Adventures in jewelry photography, part 1: the ghetto-fabulous DIY photo box

First, I photographed jewelry items on my fire escape.

Then, I went to Horton Plaza during lunch breaks at work, and photographed jewelry on the edge of a planter.

I liked the texture of the planter, as well as its slight sheen. But shooting in the noonday sun isn't exactly a controlled environment. The photos had insane shadows – such that bracelets looked the size of Godzilla and earrings the size of yachts. The shots had a certain drama, but didn't really show off the detail of the item (and I hear people like to see what they're buying. Call me crazy, but...).

Seeing my pictures on Flickr, I guess my mom took pity on me and sent me this tutorial for a $10 macro photo studio. I totally ignored her suggestion at first, but spurred by something or other (the vastly superior shots of other jewelry designers, maybe), I set about building the studio. Far be it for me to ever refuse an opportunity to use an X-Acto knife.

Cost: $0. I used an egg box nabbed from the back of a dessert store many months back, as well as tissue paper and painter's tape. X-Acto blades, naturally – I have plenty of those - and a straightedge. Here's a progress shot:


I was up and running in less than an hour.

Then comes the fun part. My initial shots were pretty horrible:



These look like I shot them in the DMV, don't they?

However, now that I've gotten better, I can proclaim that taking crummy test shots is an important part of the process. Your eye gets trained, and you learn the finer points of your camera's macro lens. You learn to rig up whatever lights you may have – in my case a halogen desk lamp from the closet to supplement the table lamp on my craft table (I nearly typed "dining table" – but no, it's buried under a thick layer of craft supplies).

Soon, I was grabbing items left and right to give them their turn in the photo box. A vintage ceramic pigeon. A white pot from IKEA. A vase, again from IKEA. Any number of items from my motley collection of vintage dishes, art glass and the like.

I recalled jewelry stores displaying jewelry on rice, so I grabbed that too:


It adds a nice texture but I, for one, despise the yellow tint it gave to the photos (that could be corrected with better lighting and Photoshop, but I'm still not a fan).

I hit on the idea of hanging earrings on a little black lotus-shaped dish. The earrings hang attractively from the dish, and the contrast between white background and black dish is quite delicious:


I was ecstatic when I got this shot. It's so much more true to life than any earlier shots I'd taken of these earrings. Plus, they're almost in focus!

My other nemesis turned out to these Champagne and Berries earrings. They are glossy little treasures in real life, but I was having trouble capturing their essence in photos.

Enter the blue paper.

First, with plain white paper:


And now with blue:

Doesn't that blow your mind? It blows mine. Same earrings, same lighting, same dish, same position. That's some photographic voodoo right there.

Having gotten the basic hang of things, I'm now experimenting more with a dish that I picked out at World Market for its photogenic qualities. You'll also notice that I'm tending to favor black paper for the background, but that's probably momentary. I need to stock up on orange/red/pink paper for shots of cool-toned jewelry.


At this point I was really focusing on, well, focus. Properly focusing my shots is something I have trouble with, partly because I employ a spastic point-and-shoot technique when taking photos. I'm also working on styling the shots more carefully (no smudged focal stones!).

After studying some nice product shots, I also came to appreciate shooting jewelry from directly above:

The advantage of this method is that the piece can be styled so it's more flat - making focusing the shot much easier. The disadvantage is that you can block your light sources if you're not careful.

I love the little freckles on the bowl. Nevermind the haphazard styling of this shot.

And by gum, I think I've learned to get the camera to focus on at least one of the subjects of the photo! (Also, I love the "rising out of the mist" quality of this photo.)

So, I'm still experimenting with this beast. But I'm pleasantly surprised by all the fun you can have with a homemade photo box, a digicam's macro lens and a few spare evenings. And no more trips to Horton Plaza to photograph jewelry among the lunch crowd!