by the jewelry photographer. When combined with other reflective surfaces such as silver cards, it can be an effective technique in jewelry photography to achieve soft and pronounced edges on metals and gemstones.

DIRECT LIGHTING
Direct lighting results in high contrast, especially when it’s coming from a single source such as the Sun or a fixture equipped with a fresnel lens. It produces high contrast captures with deep shadows and overall drama. In jewelry photography it’s mostly used in combination with other softer light sources in order to add a certain creative effect to the general capture. Using high contrast lighting adds impact and accentuates jewelry textures. It can also be used to light through diffusing surfaces such as acrylic or cloth to create softer shadows.

DIFFUSED LIGHTING

Diffused scattered light rays, produce softer light, lessen contrast, and smoothes out details in the jewelry. The resulting images tend to be dreamy and romantic. This technique is very good for showing overall and shadow details. It is the most widely used method in jewelry photography.

SPOT LIGHTING

Spotlighting is a useful tool to focus attention on a certain area of the jewelry. Direct spotlighting is very dramatic, however, in jewelry photography most surfaces are reflective; therefore special techniques must be applied when spotlighting to diffuse and control the reflections and glare. The end result can yield compelling and dramatic jewelry photography!

Avi Roth’s photography can be seen in publications such as Vogue Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Los Angeles Weddings. His work ranges from advertising to fine art, single products to complex sets, and single models to large crowds. Roth describes his artistic approach as follows: “Every photograph is a story written with light. Like a story without words, it evolves from a concept, thought, or emotion in my mind’s eye, into a latent image, a silhouette of shapes and forms. This shadow-less three-dimensional space is the genesis of my artistic interpretation. I use my personal ‘palette’ of light to create shadow, color, and space, and blend backgrounds to complete my visual composition.” Roth has received numerous awards recognizing his professional virtuosity and fascination with elegance. He attended Tel-Aviv Polytechnic and graduated with honors from the London Film School. Avi Roth is the founder of Digital Jeweller: Digital Jewelry Photography Solutions.

For more jewelry photography tips and info go to http://www.jewelryphotographyonly.com/

By: Avi Roth

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Avi Roth is the founder of Digital Jeweller: Digital Jewelry Photography Solutions. His unique and elegant jewelry photography has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Martha Stewart Weddings, and LA Weddings. He attended Tel-Aviv Polytechnic and graduated with honors from the London Film School. Roth has received numerous awards recognizing his professional virtuosity. For more jewelry photography tips and info go to www.jewelryphotographyonly.com/