Photography Conundrum

My journey with jewelry photography and where it has led ...

For quite some time I have been an avid amateur photographer. Starting back with my Pentax 35mm Camera (which I would still prefer most days - but it was stolen and film is expensive) through eight digital camera's of varying brands, styles, and levels. 

I have learned many things about cameras and what I feel is right for me and the most comfortable and does the best job based on my skill level and needs. Now that I have the camera that I have been wanting for many years, and all the lenses, etc. I am ready to begin my trial and error jewelry photography studio.

I may have felt competent as a landscape photographer and an animal photographer, I do not feel this way about photographing jewelry. Reflections, lighting, glare, flash, macro, focus, no shake, and on and on. It is a challenge and since I want to succeed with my jewelry design, I must study and master the photography end of it.

I have tried so many different ideas that I have seen or read about. I have a portable photo booth, but typically there is not enough light that gets through the tent and the flash keeps wanting to go off. When the flash is turned off the pictures are too dark. If I allow the flash, there are bright spots on the jewelry. 

Left to Right: Portable Photo Booth Kit from Hammacher Schlemmer; PVC Frame Photo Booth; Cloud Dome with camera frame.

 The next thing that we tried was making our own PVC Pipe frame for a photo booth that would allow the lighting to be placed higher and from a different angle so that the glare and reflections would be minimized while providing light with less shadows. This worked better but the lights that I purchased did not clamp well and would shift constantly around the pipe.

I went back to researching and came across the CloudDome Company. The original cloud dome was designed with jewelry photographers in mind. It looked like it would be perfect. The light would diffuse because of the arced design of the dome. There would be no reflections, bright spots, etc. One problem though .... I did not have the funds available for something like this. They have since made a model named the Nimbus for smart phones which looks interesting but I prefer a real camera for my photography.

So my husband started trying to figure out a way to make something similar for me. He is a genius and I ask too much of him, but I am so very thankful that I have someone who can think about these things and really wants me to find what will work best for me. He purchased some light covers and has been modifying them, but we still have more work there. The pictures come out much better but it is hard to keep the camera still and the area for the photograph is limited based on the circumference of the hole in the light cover. We will be visiting this more in the future but I decided to try something else.

Quick snapshot taken with my
Android Motorola Razor Max

Using the corner of my desk (which I do not really use for anything at this point) I have set up a small area for the photography. I am able to clamp the lights onto the hutch (which holds better than on the PVC pipe), have placed daylight bulbs in the lamps, made a backdrop that would not reflect light from a painters canvas frame and some soft see through white fabric that I had. Using scrapbook paper under the items to be photographed allows me the ability to change this as needed and I have a few props to use - mostly shells. I have set up the large and smaller tripods for use and also have a wireless remote for the camera to eliminate any shake. I manual focus the camera for the shoot as I have found this really works better with my macro lens. And I get additional light from the light bouncing off my wall and back onto the area (gloss paint). 

The pictures taken in this setting have been considerably better but the whole thing can be very time consuming - and I want to make jewelry - not spend all day taking pictures of it. So this leads me to the software that came with my camera. I have a Canon EOS Rebel T3 that came with the EOS Utility software. By connecting my camera to my computer, I am able to use the computer to take the picture. It imediately comes up on my screen where I can tell if adjustments need made. I have it set up to NOT save the picture on the camera disk because I would only have to take it off in the future. By using the software I am able to see right then and there whether I need to take the picture over, and if not I already have it in my computer to work with. I LOVE this software. The results are great using my setup studio and I cannot wait for us to be able to work out the cloud dome and try it with this software. As we advance I will post more, but for now, I am content that I can take a decent photo of my jewelry to use to advertise and sell it.