Studio Photography - Jewelry Unit 25

                         It's a bit difficult to try and pin a particular photographer down to jewelry because this one really is just a product so I've just decided to include this image to give some indication of what you should be looking to achieve.

                                         

                            Now I'm not saying this is a perfect example, I just wanted to use it to show how much clarity plays a major part in this kind of photography. One thing you should consider is your choice of background because jewelry is associated with glamour so you could consider using something completely alien to the product such as wood or rocks but I feel that reflective surfaces work just as well as does the female form, and I'm simply talking necklines, wrists and fingers here. 
                           When setting up the 1st light should be at the back ideally slightly elevated and with a honeycomb to give a harder concentration of light and then 2nd deep dish arrangement used in conjunction with varying reflective cards but be wary of picking up distracting reflections from background sources. If you have one available it's also recommended to use a dedicated macro lens and pay attention to detail not only of the surface available but with highlighting shadows on individual crystals etc. In commercial jewelry photography, it isn't unusual to see a series broken bits of mirrors on small stick, each intentionally trained on the product for maximum effect.

                             
                       My final submission for my jewelry isn't that impressive as it's from an earlier shoot and although I've tried to bring out the best of the crystals with silver foil card as a reflector, I still think it looks soft. It wasn't the easiest item to photograph and I did put some thought into including the chain as not only a lead in line from the top right but also to let the consumer know that there was more to the pendent even though the pendent was the main article. The tree bark was used as a contrasting background whicj I feel works quite well but there was a problem in post production as the where the chain had become bunched, and with with it being shot with a shallow depth of field, there was an obvious glare of bokeh so I decided to to render the lighting and apply a subtle spotlight effect to the main feature and so reduce the distracting glare from the back of the photograph.

                                                      

                          On a final note I've been having a look around for tips and decided to include a link to Table Top Studio who have a few interesting points to consider bearing in mind for any future shoots I may consider doing.